tihraxy  of t:he  theological  ^tminary 

PRINCETON    .    NEW  JERSEY 


PRESENTED  BY 

C.S.    Robinson,    D.D. 
New  York 


/      / 


9.    } 


TIE  LIFE 


OP 


EDWARD    IRVING, 


MINISTER  OF 


THE  NATIONAL  SCOTCH  CHURCH,  LONDON. 


SllnstrntBli  bij  jiis  Snnrnob  nii^  C^nrnspnbntL 


MRS.  OLIPHANT. 


"  WHiether  I  live,  I  live  unto  the  Lord ;  and  whether  I  die,  I  die  unto  the  Lord:  living  or  dying, 
I  am  the  Lord's."    Amen. 


NEW    YORK: 
HARPEE    &    BROTHERS,    PUBLISHERS, 

FKANKLIN     SQUARE. 

18  62. 


TO  ALL  WHO   LOVE  THE  MEMOKY   OF 

EDWARD  IRVING, 

WHICH  THE  WRITER   HAS  FOUND  BY   MUCH   EXPERIMENT 
TO   MEAN   ALL   WHO   EVER   KNEW   HIM, 


^Iji^  33nDk  is  Snsrnhi 


PREFACE. 


It  seems  necessary  to  say  something  by  way  of  excusing  m}-- 
self  for  what  I  feel  must  appear  to  many  the  presumption  of  un- 
dertaking so  serious  a  work  as  this  biography.  I  need  not  relate 
the  various  unthought-of  ways  by  which  I  have  been  led  to 
undertake  it,  which  are  my  apology  to  myself  rather  than  to  the 
public ;  but  I  may  say  that,  in  a  matter  so  complicated  and  deli- 
cate, it  appeared  to  me  a  kind  of  safeguard  that  the  writer  of 
Edward  Irving's  life  should  be  a  person  without  authority  to 
pronounce  judgment  on  one  side  or  the  other,  and  interested 
chiefly  with  the  man  himself,  and  his  noble,  courageous  warfare 
through  a  career  encompassed  with  all  human  agonies.  I  hoped 
to  get  personal  consolation  amid  heavy  troubles  out  of  a  life  so 
full  of  great  love,  faith,  and  sorrow ;  and  I  have  found  this  life 
so  much  more  lofty,  pure,  and  true  than  my  imagination,  that  the 
picture,  unfolding  under  my  hands,  has  often  made  me  pause  to 
think  how  such  a  painter  as  the  Blessed  Angelico  took  the  atti- 
tude of  devotion  at  his  labor,  and  painted  such  saints  on  his 
knees.  The  large  extracts  which,  by  the  kindness  of  his  surviv- 
ing children,  I  have  been  permitted  to  make  from  Irving's  letters, 
will  show  the  readers  of  this  book,  better  than  any  description, 
what  manner  of  man  he  was ;  and  I  feel  assured  that  to  be  able 
thus  to  illustrate  the  facts  of  his  history  by  his  own  exposition 
of  its  heart  and  purpose  is  to  do  him  greater  justice  than  could 
be  hoped  for  from  any  other  means  of  interpretation. 

My  thanks  are  due,  first  and  above  all,  to  Professor  Martin  Ir- 
ving, of  Melbourne,  and  to  his  sister,  Mrs.  Gardiner,  London,  who 
have  kindly  permitted  mc  the  use  of  their  father's  letters ;  to  the 


yi  PREFACE. 

Eev.  James  Brodie  and  Mrs.  Brodie,  of  Monimail,  and  Miss  Mar- 
tin, Edinburgh;  to  J.  Fergusson,  Esq.,  and  W.  Dickson,  Esq., 
Glasgow,  nephews  of  Irving ;  the  Eev.  Dr.  Grierson,  of  Errol ; 
Patrick  Sheriff,  Esq.,  of  Haddington ;  Mrs.  Carlyle,  Chelsea ;  the 
Eev.  Dr.  Hanna ;  M.  N.  Macdonald  Hume,  Esq. ;  James  Bridges, 
Esq. ;  Eev.  D.  Ker,  Edinburgh ;  Eev.  J.  M.  Campbell,  late  of 
Eow ;  J.  Hatley  Frere,  Esq.,  London ;  Eev.  A.  J.  Scott,  of  Man- 
chester ;  Dr.  Gr.  M.  Scott,  Hampstead ;  Eev.  E.  H.  Story,  of  Eos- 
neath ;  and  other  friends  of  Irving,  some  of  them  now  beyond 
the  reach  of  earthly  thanks — among  whom  I  may  mention  the 
late  Henry  Drummond,  Esq.,  of  Albury,  and  Mrs.  Wm.  Hamilton 
— who  have  kindly  placed  letters  and  other  memoranda  at  my 
disposal,  or  given  me  the  benefit  of  their  personal  recollections. 

M.  0.  W.  Oliphant. 

Ealing,  April,  18G2. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

niS  PARENTAGE  AND  CHILDHOOD. 

The  Irvings  and  Lowthers. — Peculiarities  of  the  Eace. — His  immediate  family. — 
Life  in  Annan. — Universal  Friendliness. — Traditions  of  the  District. — The  Cove- 
nanters. —  Birth  of  Edward.  —  His  Parents.  —  Peggy  Paine's  School.  —  Hannali 
Douglas. — Annan  Academy. — Out-door  Education. — Solway  Sands. — Escaping 
from  the  Tide. — Early  Characteristics. — Sunday  Pilgrimages. — The  "Whigs." — 
Ecclefechan. — His  youthful  Companions.  —  Strange  Dispersion. — Home  Influ- 
ences.— Leaving  Annan Page  17 

CHAPTER  II. 

HIS   COLLEGE    LIFE. 

Prolonged  Probation  of  Scotch  Ministers. — Boy-Students. — Independence. — Hard 
Training. — Journeys  on  Foot. — Early  Reading. — Distinctions  in  Society. — Pa- 
trons and  Associates. — Carlyle's  Description  of  Irving. — Early  Labors 33 

CHAPTER  in. 

HADDINGTON. 

The  Doctor's  little  Daughter.  —  The  first  Declension.  —  Conflict  between  Pity  and 
Truth. — New  Friends. — Sport  and  Study. — Holiday  Science. — Incident  in  St. 
George's  Church. — Society  in  Haddington. — Bolton  Manse. — Young  Compan- 
ions.— Extent  of  his  Work. — Courage  and  Cheerfulness. — Leaves  Haddington  40 

CHAPTER  IV. 

KIRKCALDY. 

Kirkcaldy  Academy.  —  Personal  Appearance.  —  Severe  Discipline.  —  Doing  all 
Things  heartily.  —  Kirkcaldy  Sands.  —  Milton  Class.  —  Schoolboy  Chivalry. — 
"Much  respected  Pupils." — Love-making. — Confidential  Disclosures. — Engage- 
ment.— The  Minister  of  Kirkcaldy. — The  Manse  Household. — Sister  Elizabeth. — 
Her  Husband. — Irving's  first  Sermon.  —  Superiority  to  "The  Paper." — "Ower 
muckle  Gran'ner." — Other  people's  Sermons. — His  Thoughts  about  Preaching. — 
In  a  Highland  Inn. — Warlike  Aspiration. — General  Assembly. — Debate  on  Plu- 
ralities.— Intolerance  of  Circumstances. — Abbotshall  School-house 49 

CHAPTER  V. 

AFLOAT  ON   THE   WORLD. 

Bristo  Street. — Renewed  Studies. — Advice. — Literary  Societies. — Begins  Anew. — 
Was  his  own  Hearer. — Undisturbed  Belief. — His  Haddington  Pupil. — Candor 
and  Pugnacity. — Clouded  Prospects. — The  Apostolic  Missionary. — Domestic  Let- 
ters.— Carlyle. — Hopes  and  Fears. — Preaches  in  St.  George's,  Edinburgh. — Sus- 
pense.— Goes  to  Ireland. — Wanderings. — Invitation  to  Glasgow. — Interest  in 
Church  Affau's. — Doubtful  of  his  own  Success 67 


yiii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

GLASGOW. 

Dr.  Chalmers's  Helper.— Condition  of  Glasgow. — Irving's  Political  Sentiments. — 
State  of  the  Country  in  General. — Irving's  Confidence  in  the  Radicals. — The 
Calton  Weavers. — Chalmers  and  Irving. — Incessant  Labors. — The  Parish  of  St. 
John. — Its  Autocrat. — The  Shoemaker. — "He  kens  about  Leather." — Apostolic 
Benediction. — Intercourse  with  the  Poor. — A  Legacy. — The  Help  of  a  Brother. — 
"It's  no  himsel."— Two  Presbyters.— The  Peddler. —  "A  Man  on  Horse." — The 
Howies. — Holiday  Adventures.  —  Simplicity  of  Heart. — Solemnity  of  Deport- 
ment.— Convicts  in  Glasgow  Jail. — Irving  patronized  by  the  Office-bearers. — In 
the  Shade. — His  Loyalty  and  Admiration. — The  bright  Side. — The  dark  Side. — 
Missionary  Projects  renewed. — The  Caledonian  Chapel,  Hatton  Gai'den. — Letter 
of  Recommendation. — Favorable  Prognostications. — Irving  desires  to  go  to  Lon- 
don.— His  Pleasure  in  his  Reception  there. — Obstacles. — The  Caledonian  Asy- 
lum.— Pledges  himself  to  leam  Gaelic. — Bond  required  by  the  Presbytery. — Visits 
to  Paisley. — Removal  of  Obstacles. — Rosncalh. — Happy  Anticipations. — Farewell 
Sermon. — Offers  his  Services  in  London  to  all. — Receives  a  farewell  Present. — 
The  Annandale  Watchmaker. — A  "singular  Honor." — Goes  to  London  Page  81 

CHAPTER  VII. 

LONDON,  1822. 

First  Appearance. — Satisfaction  with  liis  new  Sphere. — His  Thoughts  and  Hopes. — 
Outset  in  Life. — Chalmers  in  London. — Appeals  to  Irving's  Sympathy. — Progress 
in  Popularity. — "Our  Scottish  Youth." — Canning  and  Mackintosh. — Happy  Ob- 
scurity.— The  "Happy  Warrior." — The  Desire  of  his  Heart. — His  first  House- 
hold    115 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

1823. 
The  Orations. — Irving's  much  Experience  in  Preaching. — Addresses  himself  to  Edu- 
cated IMcn. — Argument  for  Judgment  to  come. — Assailed  by  Critics. — Mock  Tri- 
al.— Indictment  before  the  Court  of  Common  Sense. — Acquittal. — Description  of 
the  Church  and  Preacher. — Influence  of  his  Personal  Appearance. — Inconvenien- 
ces of  Popularity. — Success  of  the  Book. — A  rural  Sunday. — His  Marriage. — 
His  Wife. — The  bridal  Holiday. — Reappearance  in  St.  John's. — Return  to  Lon- 
don.— Preface  to  the  Third  Edition  of  the  Orations. — His  Dedications  and  Pref- 
aces generally. — Mr.  Basil  Montagu. — Irving's  grateful  Acknowledgments. — His 
early  Dangers  in  Society. — Bedford  Square. — Coleridge. — His  Influence  on  the 
Views  of  Irving. — Social  Charities. — A  simple  Presbyter 124 

CHAPTER  IX. 
1824. 
Failure  of  Health. — Determination  to  do  his  Work  thoroughly. — Proposes  to  write 
a  Missionary  Sermon.— For  Missionaries  after  the  Apostolical  School. — The  wan- 
dering Apostle. — Consternation  of  the  Audience. — Wrath  of  the  religious  World. 
— A  Martyr  IMissionary. — Publication  of  the  Oration. — An  Exeter  Hall  Meeting. 
— Protest  against  the  Machinery  of  Evangelism. — Dedication  to  Coleridge. — Lavish 
Acknowledgments.— Coldness  and  Estrangement. — The  Presbyterian  Eldership, 
— Its  Duties  and  Privileges. — Irving  forms  his  Kirk-session. — Birth  of  little  Ed- 


CONTENTS. 


IX 


v/ard. — Personal  Chanties. — A  lost  Life. — Hospitality. — Commencement  of  the 
new  Church. — Evangelical  Journey. — Birmingham. — Home  Society. — "In  God 
he  lived  and  moved" ; Page  143 

CHAPTER  X. 

1825. 
Irying's  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Prophecy. — The  Fascination  of  that  Study. — 
His  Conscientiousness  in  treating  his  Subjects. — Habits  of  Thought. — Sermon  to 
the  Continental  Society. — Babylon  and  Infidelity  Foredoomed. — Sermons  on  pub- 
lic Occasions.  —  Hibernian  Bible  Society.  —  An  Afternoon  among  the  Poor.  — 
Irving's  "Way." — Invitation  to  remove  to  Edinburgh. — His  Answer. — His  Man- 
ner of  Life. — The  Paddington  Coach. — His  Letter  of  Welcome  to  his  Wife. — His 
Feelings  in  respect  to  his  Call  to  Edinburgh. — Reasons  for  remaining  in  London. 
— Sermons  on  the  Trinity. — Opinions  in  respect  to  Miracles. — Sacrament  of  Bap- 
tism.— Original  Standards. — Baptismal  Regeneration. — Little  Edward's  Illness 
and  Death.  —  Sorrow  and  Consolation.  —  Irving's  Announcement  of  his  Child's 
Death. — Little  Edward's  Memory. — "A  glorious  Bud  of  Being." — Irving  visits 
the  sorrowful  in  Kirkcaldy IGI 

CHAPTER  XI. 

JOURNAL. 

Wanderings  among  the  Hills. — An  Apostolical  Journey. — Annan. — Incidents  of  a 
Stage-coach  Journey. — Arrival  at  Home. — Commencement  of  Journal-letters. — 
Morning  Worship. — Historical  Reading. — Bishop  Overall's  Convocation  Book. — 
"Idolatry  of  the  Memory." — Devotion  and  Study. — Visions  of  the  Night. — 
Breakfast  Party. — A  Day  in  the  City.  —  Book-stalls.  —  Christian  Counsel. — In 
Faintness  and  Fervor. — "For  the  Consolation  of  Edward's  IMother." — The  Secret 
of  Fellowship. — Influence  of  the  Landscape. — Wisdom  and  Power. — Prayers  for 
the  Absent. — Interceding  for  the  People. — A  Sunday's  Services. — Exposition. — 
Sermon. — Evening  Service. — His  Responsibility  as  Head  of  the  Household. — At 
Home. — Scottish  Adventurers. — The  Priest  and  his  Catechumens. — Two  Sisters. 
— A  Companion  for  his  Isabella. — A  Son  from  the  Lord. — Weariness. — A  Spirit 
full  of  Inspirations. — Returns  to  the  Convocation  Book. — Study. — A  Reunion  of 
Young  Christians. — Self-denial  in  Religious  Conversation. — "A  very  rich  Har- 
vest."— Temptations  of  Satan. — Pastoral  Visits. — A  Sick-bed. — Correggio's  "St. 
John." — Prayers. — Ecclesiasticus. — Deteriorating  Effect  of  a  Great  City. — Two 
London  Boys. — A  logical  Companion. — Sunday  Sen'ices. — Want  of  Faith. — Lit- 
tle Edward's  Ministry. — An  Intellectualist. — Influence  of  Custom. — Remonstrance 
about  Length  of  Services. — The  Peace-offering. — Philanthropy. — The  Mystery  of 
the  Trinity. — Missionaries. — Readings  in  Hebrew. — Letters  of  Introduction. — The 
Church  as  a  House. — Simple  and  unprovided  Faith. — Funeral  Services. — The 
Twelfth  Day  of  the  ]\Ionth. — Sunday  Morning. — Presentiments. — True  Brother- 
hood.— The  prodigal  Widow. — Undirected  Letters. — A  London  Sponging-house. 
— Joseph  in  Prison. — From  House  to  House. — Christian  Intercourse. — Domestic 

■  Worship. — A  Death-bed. — A  good  Voyage. — The  Theology  of  Medicine. — The 
Glory  of  God. — Huskiness  about  the  Heart. — The  Spirit  of  a  Man. — Different 
Forms  of  the  worldly  Spirit. — Try  the  Spirits. — A  Benediction  to  the  Absent. — 
Visions  of  the  Night. — Sunday. — The  Ministry  of  Women. — Morning  Visitors. — 
A  Dream. — Skeptics. — The  four  Spirits. — Religious  Belles. — Best  Manner  of  con- 
tending with  Infidelity. — A  subtle  Cantab. — A  Circle  of  Kinsfolk. — Pleasures  of 


CONTENTS. 

the  Table:   Pea-soup   and  Potatoes. — The  Spirit  of  a  former  Age. — The  lost 

glieep. The  Influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit.— New  Testament  History  of  the  Church. 

f  jjg  gons  of  God  and  the  Daughters  of  Men. — Wisdom. — Farewell  Counsels. — A 

Funeral. The  Joy  of  Grief. — Management. — Deterioration. — The  new  Church. 

Ministerial  Liberty. — Dreams  of  Edward. — The  Spirit  of  Prayer. — "My  Dum- 
friesshire."— Paralytic  in  Soul. — Under-current  of  Thought  during  Prayer. — 
Money,  the  universal  Falsehood. — Lessons  in  Spanish. — The  Wings  of  Love, — 
Parables. Tokens  of  God's  Blessing. — Living's  Anxiety  about  his  Wife's  Jour- 
ney.  A  young  Visitor. — A  "Benedict." — Evils  of  Formality. — Benediction. — 

Irving's  only  Journal Page  180 

CHAPTER  XII. 

1826, 1827. 

The  Headship  of  Christ. — A  Baptized  Christendom. — Expansion. — Ben-Ezra. — 
The  Spanish  Jesuit. — In'ing's  Consistency. — A  Christian  Nation. — Political  Opin- 
ions.— Rest  and  Relaxation. — Beckenham. — His  "Helper  meet  for  him." — The 
HibernianBible  Society. — Albury. — Henry  Drummond. — Conference  for  the  Study 
of  Prophecy. — Concerning  the  Second  Advent. — A  School  of  Prophets. — Irving's 
Verses. — The  anti-Christ. — A  Herald  of  the  Lord's  Coming. — Signs  of  the  Times. 
— The  Fife  Bank. — Help  and  Consolation. — Opening  of  National  Scotch  Church. 
— Unanimity  of  the  Congregation. — Dr.  Chalmers's  Diary. — Irving  keeps  Chal- 
mers waiting. — Dr.  Chalmers  shakes  his  Head. — Important  Crisis. — Fashion  went 
her  idle  Way. — In-ing's  own  Evidence  on  the  Subject. — Reality. — Cessation  of 
the  Crowd.— "The  Plate."— Irving's  Offering.— The  Bible  Society.— A  May 
Meeting. — A  Moment  of  Depression. — Projects  for  the  Future. — Lectures  on  Bap- 
tism.— Seed-time. — Ordination  Charge. — Vaughan  of  Leicester. — The  Light  that 
never  was  on  Sea  or  Shore 264 

CHAPTER  Xni. 

1828. 

Sermons  on  the  Trinity. — Unconscious  of  any  Doubt  on  the  Subject. — The  Fellow- 
ship of  Christ. — Discoveries  made  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cole. — A  theological  Spy. — 
Follows  the  Preacher  to  the  Vestry. — First  Accusation  of  Heresy. — The  Orthodox 
Doctrine  of  the  Church. — IiTing's  Manner  of  Meeting  the  Attack. — The  Cloud 
like  a  Man's  Hand. — Apology  for  the  Church  of  Scotland. — Irving  carries  his 
Message  to  his  own  Country. — Plan  of  his  Journey. — Annan  Market. — His  Labors 
among  his  own  People.i — Arrival  in  Great  King  Street. — St.  Andrew's  Church  be- 
sieged by  the  Crowd. — Excitement  in  Edinburgh. — Dissatisfaction  of  Chalmers. — 
The  Statesman  and  the  Visionary. — Uses  of  the  Impracticable. — Religious  Thought 
in  Scotland. — Campbell  of  Row. — A  new  Friend. — Irving's  Faculty  of  Learning. 
— Rosneath. — Row. — A.  J.  Scott. — Accident  at  Kirkcaldy. — Cruel  Reproaches. — 
In-ing  visits  Perth. — Returns  to  London. — Immediate  Return  to  his  usual  La- 
bors.— Happiness  in  Returning. — The  Last  Days. — Irving's  Anxieties. — Opposi- 
tion to  his  Doctrine  of  the  Second  Advent. — Improvement  in  his  Wife's  Health. 
— His  Anxiety  for  her  Return. — Pause  in  the  Saturday  Occupation. — Consulta- 
tions about  Prophecy. — Publishing  Negotiations. — A  Bible  Society  Meeting. — 
Anticipates  "Casting  out  of  the  Synagogue." — His  Birthday. — Instructions  and 
Prayers. — The  Lost  Tribes. — Resignation  to  God's  Will. — Arrangement  about  his 
Trinity  Sermons. — The  Bishop  of  Chester. — Contract  with  Publishers. — Tale  of 
the  Martyrs. — Excess  of  Health. — Harrowgate. — A  true  Apostolical  Church. — 


CONTENTS. 


XI 


The  Year's  Work. — Pastoral  Duties. — The  Threshold  of  a  new  Future. — High 
Anticipations. — Vaughan  of  Leicester. — Second  Albury  Conference. — Dr.  Mar- 
tin's Account  of  its  Results. — Mutterings  of  the  coming  Storm. — Trust  of  his 
People Page  294 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

1829. 
Degree  of  D.D. — The  great  Hope  of  the  Church. — Form  of  Baptism. — Irring's  Be- 
lief in  his  own  Orthodoxy. — Misstatements  of  his  Doctrine. — The  Morning  Watch. 
— Words  of  Consolation. — Judd  Place. — Visit  to  Edinburgh. — Preparations  for  his 
Course  of  Lectures. — The  two  little  Ballad-singers. — Annan. — Edinburgh. — The 
General  Assembly. — He  appears  at  the  Bar. — His  Commission  rejected. — Lectures 
in  Hope  Park  Chapel. — Preaches  in  Dumfriesshire. — Employment  of  his  Summer 
Holiday. — In  Glasgow. — Bathgate. — "God  loves  you." — Incident  in  Kirkcaldy. 
— His  Views  of  Church  and  State. — Dedication  of  the  Book. — The  Representa- 
tives of  three  Generations. — Whisper  of  "Heretic." — His  Circle  in  London. — The 
Journeymen  Bakers. — Family  Sorrows. — Joseph  Wolff's  two  Greeks. — Their  Edu- 
cation and  Maintenance. — Weekly  Issue  of  Lectures. — The  third  Conference  at 
Albury. — Notes  of  the  Conference. — Communion 337 

CHAPTER  XV. 
1830. 
A  new  Light. — Influence  of  Scott. — Mary  Campbell. — Campbell  of  Row. — Reli- 
gious Fermentation  in  Clydesdale. — Tract  on  our  Lord's  Human  Nature. — The 
Man  of  Son-ows. — Beginning  of  the  Conflict. — Gift  from  Friends  in  Edinburgh. — 
The  Christian  Instructor. — Irving's  Letter  to  Mr.  Dods. — Statement  of  his  own 
Belief. — Invitation  to  brotherly  Conference. — Heart-sickness. — Letter  to  Dr.  Chal- 
mers.— Irving's  Confidence  in  his  Judgment. — Chalmers'  timid  Silence. — Prosecu- 
tion of  Mr.  Maclean. — Unfair  Inquisition. — Proceedings  in  Mr.  Scott's  Case. — 
Deliverance  of  the  Presbytery. — Advice  in  the  Dreghorn  Case. — Necessity  for 
Caution  and  Patience. — Presbytery  of  London. — "God  send  better  Days." — Fer- 
nicarry. — Mary  Campbell. — The  Gift  of  Tongues. — The  first  Prophetess. — The 

Macdonalds. — The  Gift  of  Healing. — The  Manifestations  believed  by  many. 

Eagerly  hailed  by  Irving. — Dr.  Chalmers  in  London. — Irving,  Chalmers,  and  Cole- 
ridge.— Fears  for  the  Church  of  Scotland. — Irving's  renewed  Appeal  to  his  "Mas- 
ter."— Farewell  of  Irving  and  Chalmers. — Little  Samuel's  Illness. — Irving's  new 
Surroundings. — His  miraculous  Heart. — Albury. — A  faithful  Wife. — The  chief 
Physician.— Sen-ing  God  for  Naught.— Resignation.— Irving's  Visit  to  Ireland.— 
Powerscourt.— Dublin.— Little  Maggie's  Song. — "  Out  of  the  Mouth  of  Babes  and 
Sucklings."— Congratulations. — Note  on  Samuel  Martin's  Bible. — Seamen's  Asy- 
lum.—Movement  in  the  Presbytery  of  London. — Dutifulness  to  the  Church. — A 
contumacious  Brother. — Irving  separates  from  the  Presbytery. — Gives  up  his  pro- 
posed Visit  to  Scotland. — Fright  and  Agreement  of  the  Presbytery. — His  Iso- 
lation. —  Statement  by  his  Kirk  Session.  —  Petition  to  the  King. — Lord  Mel- 
bourne   361 

CHAPTER  XVL 

1831. 
Church  Conflicts.— Reference  to  the  Mother  Church. — The  Usury  of  Tears.— Ir- 
ving's Repetition  of  his  Belief.  —  Christ's  Holiness  in  the  Flesh.  —  PraA'cr  for  the 


^•-  CONTENTS. 

General  Assemblv. — "In  Labors  abundant." — His  Attitude  and  Aspect. — On  tlio 
Threshold  of  Fate. — IMeeting  of  the  General  Assembly. — Position  assumed  by  Mr. 

gcQlX, The  Assembly's  Decisions. — Irving's  Determination  to  defend  his  Rights. 

Peculiarity  of  the  two  Cases  of  Heresy. — Not  heretical  Opinions,  but  realizing 

Faith. Condemnation  of  Irving's  Doctrine. — Prayers  for  the  Outpouring  of  the 

gpi^it^ Inspiration  of  the  Last  Days. — First  Appearance  of  the  Tongues. — His 

Prepossession. — The  Prayer  of  Faith. — ^The  Answer  of  God. — The  Fulfillment  of 

Promise. Trying  the  Spirits. — His  unjudicial  Mind. — The  Baptism  of  the  Holy 

Qjjost Inevitable  Separation. — Utterances  permitted  at  Morning  Meetings. — 

Probation. Excitement  in  the  Congregation. — Crisis. — The  flatter  taken  out  of 

his  Hands. First  Utterance  in  the  Sunday  Worship. — Commotion  at  the  Evening 

Service. The  Tumults  of  the  People. — Comments  of  the  Press. — Increase  to  the 

Church. Order  of  the  Morning  Service. — Character  of  the  Tongues. — Supposed 

to  be  existing  Languages. — Described  by  Irving. — The  Utterances  in  English. — 
Their  Influence. — Virtuous  Indignation. — His  Determination  at  all  Hazards. — 
Withdraws  the  last  Eestraint. — Impossibility  of  drawing  Back. — liemonstrances 
of  his  Friends. — First  Meeting  of  the  Trustees. — "If  I  perish,  I  perish." — Aifec- 
tionate  Conspiracy. — Future  Order  of  Worship. — Full  Statement  of  his  Inten- 
tions.— Publications  of  the  Year. — Original  Standards  of  the  Church. — The  West- 
minster Confession. — Recalls  the  Church  of  Scotland  to  herself. — Papers  in  the 
Morning  Watch. — Irving  and  the  Record. — The  Trustees. — The  Kirk-Session. — 
His  Remonstrance. — Importunities  of  his  Friends Page  iOi 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
1 832. 
"Bedlam"  and  "Chaos." — Robert  Baxter. — Farther  Development  of  the  Power. — 
The  Two  Witnesses. — Authoritative  Interpretation  of  Prophecy. — Baxter's  Nar- 
rative.— Inner  World  Revealed  by  it. — Attitude  of  Irving. — Retains  his  Influence 
as  Pastor. — Mystic  Atrnosphere. — Evangelists. — Inevitable  Progress. — The  Trus- 
tees take  Counsel's  Opinion. — Irving's  Public  Intimation  of  the  Danger. — His  Ad- 
vice to  his  People. — Answer  to  the  Trustees. — Sir  Edward  Sugden's  Advice. — The 
foregone  Conclusion  of  the  Presbytery. — Their  Authority  finally  appealed  to. — The 
Life  of  the  Accused. — "Reproach  hath  broken  my  Heart." — The  Angel  of  the 
Church. — "Unwearied  and  Unceasing." — Fundamental  Question  involved. — Last 
Remonstrance. — Warning. — Not  the  Shadow  of  a  Doubt. — Banishing  the  Voice 
of  Jesus. — Impassioned  Appeal. — The  Trustees'  Complaint. — Meeting  of  the  Pres- 
byteiy. — Recantation  of  Baxter. — Beginning  of  the  Trial. — Examination  of  Wit- 
nesses :  The  Elder. — Appeal  to  the  Scriptures. — Examination  continued  :  The 
Prophet. — "Did  you  hear  any  Conversation  anywhere?" — Calling  Names. — Ex- 
amination continued:  The  Deacon. — Sudden  Blandness  of  the  Examiners. — Con- 
clusion of  the  Evidence. — Unanimity  of  the  Witnesses. — The  Disenchanted  Proph- 
et.— Unmoved  by  Discouragement. — Order  of  Irving's  Defense. — The  Head  of 
every  ]\Ian. — An  undivided  Allegiance. — Records  of  Ecclesiastical  Antiquity. — 
The  Conscience  of  the  Presbytery. — Character  of  the  Evidence. — Speech  of  the 
Accuser. — Ining's  Reply. — Whether  the  Work  be  of  the  Holy  Ghost. — The  Pro- 
phetic Character. — "Dishonesty." — Tempted  to  withdraw  from  the  Contest. — 
Prefers  his  Duty  as  a  Pastor  to  his  Feelings. — Standeth  or  Fallcth  to  his  own 
Master. — A  Lamb  of  the  Flock. — Decision  of  the  Presbyteiy. — Their  Recklessness. 
— Scraps  of  the  Confession. — The  Character  of  Presbyterian  Worship. — What 
could  they  do? — Sentence. — Irving  "unfit"  to  remain  a  IMinister. — Triumph  of 
the  Press. — Times  and  Record. — The  Fast-day. — Closing  of  the  Church. — Gray's 


CONTENTS.  •        xiii 

Inn  Eoad. — Out-door  Pi-eaching. — The  Lost  Child. — Afifectionate  Recollections. 
—The  Scotch  Psalms.— Islington  Green.— Princely  Hospitality.— How  to  over- 
come Disease  by  Faith. — Suffeiings. — Resolved  to  Fall  at  his  Post. — Victory  over 
the  Body. — State  of  the  Public  Mind. — Reported  "falling  off"  in  Irving's  Mind. 

The  Mornimj  Watch  the  Organ  of  the  Church. — The  Sick  Child. — Invitation  to 

the  Kirkcaldy  Relations. — Prospered  by  the  Lord. — The  Despised  in  Israel.— De- 
velopment.— A  new  Order  of  Things. — Irving  announces  certain  Changes. — Ar- 
rangement of  the  Church  in  Newman  Street. — Opening  Services. — Manifestations. 
— Their  Character.— Another  Assault.— "Weariness Page  446 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

1833. 
Inquiries  of  Mr.  Campbell. — Ii-ving's  Reply.— The  Fountain  of  Sweet  Waters. — Let- 
ter to  Alan  Ker. — Position  of  the  Angel. — God's  Footsteps  are  not  known. — Ir- 
ving's Mode  of  explaining  himself. — His  Reasonableness. — Contrast  between  Ir- 
ving and  Baxt'er. — Doctrine  of  "the  Humanity." — Fighting  in  the  Dark. — An- 
nan Presbytery. — Incompetence  of  the  Judges. — Irving's  arrival  in  Annan. — Da- 
vid and  Goliath. — Irving's  Defense. — The  Captain  of  our  Salvation. — Decision  of 
the  Presbytery. — Scene  in  Annan  Church. — Irving  leaves  the  Church. — Deposi- 
tion.— His  Letter  to  his  People. — His  Deliverance. — Nithsdale  and  Annandale. — 
Set  aside  by  his  own  Church. — Reordination. — The  Christian  Priest. — "Our  dear 
Father's  Letter." — Another  Death. — Infant  Faith. — An  American  Spectator. — 
The  Morning  Watch. — Conclusion  of  that  Periodical. — Irving's  Difficulties. — An 
embarrassing  Restraint. — The  Communion  in  Newman  Street. — Many  Trials. — 
Expectation  of  Power  from  on  High. — Walking  in  Darkness 511 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

1834. THE     END. 

Sent  to  Edinburgh. — Is  no  longer  his  own  Master. — Exhaustion. — Tender  Courtesy. 
— Reappearance  out  of  the  Shadows. — Projects  his  Journey. — Leaves  London. — 
The  Hand  of  the  Lord  upon  him. — Bridgenorth. — His  ancient  Counselor. — Let- 
ter to  his  Children. — The  Royal  Oak.— Beauty  and  Blessedness  of  the  Land. — 
Young  Clergymen. —  Healing  both  to  Body  and  Soul. —  Satisfied  in  beholding 
God's  Works. — Birthday  Letter. — Well-sunned,  well-aired  Mountains. —  Cader 
Idris. — Care  not  to  take  his  Wife  "out  of  her  Place." — Bedd-Gelert. — Beginning 
of  the  End. — Legend  "for  Maggie." — Renewed  Illness. — Yearns  for  his  Wife. — 
Well  with  the  just  Man  at  the  Last. — Alarm  of  his  Relations. — Voyage  to  Green- 
ock.— Enters  Glasgow. — His  last  Letter. — Flesh  and  Heart  faint  and  fail. — His 
Certainty  of  Recovery. — At  the  Gates  of  Heaven. — Amen ! — He  died  and  was 
buried. — A  Saint  and  Martyr 537 


APPENDICES. 

A.  Case  of  Miss  Fancourt,  as  described  by  herself  in  a  Letter  to  a  Friend 561 

B.  Extracts  from  Mr.  Baxter's  "Nan*ative  of  Facts"  in  respect  to  the  so-called  mi- 

raculous gifts 562 

C.  Speeches  of  Ir\ang  before  the  Presbyterj-  of  London,  March,  1832 570 


LIFE  OF  EDWARD  IRVING, 


EDWARD  IRVING. 


CHAPTER  I. 

HIS  PARENTAGE  AND  CHILDHOOD. 

The  Irvings  and  Lowthers. — Peculiarities  of  the  Race. — His  immediate  family. — 
Life  in  Annan. — Universal  Friendliness. — Traditions  of  the  District. — The  Cove- 
nanters. —  Birth  of  Edward.  —  His  Parents.  —  Peggy  Paine's  School.  —  Hannah 
Douglas. — Annan  Academy. — Out-door  Education. — Solway  Sands. — Escaping 
from  the  Tide. — Early  Characteristics. — Sunday  Pilgrimages. — The  "Whigs." — 
Ecclefechan. — His  youthful  Companions. — Strange  Dispersion. — Home  Influ- 
ences.— Leaving  Annan. 

In  the  autumn  of  the  eventful  year  1792,  at  the  most  singular 
crisis  of  the  world's  history  which  has  arisen  in  modern  times — 
when  France  was  going  mad  in  her  revolution,  and  the  other 
nations  of  Christendom  were  crowding  in,  curious  and  dismayed, 
to  see  that  spectacle  which  was  to  result  in  so  many  other  changes, 
but  far  away  from  all  those  outcries  and  struggles,  in  the  peaceful 
little  Scotch  town  of  Annan,  Edward  Irving,  the  story  of  whose 
life  is  to  be  told  in  the  following  pages,  was  born.  He  was  the 
son  of  Gavin  Irving,  of  a  long-established  local  kindred,  well- 
known,  but  undistinguished,  who  followed  the  humble  occupation 
of  a  tanner  in  Annan,  and  of  Mary  Lowther,  the  handsome  and 
high-spirited  daughter  of  a  small  landed  proprietor  in  the  adjacent 
parish  of  Dornoch.  Among  the  Irving  forefathers  were  a  family 
of  Howys,  Albigenses,  or  at  least  French  Protestant  refugees,  one 
of  whom  had  become  parish  minister  in  Annan,  and  has  left  be- 
hind him  some  recollections  of  lively  wit  worthy  his  race,  and  a 
tomb-stone,  with  a  quaint  inscription,  which  is  one  of  the  wonders 
of  the  melancholy  and  crowded  church-yard,  or  rather  burying- 
ground ;  for  the  present  church  of  the  town  has  left  the  graves 
behind.  The  same  dismal  inclosure,  with  its  nameless  mounds, 
rising  mysterious  through  the  rugged  grass,  proclaims  the  name 
of  Irving  on  every  side  in  many  lines  of  kindred ;  but  these  tomb- 
stones seem  almost  the  only  record  extant  of  the  family.  The 
Lowthers  were  more  notable  people.     The  eldest  brother,  Tris- 

B 


18  THE  IRVINGS  AND  LOWTHERS. 

tram,  wliom  Edward  characterizes  as  "  Uncle  Tristram  of  Dor- 
noch, the  willful,"  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  acknowledged 
characters  of  that  characteristic  country.  He  lived  and  died  a 
bachelor,  saving,  litigious,  and  eccentric ;  and  determined  to  enjoy 
in  his  lifetime  that  fame  which  is  posthumous  to  most  men,  he 
erected  his  own  tomb-stone  in  Dornoch  church-yard,  recording  on 
it  the  most  memorable  of  his  achievements.  The  greatest  of  these 
were,  winning  a  lawsuit  in  which  he  had  been  engaged  against  his 
brothers,  and  building  a  bridge.  It  appears  that  he  showed  true 
wisdom  in  getting  what  satisfaction  he  could  out  of  this  autobio- 
graphical essay  while  he  lived;  for  his  respectable  heirs  have 
balked  Tristram,  and  carried  away  the  characteristic  monument. 
Another  brother  lives  in  local  tradition  as  the  good-natured  giant 
of  the  district.  It  is  told  of  him  that,  having  once  accompanied 
his  droves  into  England  (they  were  all  grazier  farmers  by  j^rofes- 
sion),  the  Scottish  Hercules,  placid  of  temper,  and  perhaps  a  little 
slow  of  apprehension,  according  to  the  nature  of  giants,  was  re- 
freshing himself  in  an  old-fashioned  tavern — locality  uncertain — 
supposed  to  be  either  the  dock  precincts  of  LiverjDool,  or  the 
eastern  wastes  of  London.  The  other  guests  in  the  great  sanded 
kitchen,  where  they  were  all  assembled,  amused  themselves  with 
an  attempt  to  "chaff"  and  aggravate  the  stranger;  and  finding 
this  tedious  work,  one  rash  joker  went  so  far  as  to  insult  him,  and 
invite  a  quarrel.  George  Lowther  bore  it  long,  probably  slow  to 
comprehend  the  idea  of  quarreling  with  such  antagonists ;  at  last, 
when  his  patience  was  exhausted,  the  giant,  grimly  humorous,  if 
not  angry,  seized,  some  say  a  great  iron  spit  from  the  wall,  some 
a  poker  from  the  hearth,  and  twisting  it  round  the  neck  of  his 
unfortunate  assailant,  quietly  left  him  to  the  laughter  and  condo- 
lences of  his  comrades  till  a  blacksmith  could  be  brought  to  re- 
lease him  from  that  impromptu  pillory.  Gavin  Irving's  wife  was 
of  this  stout  and  primitive  race.  Her  activity  and  cheerful,  high- 
spirited  comeliness  are  still  well  remembered  by  the  contempora- 
ries of  her  children ;  and  even  the  splendor  of  the  scarlet  riding- 
skirt  and  Leghorn  hat,  in  which  she  came  home  as  a  bride,  are 
still  reflected  in  some  old  memories. 

The  families  on  both  sides  were  of  competent  substance  and 
reputation,  and  rich  in  individual  character.  No  wealth,  to  speak 
of,  existed  among  them :  a  little  patriarchal  foundation  of  land 
and  cattle,  from  which  the  eldest  son  might  perhaps  claijn  a  terri- 
torial designation  if  his  droves  found  prosperous  market  across  the 


HIS  IMMEDIATE  FAMILY.  I9 

border ;  the  younger  sons,  trained  to  independent  trades,  one  of 
them,  perhaps,  not  disdaining  to  throw  his  plaid  over  his  shoul- 
der and  call  his  dog  to  his  heels  behind  one  of  these  same  droves, 
a  sturdy  novitiate  to  his  grazier  life ;  while  the  inclinations  of 
another  might  quite  as  naturally  and  suitably  lead  him  to  such 
study  of  law  as  may  be  necessary  for  a  Scotch  "  writer,"  or  to  the 
favorite  and  most  profoundly  respected  of  all  professions,  "the 
ministry,"  as  it  is  called  in  Scotland.  The  Irving  and  Lowther 
families  embraced  both  classes,  with  all  the  intermediary  steps 
between  them;  and  Gavin  Irving  and  his  wife,  in  their  little 
house  at  Annan,  stood  perhaps  about  midway  between  the  homely 
refinement  of  the  Dumfriesshire  manses  and  the  rude  profusion  of 
the  Annandale  farms. 

Of  this  marriage  eight  children  were  "born — three  sons,  John, 
Edward,  and  George,  all  of  whom  were  educated  to  learned  pro- 
fessions ;  and  five  daughters,  all  respectably  married,  one  of  whom 
still  survives,  the  last  of  her  family.  All  the  sisters  seem  to  have 
left  representatives  behind  them ;  but  John  and  George  both  died 
unmarried  before  the  death  of  their  distinguished  brother.  The 
eldest,  whom  old  friends  speak  of  as  "one  of  the  handsomest 
young  men  of  his  day,"  and  whom  his  father  imagined  the  genius 
of  the  family,  died  obscurely  in  India  on  Edward's  birthday,  the 
4th  of  August,  in  the  prime  of  his  manhood,  a  medical  officer  in 
the  East  India  Company's  service.  He  was  struck  down  by  jun- 
gle fever,  a  sharp  and  sudden  blow,  and  his  friends  had  not  even 
the  satisfaction  of  knowing  fully  the  circumstances  of  his  death. 
But  henceforward  the  day,  made  thus  doubly  memorable,  was 
consecrated  by  Edward  as  a  solemn  fast-day,  and  spent  in  the  j_ 
deepest  seclusion.  Under  the  date  of  a  letter,  written  on  the  2d 
of  August  some  years  after,  he  writes  the  following  touching 
note:  "4  August,  Dies  natalis  atque  fatalis  incidii^''  translated  un- 
derneath by  himself,  "The  day  of  birth  and  death  draweth  nigh." 
The  highest  art  could  not  have  reared  such  a  monument  to  the 
early  dead. 

The  stormy  firmament  under  which  these  children  were  born, 
and  all  the  commotions  going  on  in  the  outside  world,  scarcely 
seem  to  have  fluttered  the  still  atmosphere  of  the  little  rural  town 
in  which  they  first  saw  the  light.  There  the  quiet  years  were 
revolving,  untroubled  by  either  change  or  tumult :  quiet  traffic, 
slow,  safe,  and  unpretending,  sailed  its  corn-laden  sloops  from  the 
Water-foot,  the  little  port  where  Annan  water  flows  into  the  Sol- 


20 


LIFE  IN  ANNAN. 


way,  and  sent  its  droves  across  the  border,  and  grew  soberly  rich 
without  alteration  of  either  position  or  manners.  The  society  of 
the  place  was  composed  of  people  much  too  well  known  in  all 
the  details  and  antecedents  of  their  life  to  entertain  for  a  moment 
the  idea  of  forsaking  their  humble  natural  sphere.  The  Kirk  lay 
dormant,  by  times  respectable  and  decorous,  by  times,  unfortu- 
nately, much  the  reverse,  but  very  seldom  reaching  a  higher 
point  than  that  of  respectability.  Politics  did  not  exist  as  an 
object  of  popular  interest.  The  "  Magistrates"  of  Annan  elected 
their  sixth  part  of  a  member  of  Parliament  dutifully  as  his  grace's 
agents  suggested,  and  gleaned  poor  posts  in  the  Customs  and  Ex- 
cise for  their  dependent  relations.  The  parish  school,  perhaps  of 
a  deeper  efficiency  than  any  thing  else  in  the  place,  trained  boys 
and  girls  together  into  stout  practical  knowledge,  and  such  rude 
classic  learning  as  has  established  itself  throughout  Scotland. 
High  Puritanism,  such  as  is  supposed  to  form  the  distinguishing 
feature  of  Scotch  communities,  was  undreamed  of  in  this  little 
town.  According  to  its  fashion,  Annan  was  warmly  hospitable 
and  festive,  living  in  a  little  round  of  social  gayeties.  These 
gayeties  were  for  the  most  part  tea-parties,  of  a  description  not 
now  known,  unless,  Jfcerhaps,  they  may  still  linger  in  Annan  and 
its  companion  towns — parties  in  which  tea  was  a  meal  of  much 
serious  importance,  accompanied  by  refreshments  of  a  more  sub- 
stantial kind,  and  followed  by  a  sober  degree  of  joviality.  The 
families  who  thus  amused  themselves  grew  up  in  the  closest  rela- 
tions of  neighborship ;  they  sent  off  sons  into  the  world  to  gain 
name  and  fame  beyond  the  highest  dreams  of  the  country-side, 
yet  to  be  fondly  claimed  on  coming  back  with  an  old  affection 
closer  than  fame,  as  still  the  well-known  John  or  Edward  of  all 
their  contemporaries  in  Annan.  ISTothing  could  contrast  more 
strangely  with  the  idea  which,  looking  back,  we  instinctively 
form  of  the  state  of  matters  at  that  stirring  epoch,  than  this  little 
neutral-colored  community,  dimly  penetrated  by  its  weekly  news- 
paper, living  a  long  way  off"  from  all  startling  events,  and  only 
waking  into  knowledge  of  the  great  commotions  going  on  around 
when  other  occurrences  had  obliterated  them  and  their  interest 
was  exhausted.  Nor  was  there  any  intellectual  or  spiritual  move- 
ment among  themselves  to  make  up.  The  Kirk,  the  great  main- 
spring of  Scottish  local  life,  was  dormant,  as  we  have  said — as 
indeed  the  Church  was  at  this  era  in  most  places  throughout  the 
world.     The  Annan  clergyman  was  one  whom  old  parishioners 


TRADITIONS  OF  THE  DISTRICT.— THE  COVENANTERS.         21 

still  can  scarcely  bear  to  blame,  but  who  in  his  best  days  could 
only  be  spoken  of  with  afi'ectionate  pity ;  a  man  whose  habitual 
respect  for  his  own  position  made  him  "always  himself"  in  the 
pulpit  —  a  quaint  and  melancholy  distinction — and  who  never 
would  tolerate  the  sound  of  an  oath  even  when  constantly  fre- 
quenting places  where  oaths  were  very  usual  embellishments  of 
conversation.  Religion  had  little  active  existence  in  the  place,  as 
may  be  supposed ;  but  the  decorum  which  preserved  the  minis- 
ter's Sundays  in  unimpeachable  sobriety  kept  up  throughout  the 
community  a  certain  religious  habit,  the  legacy  of  a  purer  genera- 
tion. Household  psalms  still  echoed  of  nights  through  the  closed 
windows,  and  children,  brought  up  among  few  other  signs  of 
piety,  were  yet  trained  in  the  habit  of  family  prayers.  This  was 
almost  all  the  religion  which  existed  in  Puritan  Scotland  in  these 
eventful  French  Revolution  days,  and  even  this  was  owing  more 
to  the  special  traditions  of  the  soil  in  such  a  region  as  Annandale 
than  to  any  deeper  impulse  of  faith.  / 

For  outside  this  "comfortable  prosaic  world  was  a  world  of  im- 
agination and  poetry,  never  to  be  dissevered  from  that  border 
country.  Strange  difference  of  a  few  centuries!  The  Annan- 
dale  droves  went  peaceably  to  the  southern  market  past  many  a 
naked  peel-house  and  austere  tower  of  defense  on  both  sides  of 
the  border;  but  the  country,  watched  and  guarded  by  these  old 
apparitions,  had  not  forgotten  the  moss-troopers :  and  far  more 
clearly  and  strongly,  with  vision  scarcely  sufficiently  removed 
from  the  period  even  to  be  impartial,  the  district  which  held  the 
Stones  of  Irongray,  and  inclosed  many  a  Covenanter's  grave,  re- 
membered that  desperate  fever  and  frenzy  of  persecution  through 
which  the  Kirk  had  once  fought  her  way.  I  recollect,  at  a  dis- 
tance of  a  great  many  years,  the  energy  with  which  a  woman- 
servant  from  that  country -side  told  tales  of  the  "  Lag,"  who  is 
the  Claverhouse  of  the  border,  till  the  imagination  of  a  nursery, 
far  removed  from  the  spot,  fixed  upon  him,  in  defiance  of  all 
nearer  claims,  as  the  favorite  horror — the  weird,  accursed  spirit, 
whom  young  imaginations,  primitive  and  unsentimental,  have  no 
compunctions  about  delivering  over  to  Satan.  This  old  world  of 
adventurous  romance  and  martyr  legend  thrilled  and  palpitated 
around  the  villages  of  Annandale.  The  educated  people  in  the 
town,  the  writer  or  the  doctor,  or  possibly  the  minister,  all  the 
men  who  were  wiser  than  their  neighbors,  might  perhaps  enter- 
tain enlightened  views  touching  those  Covenanter  fanatics  whom 


22  BIRTH  OF  EDWARD. 

enlightened  persons  are  not  supposed  to  entertain  much  sympathy 
with ;  but  in  the  tales  of  the  ingleside — in  the  narratives  heard  by 
the  red  glow  of  the  great  kitchen  fire,  or  in  the  farm-house  chim- 
ney-corner— enlightened  views  were  out  of  court,  and  the  home- 
spun martyrs  of  the  soil  were  absolute  masters  of  all  hearts  and 
suffrages.  And  perhaps  few  people  out  of  the  reach  of  such  an 
influence  can  comprehend  the  effect  which  is  produced  upon  the 
ardent,  young,  inexperienced  imagination  by  those  familiar  tales 
of  torture  endured  and  death  accomplished  by  men  bearing  the 
very  names  of  the  listeners,  and  whose  agony  and  triumph  have 
occurred  in  places  of  which  every  nook  and  corner  is  familiar  to 
their  eyes ;  the  impression  made  is  such  as  nothing  after  can  ever 
efface  or  obliterate ;  and  it  has  the  effect — an  effect  I  confess  not 
very  easily  explainable  to  those  who  have  not  experienced  it — of 
weaving  round  the  bald  services  of  the  Scotch  Church  a  charm 
of  imagination  more  entrancing  and  visionary  than  the  highest 
poetic  ritual  could  command,  and  of  connecting  her  absolute  ca- 
nons and  unpicturesque  economy  with  the  highest  epic  and  ro- 
mance of  national  faith.  Perhaps  this  warm  recollection  of  her 
martyrs,  and  of  that  fervent  devotion  which  alone  can  make  mar- 
tyrs possible,  has  done  more  to  neutralize  the  hard  common  sense 
of  the  country,  and  to  preserve  the  Scotch  Church  from  overleg- 
islating  herself  into  decrepitude,  than  any  other  influence.  We 
too,  like  every  other  Church  and  race,  have  our  legends  of  the 
Saints,  and  make  such  use  of  them  in  the  depths  of  our  reserve 
and  national  reticence  as  few  strangers  guess  or  could  conceive. 
It  was  in  this  community  that  Edward  Irving  received  his  first 
impressions.  He  was  born  on  the  4th  of  August,  1792,  in  a  little 
house  near  the  old  town-cross  of  Annan.  There  he  was  laid  in 
his  wooden  cradle,  to  watch  with  unconscious  eyes  the  light  com- 
ing in  at  the  low,  long  window  of  his  mother's  narrow  bedcham- 
ber ;  or  rather,  according  to  the  ingenious  hypothesis  of  a  medi- 
cal friend  of  his  own,  to  lie  exercising  one  eye  upon  that  light, 
and  intensifying  into  that  one  eye,  by  way  of  emjjhatic  uncon- 
scious prophecy  of  the  future  habit  of  his  soul,  all  his  baby  pow- 
er of  vision — a  power  which  the  other  eye,  hopelessly  obscured 
by  the  wooden  side  of  the  cradle,  was  then  unable  to  use,  and 
never  after  regained ;  an  explanation  of  the  vulgar  obliquity 
called  a  squint,  which  I  venture  to  recommend  to  all  unpreju- 
diced readers.  The  stairs  which  led  to  Mrs.  Irving's  bedcham- 
ber ascended  through  the  kitchen,  a  cheerful,  well-sized  apart- 


EDWARD'S  HOME.  23 

ment  as  sucli  houses  go ;  and  in  tlie  other  end  of  the  house,  next 
to  tlie  kitchen,  was  the  parlor,  a  small,  inconceivably  small  room, 
in  which  to  rear  a  family  of  eight  stalwart  sons  and  daughters, 
and  to  exercise  all  the  hospitalities  required  by  that  sociable  little 
community.  But  society  in  Annan  was  evidently  as  indifferent 
to  a  mere  matter  of  space  as  society  in  a  more  advanced  devel- 
opment. The  tanner's  yard  was  opposite  the  house,  across  the 
little  street.  There  he  lived  in  the  full  exercise  of  his  unsavory 
occupation,  with  his  children  growing  up  round  him;  a  quiet 
man,  chiefly  visible  as  upholding  the  somewhat  severe  discipline 
of  the  schoolmaster  against  the  less  austere  virtue  of  the  mother, 
who,  handsome  and  energetic,  was  the  ruling  spirit  of  the  house. 
It  is  from  Mrs.  Irving  that  her  family  seem  to  have  taken  that 
somewhat  solemn  and  dark  type  of  beauty  which,  marred  only 
by  the  intervention  of  the  wooden  cradle,  became  famous  in  the 
person  of  her  illustrious  son.  I  do  not  say  that  she  realized  the 
ordinary  popular  notion  about  the  mothers  of  great  men ;  but  it 
is  apparent  that  she  was  great  in  all  that  sweet  personal  health, 
force,  and  energy  which  distinguished  her  generation  of  Scottish 
women,  and  which,  perhaps,  with  the  shrewdness  and  characteris- 
tic individuality  which  accompany  it,  is  of  more  importance  to 
the  race  and  nation  than  any  degree  of  mere  intellect.  "  Evan- 
gelicalism," said  Edward  Irving,  long  after,  "has  spoiled  both  the 
minds  and  bodies  of  the  women  of  Scotland — there  are  no  women 
now  like  my  mother."  The  devoutest  evangelical  believer  might 
forgive  the  son  for  that  fond  and  filial  saying.  It  is  clear  that  no 
conventional  manner  of  speech,  thought,  or  barrier  of  ecclesiasti-. 
cal  proprieties  unknown  to  nature  had  limited  the  mother  of  those 
eight  Irvings,  whom  she  brought  up  accordingly  in  all  the  free- 
dom of  a  life  almost  rural,  yet  amid  all  the  warm  and  kindly  in- 
fluences of  a  community  of  friends.  To  be  born  in  such  a  place 
and  such  a  house  was  to  come  into  the  world  entitled  to  the  fa- 
miliar knowledge  and  affection  of  •'  all  the  town" — a  fact  which 
may  be  quaintly  apprehended  in  the  present  Annan  by  the  num- 
ber of  nameless  quiet  old  people  who,  half  admiring  and  half  in- 
credulous of  the  fame  of  their  old  schoolfellow,  brighten  up  into 
vague  talk  of  "  Edward"  when  a  stranger  names  his  name. 

The  first  appearance  which  Edward  Irving  made  out  of  this 
house  with  its  wooden  cradle  was  at  a  little  school,  preparatory 
to  more  serious  education,  kept  by  "Peggy  Paine,"  a  relation  of 
the  unfortunate  tailor-skeptic,  who  in  those  days  was  in  uneasy 


24  HANNAH  DOUGLAS. 

quarters  in  Paris,  in  the  midst  of  the  Eevolution.  An  old  wom- 
an, now  settled  for  her  old  age  in  her  native  town,  who  had  in 
after  years  encountered  her  great  townsman  in  London,  and  re- 
maining loyally  faithful  to  his  teaching  all  her  life,  is  now,  I  sup- 
pose, the  sole  representative  in  Annan  of  the  religious  body  com- 
monly called  by  his  name,  remembers  in  those  old  vernal  days 
how  Edward  helped  her  to  learn  her  letters,  and  how  they  two 
stammered  into  their  first  syllables  over  the  same  book  in  Peggy 
Paine's  little  school.  This  was  the  beginning  of  a  long  friend- 
ship, as  singular  as  it  is  touching,  and  which  may  here  be  followed 
through  its  simple  course.  When  Edward,  long  after,  was  the 
most  celebrated  preacher  of  his  day,  and  Hannah,  the  Annan  girl 
whom  he  had  helped  to  learn  her  letters,  was  also  in  London,  a 
servant  struggling  in  her  own  sphere  through  the  troubles  of  that 
stormier  world,  her  old  schoolfellow  stretched  out  his  cordial  hand 
to  her,  without  a  moment's  shrinking  from  the  work  in  which  her 
hand  was  engaged.  It  was  natural  that  all  the  world  about  her 
should  soon  know  of  that  friendshij?.  And  Hannah's  family 
were  ambitious,  like  every  body  else,  of  the  acquaintance  of  the 
hero  of  the  day.  He  was  too  much  sought  to  be  easily  accessi- 
ble, till  the  master  and  mistress  bethought  themselves  of  the  in- 
tercession of  their  maid,  and  sent  her  with  their  invitation  to  back 
it  by  her  prayers.  The  result  was  a  triumph  for  Hannah.  Irving 
gratified  the  good  people  by  going  to  dine  with  them  for  his 
schoolfellow's  sake.  I  am  not  aware  that  any  thing  romantic  or 
remarkable  came  of  the  introduction  so  accomplished,  as  perhaps 
ought  to  have  happened  to  make  the  incident  poetically  com- 
plete ;  but  I  can  not  help  regarding  it  as  one  of  the  pleasantest 
of  anecdotes.  Hannah  lives  at  Annan,  an  old  woman,  pensioned 
by  the  grateful  representative  of  the  family  whom  she  had  faith- 
fully served,  and  tells  with  tears  this  story  of  her  friend,  and 
stands  a  homely,  solitary  pillar,  the  representative  of  the  "  Catho- 
lic Apostolic  Church"  in  the  place  which  gave  its  most  distin- 
guished member  birth. 

The  next  stage  of  Edward's  education  was  greatly  in  advance 
of  Peggy  Paine,  Schoolmasters  must  have  been  either  a  more 
remarkable  race  of  men  in  those  days,  or  the  smaller  number  of 
them  must  have  enhanced  their  claim  upon  popular  appreciation. 
At  least  it  was  no  uncommon  matter  for  the  parishes  and  little 
towns  of  Scotland  to  fix  with  pride  upon  their  schoolmaster  as 
the  greatest  boast  of  their  district.     Such  was  the  case  with  Mr. 


ANNAN  ACADEMY.— SCHOOL  DAYS.  25 

Adam  Hope,  who  taught  the  young  livings,  and  after  them  a  cer- 
tain Thomas  Carlyle  from  Ecclefechan,  with  other  not  undistin- 
guished men.  There  were  peculiarities  in  that  system  of  educa- 
tion. People  below  the  rank  of  gentry  did  not  think  of  sending 
their  daughters  to  what  were  called  boarding-schools,  or  at  least 
were  subject  to  much  derisive  remark  if  they  ventured  on  such 
an  open  evidence  of  ambition.  The  female  schools  in  existence 
were  distinctively  sewmg-schools,  and  did  not  pretend  to  do  much 
for  the  intellect ;  so  that  boys  and  girls  trooped  in  together,  alike 
to  the  parish-school  and  the  superior  academy,  sat  together  on  the 
same  forms,  stood  together  in  the  same  classes,  and  not  unfre- 
quently  entered  into  tough  combats  for  prizes  and  distinctions, 
whimsical  enough  to  hear  of  nowadays.  Of  this  description  was 
the  Annan  Academy,  at  which  Edward  does  not  appear  to  have 
taken  any  remarkable  position.  He  does  not  seem  even  to  have 
attained  the  distinction  of  one  of  those  dunces  of  genius  "who  are 
not  unknown  to  literature.  Under  the  severe  discipline  of  those 
days,  he  sometimes  came  home  from  school  with  his  ears  "  pinch- 
ed until  they  bled,"  to  his  mother's  natural  resentment;  but  found 
no  solace  to  his  wounded  feelings  or  members  from  his  father, 
who  sided  with  the  master,  and  does  not  seem  to  have  feared  the 
effect  of  such  trifles  upon  the  sturdy  boys  who  were  all  destined 
to  fight  their  way  upward  by  the  brain  rather  than  the  hands. 
The  only  real  glimpse  which  is  to  be  obtained  of  Edward  in  his 
school  days  discloses  the  mournful  picture  of  a  boy  "kept  in," 
and  comforted  in  the  ignominious  solitude  of  the  school-room  by 
having  his  "  piece"  hoisted  up  to  him  by  a  cord  through  a  broken 
window.  However,  he  showed  some  liking  for  one  branch  of 
education,  that  of  mathematics,  in  which  he  afterward  distin- 
guished himself.  It  was  the  practice  in  Annan  to  devote  one 
day  of  the  week  specially  to  mathematical  lessons — an  exception- 
al day,  which  the  boys  hailed  as  a  kind  of  holiday. 

The  little  town,  however,  was  not  destitute  of  classical  ambition. 
Tradition  tells  of  a  certain  blind  John  who  had  picked  up  a  knowl- 
edge of  Latin  in  the  parish  school,  chiefly  from  hearing  the  lessons 
of  other  boys  there,  and  had  struggled  somehow  to  such  a  height 
of  Latinity  that  his  teaching  and  his  pupils  were  renowned  as  far 
as  Edinburgh,  where  awful  professors  did  not  scorn  to  acknowledge 
his  attainments.  It  is  probable  that  Edward  did  not  study  under 
this  unauthorized  instructor ;  and  the  orthodox  prelections  of  the 
Academy  did  not  develop  the  literary  inclinations  of  the  athletic 


26  OUT-DOOR  EDUCATION.— SOLWAY  SANDS. 

boy,  who  found  more  engrossing  interests  in  every  glen  and  hill- 
side. For  nothing  was  wanting  to  the  perfection  of  his  education 
out  of  doors.  There  were  hills  to  climb,  a  river  close  at  hand,  a 
hospitable  and  friendly  country  to  be  explored ;  and  the  miniature 
port  at  the  Waterfoot,  where  impetuous  Solway  bathed  with  tawny 
salt  waves  the  little  pier,  and  boats  that  tempted  forth  the  adven- 
turous boyhood  of  Annan.  Early  in  Edward's  life  he  became 
distinguished  for  feats  of  swimming,  walking,  rowing,  climbing, 
all  sorts  of  open-air  exercises.  The  main  current  of  his  energy 
flowed  out  in  this  direction,  and  not  in  that  of  books.  His  scat- 
tered kindred  gave  full  occasion  for  long  walks  and  such  local 
knowledge  as  adventurous  schoolboys  delight  in ;  and  when  he 
and  his  companions  went  to  Dornoch,  to  his  mother's  early  home, 
where  his  uncles  still  lived,  it  was  Edward's  amusement,  says  a 
surviving  relative,  to  leap  all  the  gates  in  the  way.  This  fact  sur- 
vives all  the  speculations  that  may  have  been  in  the  boy's  brain 
on  that  rural,  thoughtful  road.  His  thoughts,  if  he  had  any,  dis- 
persed into  the  listening  air  and  left  no  sign ;  but  there  can  be  no 
mistake  about  the  leaping  of  the  gates. 

In  this  early  period  of  his  life  he  is  said  to  have  met  with  an 
adventure  sufficiently  picturesque  and  important  to  be  recorded. 
Every  one  who  knows  the  Solway  is  aware  of  the  peculiarities  of 
that  singular  estuary.  When  the  tide  is  full,  a  nobler  firth  is  not 
to  be  seen  than  this  brimming  flood  of  green  sea- water,  with  Skid- 
daw  glooming  on  the  other  side  over  the  softer  slopes  of  Cumber- 
land, and  Criffel  standing  sentinel  on  this,  upon  the  Scotch  sea- 
border  ;  but  when  the  tide  is  out,  woeful  and  lamentable  is  the 
change.  Solway,  shrunk  to  a  tithe  of  its  size,  meanders,  gleaming 
through  vast  banks  of  sand,  leaving  here  and  there  a  little  desert 
standing  bare  in  the  very  midst  of  its  channel,  covered  with  stake- 
nets  which  raise  their  heads  in  the  strangest,  unexpected  way, 
upon  a  spot  where  vessels  of  considerable  burden  might  have 
passed  not  many  hours  before.  The  firth,  indeed,  is  so  reduced 
in  size  by  the  ebbing  of  the  tide,  that  it  is  possible  to  ride,  or  even 
to  drive  a  cart  across  from  one  side  to  the  other ;  a  feat,  indeed, 
which  is  daily  accomplished,  and  which  might  furnish  a  little  va- 
riation upon  the  ancient  romantic  routine  of  Gretna  Green,  as  the 
ferryman  at  the  Brough  was  in  former  times  equally  qualified 
with  the  blacksmith  at  the  border  toll,  and  not  without  much 
patronage,  though  his  clients  were  humbler  fugitives.  When, 
however,  Solway  sets  about  his  daily  and  nightly  reflow,  he  does 


ESCAPING  FROM  THE  TIDE.  27 

it  with  a  rush  and  impetuosity  worthy  of  the  space  he  has  to  fill, 
and  is  a  dangerous  playfellow  when  "  at  the  turn."  One  day, 
while  they  were  still  children,  John  and  Edward  Irving  are  said 
to  have  strayed  down  upon  these  great  sands,  with  the  original 
intention  of  meeting  their  uncle,  George  Lowther,  who  was  ex- 
pected to  cross  Solway  at  the  ebb,  on  his  way  to  Annan.  The 
scene  was  specially  charming  in  its  wild  solitude  and  freedom. 
In  that  wilderness  of  sand  and  shingle,  with  its  gleaming  salt- 
water pools  clear  as  so  many  mirrors,  full  of  curious  creatures  still 
unknown  to  drawing-room  science,  but  not  to  schoolboy  observa- 
tion, the  boys  presently  forgot  all  about  their  immediate  errand, 
and,  absorbed  in  their  own  amusements,  thought  neither  of  their 
uncle  nor  of  the  rising  tide.  While  thus  occupied,  a  horseman 
suddenly  came  up  to  them  at  fall  gallop,  seized  first  one  and  then 
the  other  of  the  astonished  boys,  and  throwing-  them  across  the 
neck  of  his  horse,  galloped  on  without  pausing  to  address  a  word 
to  them,  or  even  perceiving  who  they  were.  When  they  had 
safely  reached  the  higher  shingly  bank,  out  of  reach  of  the  pur- 
suing tide,  he  drew  bridle  at  last,  and  pointed  back  breathless  to 
where  he  had  found  them.  The  startled  children,  perceiving  the 
danger  they  had  escaped,  saw  the  tawny  waves  pursuing  almost 
to  where  thej^  stood,  and  the  sands  on  which  they  had  been  play- 
ing  buried  far  under  that  impetuous  sea;  and  it  was  only  then 
that  the  happy  Hercules-uncle  discovered  that  it  was  his  sister's 
sons  whom  he  had  saved.  Had  George  Lowther  been  ten  minutes 
later,  one  of  the  noblest  tragic  chapters  of  individual  life  in  the 
nineteenth  century  need  never  have  been  written ;  and  his  native 
seas,  less  bitter  than  the  sea  of  life  that  swallowed  him  up  at  last, 
would  have  received  the  undeveloped  fortunes  of  the  blameless 
Annan  boy. 

Another  momentary  incident,  much  less  picturesque  and  mo- 
mentous, yet  characteristic  enough,  disperses  for  the  minutest 
point  of  time  the  mists  of  sixty  years,  and  shows  us  two  urgent 
childish  petitioners,  Edward  with  his  little  brother  George,  at  the 
door  of  a  neighbor's  house  in  Annan,  where  there  was  a  party, 
at  which  Mrs.  Irving  was  one  of  the  guests.  Edward  was  so  per- 
tinacious in  his  determination  to  see  his  mother  that  the  circum- 
stance impressed  itself  upon  the  memory  of  one  of  the  children  of 
the  house.  Mrs.  Irving  at  last  went  to  the  door  to  speak  to  her 
children,  probably  apprehensive  of  some  domestic  accident,  but 
found  that  the  occasion  of  all  this  urgency  was  Edward's  anxiety 


28  EARLY  CHAEACTERISTICS. 

to  be  permitted  to  give  some  of  his  own  linen  to  a  sick  lad  who 
was  in  special  want  of  it.  The  permission  was  given,  the  boys 
plunged  joyful  back  into  the  darkness,  and  the  mother  returned 
to  her  party,  where,  doubtless,  she  told  the  tale  with  such  pre- 
tended censure  as  mothers  use.  Momentary  and  slight  as  the  in- 
cident is,  it  is  still  appropriate  to  the  early  history  of  one  who  in 
his  after  days  could  never  give  enough,  to  whosoever  lacked. 

Even  at  this  early  period  of  his  existence,  it  has  been  said  that 
Irving  was  prematurely  solemn  and  remarkable  in  his  manners, 
"making  it  apparent  that  he  was  not  a  child  as  others,"  and  having 
"a  significant  elevation  of  manners  and  choice  of  pleasures."  I 
can  find  no  trace  of  any  such  precocity;  nor  is  it  easy  to  fancy 
how  a  natural  boy,  in  such  a  shrewd  and  humorous  community, 
where  pomp  of  any  kind  would  have  been  speedily  laughed  out 
of  him,  could  have  shown  any  such  singularity.  Nor  was  he  ever 
in  the  slightest  degree  of  that  abstract  and  self-absorbed  fashion 
of  mind  which  makes  a  child  remarkable.  He  seems,  however,  to 
have  soughtj  and  got  access  to,  a  certain  kind  of  society  which, 
though  perhaps  odd  enough  for  a  schoolboy,  was  such  as  all  chil- 
dren of  lively  mind  and  generous  sympathies  love.  At  this  early 
period  of  his  life  it  was  his  occasional  habit  on  Sundays  to  walk 
five  or  six  miles  to  the  little  village  of  Ecclefechan,  in  company 
with  a  pilgrim  band  of  the  religious  patriarchs  of  Annan,  to  attend 
a  little  church  established  there  by  one  of  the  earlier  bodies  of  se- 
ceders  from  the  Church  of  S<^tland,  an  act  which  has  been  attrib- 
uted to  his  dissatisfaction  with  the  preaching  and  character  of  the 
Annan  minister,  already  referred  to,  and  his  precocious  apprecia- 
tion of  sound  doctrine  and  fervent  piety.  The  fact  is  doubtless 
true  enough,  but  I  think  it  very  unlikely  that  any  premature  love 
for  sermons  or  discrimination  of  their  quality  was  the  cause. 
Scotch  dissenters,  in  their  earlier  development  at  least,  were  all 
doubly  Presbyterian.  The  very  ground  of  their  dissent  was  not 
any  widening  out  of  doctrine  or  alteration  of  Church  government, 
but  only  a  reassertion  and  closer  return  to  the  primitive  principles 
of  the  Kirk  itself — a  fact  which  popular  discrimination  in  the 
south  of  Scotland  acknowledged  by  referring  back  to  the  unfor- 
gotten  "  persecuting  times"  for  a  name,  and  entitling  the  seceders 
"Whigs" — a  name  which  they  retained  until  very  recent  days 
in  those  simple-minded  districts.  The  pious  people  who  either 
originated  or  gladly  took  advantage  of  such  humble  attempts  to 
recall  the  Church  to  herself,  and  bring  back  religion  to  a  cove- 


SUNDAY  PILGRIMAGES.— ECCLEFECHAN.         29 

nanted  but  unfaithful  country,  were  thus  identified  with  the  saints 
and  martyrs,  of  whom  the  whole  country-side  was  eloquent. 
They  were,  as  was  natural,  the  gravest  class  of  the  community ; 
men  who  vexed  their  righteous  souls  day  by  day  over  the  short- 
comings of  the  minister  and  the  worldly-mindedness  of  the  people, 
and  proved  their  covenanting  lineage  by  piety  of  an  heroic,  aus- 
tere pitch  beyond  the  level  of  their  neighbors.  -—' 

Young  Edward  Irving  had  already  made  his  way,  as  most 
imaginative  children  manage  to  do,  into  the  confidence  of  the  old 
people,  who  knew  and  were  not  reluctant  to  tell  the  epics  of  their 
native  districts;   and  those  epics  were  all  covenanting  tales — 
tragedies  abrupt  and  forcible,  or  lingering,  long-drawn  narratives, 
more  fascinating  still,  in  which  all  human  motives,  hopes,  and 
ambitions  were  lost  in  the  one  all-engrossing  object  of  existence, 
the  preservation  and  confession  of  the  truth.     With   glowing, 
youthful  cheeks,  fresh  from  the  moor  or  the  frith,  the  boy  pene- 
trated into  the  cottage  firesides,  where  the  fragrant  peat  threw  its 
crimson  glow  through  the  apartment,  and  the  old  man  or  the  old 
woman,  in  the  leisure  of  their  age,  sat  in  the  great  high-backed 
chair  with  its  checked  linen  cover;  and  with  a  curiosity  still  more 
wistful  and  eager,  as  though  about  to  see  those  triumphs  of  faith 
repeated,  trudged  forth  in  the  summer  Sunday  afternoons,  unbon- 
neted,  with  his  black  locks  ruffling  in  the  wind  and  his  cap  in  his 
hand,  amid  the  little  band  of  patriarchs,  through  hedgerows  fra- 
grant with  every  succession  of  blossom,  to  where  the  low  gray 
hills  closed  in  around  that  little  hamlet  of  Ecclefechan,  Ecclesia 
Fechanus,  forgotten  shrine  of  some  immemorial  Celtic  saint;  a 
scene  not  grandly  picturesque,  but  full  of  a  sweet  pastoral  freedom 
and  solitude ;  the  hills  rising  gray  against  the  sky,  with  slopes  of        \-, 
springy  turf,  where   the   sheep   pastured,  and  shepherds  of  an 
antique  type  pondered  the  ways  of  God  with  men;    the  road 
crossed  at  many  a  point,  and  sometimes  accompanied  by  tiny 
brooklets,  too  small  to  claim  a  separate  name,  tinkling  unseen 
among  the  grass  and  underwood  to  join  some  bigger  but  still  tiny 
tributary  of  the  Annan,  streams  which  had  no  pretensions  to  be 
rivers,  but  were  only  "  waters"  like  Annan  water  itself.     To  me 
this  country  gleams  with  a  perpetual  youth ;  the  hills  rise  clear 
and  wistful  through  the  sharp  air,  this  with  its  Eoman  camp  in- 
dented on  its  side,  that  with  its  melancholy  Eepentance  Tower 
standing  out  upon  the  height;  the  moor  brightens  forth  as  one 
approaches  into  sweet  breaks  of  heather  and  golden  clumps  of 


30  HIS  YOUTHFUL  COMPANIONS. 

gorse;  the  burns  sing  in  a  never-failing  liquid  cheerfulness 
through  all  their  invisible  courses;  freedom, breath,  silence,  touch- 
ed with  all  those  delicious  noises :  the  quiet  hamlets  and  cottages 
breathing  forth  that  aromatic  betrayal  of  all  their  warm  turf  fires. 
Place  in  this  landscape  that  grave  group  upon  the  way,  bending 
their  steps  to  the  rude  meeting-house  in  which  their  austere  wor- 
ship was  to  be  celebrated,  holding  discourse  as  they  approached 
upon  subjects  not  so  much  of  religious  feeling  as  of  high  meta- 
physical theology;  with  the  "boy  among  them,  curiously  attracted 
by  their  talk,  timing  his  elastic  footsteps  to  their  heavy  tread, 
making  his  unconscious  comments,  a  wonderful  impersonation  of 
perennial  youth  and  genius,  half  leading,  half  following,  always 
specially  impressed  by  the  gray  fathers  of  that  world  which  dawns 
all  fresh  and  dewy  upon  his  own  vision,  and  I  can  not  fancy  a 
better  picture  of  old  Scotland  as  it  was  in  its  most  characteristic 
districts  and  individual  phase. 

This  seems  the  only  foundation  from  which  precocious  serious- 
ness can  be  inferred,  and  it  is  an  important  and  interesting  fea- 
ture of  his  boyhood.  The  Whig  elders  no  doubt  unconsciously 
prepared  the  germs  of  that  old-world  stateliness  of  speech  and 
dignity  of  manner  which  afterward  distinguished  their  pupil ;  and 
they,  and  the  traditions  to  which  they  had  served  themselves 
heirs,  made  all  the  higher  element  and  poetry  of  life  which  was 
to  be  found  in  Annan.  Their  influence,  however,  did  not  with- 
draw him  from  the  society  of  his  fellows.  The  social  instinct  was 
at  all  times  too  strong  in  him  to  be  prevented  from  making  friends 
wherever  he  found  companions.  His  attachment  to  his  natural 
comrade,  his  brother  John,  is  touchingly  proved  by  the  fact  we 
have  already  noted ;  and  another  boyish  friendship,  formed  with 
Hugh  Clapperton,  the  African  traveler,  who  was,  like  himself,  a 
native  of  Annan,  concluded  only  with  the  death  of  that  intrepid 
explorer.  Young  Clapperton  lived  in  an  adjoining  house,  which 
was  the  property  of  Gavin  Irving,  and  the  same  "yard,"  with  its 
elm-trees,  was  common  to  both  the  families.  The  boys  some- 
times shared  their  meals,  and  often  the  fireside  corner,  where 
they  learned  their  lessons ;  and  the  adventurous  instinct  of  young 
Clapperton  evidently  had  no  small  influence  upon  the  dreams,  at 
least,  of  his  younger  companion.  Of  these  three  boys,  so  vigor- 
ous, bold,  and  daring,  not  one  lived  to  be  old ;  and  their  destinies 
are  a  singular  proof  of  the  wide  diffusion  of  life  and  energy  cir- 
cling out  from  one  of  the  most  obscure  spots  in  the  country.    One 


STKANGE  DISPERSION.— ANNANDALE.  31 

was  to  die  in  India,  uncommemorated  except  by  love;  one  in 
Africa,  a  hero  (or  victim)  of  that  dread  science  which  makes  step- 
ping-stones of  men's  lives ;  the  third,  at  a  greater  distance  still 
from  that  boyish  chimney-corner,  at  the  height  of  fame,  genius, 
and  sorrow,  was  to  die,  a  sign  and  wonder,  like  other  prophets 
before  him.  It  is  sad  to  connect  the  conclusion  with  a  beginning 
which  bore  little  foreboding  of  such  tragic  elements.  But  it  is 
scarcely  possible  to  note  the  boyish  conclave  without  thinking  of 
the  singular  fortunes  and  far  separation  to  which  they  were  des- 
tined. The  friendship  that  commenced  thus  was  renewed  when 
Clapperton  and  Irving  met  in  London,  both  famous  men ;  and 
the  last  communication  sent  to  England  by  the  dying  traveler 
was  addressed  to  his  early  friend. 

The  little  town  was  at  this  period  in  a  prosperous  condition, 
and  thriving  well.  When  war  quickened  the  traffic  in  provisions 
and  increased  their  value,  Annan  exported  corn  as  well  as  droves. 
But  the  industry  of  the  population  was  leisurely  and  old-fashion- 
ed, much  unlike  the  modern  type.  Many  of  the  poorer  folk 
about  were  salmon-fishers,  but  had  no  such  market  for  their 
wares  as  nowadays,  when  salmon  in  Annan  is  about  as  dear,  and 
rather  more  difficult  to  be  had,  than  salmon  in  London.  When 
there  had  been  a  good  "take,"  the  fishermen  lounged  about  the 
Cross  or  amused  themselves  in  their  garden  s/till  that  windfall 
was  spent  and  exhausted,  very  much  as  if  they  had  been  mere 
Celtic  fishermen  instead  of  cautious  Scots,  and  the  slow  gains  of 
the  careful  burgesses  came  more  from  economy  than  enterprise. 
Gavin  Irving,  however,  made  progress  in  his  tanner's  yard:  he 
became  one  of  the  magistrates  of  Annan,  whose  principal  duty  it 
was  to  go  to  church  in  state,  and  set  an  official  example  of  well- 
doing. Tradition  does  not  say  whether  his  son's  passion  for  the 
Whigs,  and  expeditions  to  the  Seceders'  meeting-house  at  Eccle- 
fechan,  brought  any  "persecution"  upon  the  boy;  so  it  is  prob- 
able those  heterodox  preachings  were  attended  only  in  summer 
evenings  and  on  special  occasions  when  Annan  kirk  was  closed. 
There  were  clerical  relations  on  both  sides  of  the  house  scattered 
through  Dumfriesshire  to  whom  the  boys  seem  to  have  paid  oc- 
casional visits ;  one  of  them.  Dr.  Bryce  Johnstone,  of  Holywood, 
an  uncle  of  Mrs.  Irving's,  being  a  notable  person  among  his 
brethren ;  but,  farther  than  the  familiarity  which  this  gave  with 
the  surrounding  country,  no  special  traces  of  the  advantages  of 
such  intercourse  exist.     The  loftier  aspect  of  religion  was  in  the 


32         HOME  INFLUENCES.— LEAVING  ANNAN. 

Whig  cottages,  and  not  in  tliose  cosy  manses  to  whicli  Dr.  Car- 
lyle,  of  Inveresk,  has  lately  introduced  all  readers. 

It  would  be  almost  impossible  to  exaggerate  the  influence 
which  all  the  homely  circumstances  and  habits  of  his  native  place 
exercised  upon  a  mind  so  open  to  every  influence  as  that  of  Ir- 
ving. Despite  his  own  strong  individuality,  he  never  seems  to 
have  come  in  contact  with  any  mind  of  respectable  powers  with- 
out taking  something  from  it.  His  eyes  were  always  open,  his 
ingenuous  heart  ever  awake ;  and  the  enthusiastic  admiration  of 
which  he  was  capable  stamped  such  things  as  appeared  to  him 
lovely,  or  honest,  or  of  good  repute  indelibly  upon  his  mind. 
Much  that  would  be  otherwise  inexplicable  in  his  later  life  is  ex- 
plained by  this;  and  it  is  not  difficult  to  trace  the  workings  of 
those  early  influences  which  surrounded  him  in  his  childhood 
throughout  his  life.  That,  however,  will  be  more  effectually 
done  as  the  story  advances  than  by  any  parallel  of  suggestions 
\  and  acts.  His  school  education  in  Annan  terminated  when  he 
was  only  thirteen,  without  any  distinction  except  that  arithmetic- 
al one  which  has  been  already  noted.  This  concluded  the  period 
of  his  childhood:  his  next  step  subjected  him  to  other  influences 
not  less  powerful,  and  directed  the  course  of  his  young  life  away 
from  that  home  which  always  retained  his  affections.  The  home 
remained  planted  in  his  kindly  native  soil  for  many  years,  long 
enough  to  receive  his  children  under  its  roof,  and  many  of  his 
friends,  and  always  honored  and  distinguished  by  himself  in  its 
unchanging  homeliness.  His  childish  presence  throws  a  passing 
light  over  little  Annan,  rude  and  kindly,  with  its  fragrant  aroma 
of  peat  from  all  the  cottage  fires ;  its  quiet  street,  where  groups 
of  talkers  gathered  in  many  a  leisurely  confabulation ;  its  neigh- 
borly existence  close  and  familiar.  Such  places  might  never  be 
heard  of  iA  the  world  but  for  the  rising  of  individual  lights  which 
illuminate  them  unawares — lights  which  have  been  frequent  in 
Annandale.  Such  a  tender  soul  as  Grrahame,  the  poet  of  the 
Sabbath,  shines  softly  into  that  obscure  perspective ;  and  it  flash- 
es out  before  contemporary  eyes,  and  warms  upon  the  remem- 
brance of  after  generations  in  reflections  from  the  stormy  and 
pathetic  splendor  of  the  subject  of  this  history. 


PROLONGED  PROBATION  OF  SCOTCH  MINISTERS.  33 


CHAPTEK  II. 

HIS   COLLEGE   LIFE. 

Prolonged  Probation  of  Scotch  Ministers. — Boy-Students. — Independence. — Hard 
Trailing. — Journeys  on  Foot. — Early  Reading. — Distinctions  in  Society. — Fa- 
trons  and  Associates. — Carlyle's  Description  of  Irving. — Early  Labors. 

Aix  thirteen  Irving  began  his  studies  at  the  Edinburgh  Univer- 
sity :  such  was,  and  is  still,  to  a  great  extent,  the  custom  of  Scotch 
Universities — a  habit  which,  like  every  other  educational  habit  in 
Scotland,  promotes  the  diffusion  of  a  little  learning,  and  all  the 
practical  uses  of  knowledge,  but  makes  the  profounder  depths  of 
scholarship  almost  impossible.  It  was  nearly  universal  in  those 
days,  and  no  doubt  partly  originated  in  the  very  long  course  of 
study  demanded  by  the  Church  (always  so  influential  in  Scot- 
land, and  acting  upon  the  habits  even  of  those  who  are  not  devo- 
ted to  her  service)  from  applicants  for  the  ministry.  This  length- 
ened process  of  education  can  not  be  better  described  than  in  the 
words  used  by  Irving  himself  at  a  much  later  period  of  his  life, 
and  used  with  natural  pride,  as  setting  forth  what  his  beloved 
Church  required  of  her  neophytes.  "In  respect  to  the  ministers," 
he  says,  "this  is  required  of  them — that  they  should  have  studied 
for  four  years  in  a  University  all  the  branches  of  a  classical  and 
philosophical  education,  and  either  taken  the  rank  in  literature 
of  a  Master  of  Arts,  or  come  out  from  the  University  with  certifi- 
cates of  their  proficiency  in  the  classics,  in  mathematics,  in  logic, 
and  in  natural  and  moral  philosophy.  They  are  then,  and  not 
till  then,  permitted  to  enter  upon  the  study  of  theology,  of  which 
the  professors  are  ordained  ministers  of  the  Church,  chosen  to 
their  office.  Under  separate  professors,  they  study  theology,  He- 
brew, and  ecclesiastical  history  for  four  years,  attending  from  four 
to  six  months  in  each  year.  Thus  eight  years  are  consumed  in 
study."  This  is,  perhaps,  the  only  excuse  which  can  be  made  for 
sending  boys,  still  little  more  than  children,  into  what  ought  to 
be  the  higher  labors  of  a  University.  Even  beginning  at  such 
an  age,  the  full  course  of  study  exacted  from  a  youth  in  training 
for  the  Church  could  not  be  completed  till  he  had  reached  his 
twenty -first  year,  when  all  the  repeated  "trials"  of  the  Presbytery 

C 


34  EDINBURGH  UNIVERSITY. 

had  still  to  follow  before  he  could  enter  upon  his  vocation ;  an 
apparent  and  comprehensible  reason,  if  not  excuse,  for  a  custom 
which,  according  to  the  bitter  complaints  of  its  victims,  turns  the 
University  into  a  kind  of  superior  grammar-school. 

At  thirteen,  accordingly,  Edward,  accompanied  by  his  elder 
brother  John,  who  was  destined  for  the  medical  profession,  came 
to  Edinburgh,  under  the  charge  of  some  relatives  of  their  Annan 
schoolfellow,  Hugh  Clapperton ;  and  the  two  lads  were  deposited 
in  a  lofty  chamber  in  the  old  town,  near  the  college,  to  pursue 
their  studies  with  such  diligence  as  was  in  them.  Even  to  such 
youthful  sons  the  Edinburgh  University  has  no  personal  shelter 
to  offer :  then,  as  now,  the  Alma  Mater  was  a  mere  abstract  mass 
of  class-rooms,  museums,  and  libraries,  and  the  youths  or  boys 
who  sought  instruction  there  were  left  in  absolute  freedom  to 
their  own  devices.  Perhaps  the  youths  thus  launched  upon  the 
world  were  too  young  to  take  much  harm ;  or  perhaps  that  early 
necessity  of  self- regulation,  imposed  under  different  and  harder 
circumstances  than  those  which  have  brought  the  English  public 
schools  into  such  fresh  repute  and  popularity,  bore  all  the  fruit 
which  it  is  now  hoped  and  believed  to  produce.  But,  whatever 
may  be  the  virtues  of  self-government,  it  is  impossible  to  contem- 
plate without  a  singular  interest  and  amaze  the  spectacle  of  these 
two  boys,  one  thirteen,  the  other  probably  about  fifteen,  placed 
alone  in  their  little  lodging  in  the  picturesque  but  noisy  old  town 
of  Edinburgh,  for  six  long  months  at  a  stretch,  to  manage  them- 
selves and  their  education,  without  tutors,  without  home  care, 
without  any  stimulus  but  that  to  be  received  in  the  emulation 
of  the  class-room,  or  from  their  books  and  their  own  ambition. 
These  circumstances,  however,  were  by  no  means  remarkable  or 
out  of  the  common  course  of  thigns ;  and  the  surprise  with  which 
we  look  back  to  so  strange  a  picture  of  boyish  life  would  not 
have  been  shared  by  .the  contemporary  spectators  who  saw  the 
south-country  boys  coming  and  going  to  college  without  perceiv- 
ing any  thing  out  of  the  way  in  it.  The  manner  in  which  the 
little  establishment  was  kept  up  is  wonderfully  primitive  to  hear 
of  at  so  short  a  distance  from  our  sophisticated  times.  Now  and 
then  the  lads  received  a  box  from  home,  sent  by  the  carrier  or 
by  some  "  private  opportunity,"  full  of  oatmeal,  cheese,  and  other 
homely  necessities,  and  doubtless  not  without  lighter  embellish- 
ments, to  prove  the  mother's  care  for  her  boys.  Probably  their 
linen  was  conveyed  back  and  forward  to  the  home-laundry  by 


INDEPENDENCE.— LIFE  IN  EDINBURGH.  35 

the  same  means ;  so  tliat  the  money  expense  of  the  tiny  establisli- 
ment,  with  its  porridge  thus  provided,  and  its  home  relishes  of 
ham  and  cheese,  making  the  schoolboy  board  festive,  must  have 
been  of  the  most  limited  amount.  Altogether  it  is  a  quaint  little 
picture  of  the  patriarchal  life,  now  departed  forever.-  No  private 
opportunities  nowadays  carry  such  boxes;  and  those  very  rail- 
ways, which  make  the  merest  village  next  neighbor  to  all  the 
world,  have  made  an  end  of  those  direct  primitive  communica- 
tions from  the  family  table  to  its  absent  members.  Nor  is  it  easy 
to  believe  that  boys  of  thirteen,  living  in  lonely  independence  in 
Edinburgh,  where  the  very  streets  are  seducing  and  full  of  fasci- 
nations, and  where  every  gleam  of  sunshine  on  the  hills,  and  flash 
of  reflection  from  the  visible  firth,  must  draw  youthful  thoughts 
away  from  the  steep  gradus  of  a  learning  not  hitherto  found  par- 
ticularly attractive,  could  live  within  those  strait  and  narrow  lim- 
its, and  bear  such  a  probation.  But  times  were  harder  and  sim- 
'  pier  in  the  first  twenty  years  of  the  century,  Scotland  was  a 
hundred  times  more  Scotch,  more  individual,  more  separate  from 
its  wealthier  yoke-fellow  than  now.  No  greater  contrast  to  the 
life  of  undergraduates  in  an  ancient  English  University  could  be 
imagined  than  that  presented  by  those  boy-students  in  their  lofty 
chamber,  detached  from  all  collegiate  associations,  living  in  the 
midst  of  a  working-day  population,  utterly  unimpressed  by  the 
neighborhood  of  a  University,  and  interpolating  the  homely 
youthful  idyll  of  their  existence  into  the  noisy,  bustling,  scolding, 
not  over-savory  life  of  that  old  town  of  Edinburgh.  Even  such 
a  vestige  of  academical  dress  as  is  to  be  found  in  the  quaint  red 
gown  of  Glasgow  is  unknown  to  the  rigid  Protestantism  of  the 
Scotch  metropolis.  The  boys  came  and  went,  undistinguished,  in 
their  country  caps  and  jackets,  through  streets  which,  full  of 
character  as  they  are,  suggest  nothing  so  little  as  the  presence  of 
a  college,  and  returned  to  their  studies  in  their  little  room,  with 
neither  tutor  nor  assistant  to  help  them  through  their  difficulties, 
and  lived  a  life  of  unconscious  austerity,  in  which  they  them- 
selves did  not  perceive  either  the  poverty  or  the  hardship;  which, 
indeed,  it  is  probable  they  themselves,  and  all  belonging  to  them, 
would  have  been  equally  amazed  and  indignant  to  have  heard 
either  hardship  or  poverty  attributed  to.  Crowds  of  other  lads, 
from  all  parts  of  Scotland,  lived  a  similar  life ;  the  homely  fare 
and  spare  accommodation,  the  unassisted  studies;  and  in  most 
cases,  as  soon  as  that  was  practicable,  personal  exertions  as  teach- 


36  HARD  TRAINING.— JOURNEYS  ON  FOOT. 

ers  or  otherwise,  to  help  in  the  expense  of  their  own  education, 
looked  almost  a  natural  and  inevitable  beginning  to  the  life  thej 
were  to  lead. 

By  such  methods  of  instruction  few  men  are  trained  to  pursue 
and  love  learning  for  learning's  sake ;  but  only  by  such  a  Spartan 
method  of  training  the  young  soldiers  of  the  future  could  the  An- 
nan tanner,  with  eight  children  to  provide  for,  have  given  all  his 
sons  an  education  qualifying  them  for  professional  life  and  future 
advancement. 

The  Edinburgh  "Session"  lasts  only  from  November  till  May, 
leaving  the  whole  summer  free  for  the  recreation,  or,  more  prob- 
ably, the  labors  of  the  self-supporting  students.  Indeed,  the  whole 
system  seems  based  upon  the  necessity  of  allowing  time  for  the 
intervening  work  which  is  to  provide  means  for  the  studies  that 
follow.  "When  the  happy  time  of  release  arrived,  our  Annan  boys 
sent  off  their  boxes  with  the  carrier,  and,  all  joyful  and  vigorous, 
set  out  walking  upon  the  homeward  road.  In  after  years  Irving 
delighted  in  pedestrian  journeys;  and  it  was  most  probably  in 
those  early  walks  that  he  learned,  what  was  his  habitual  practice 
afterward,  to  rest  in  the  wayside  cottages,  and  share  the  potato  or 
the  porridge  to  be  found  there.  The  habit  of  universal  friendli- 
ness thus  engendered  did  him  good  service  afterward ;  for  a  man 
accustomed  to  such  kindly  relations  with  the  poorest  of  his  neigh- 
bors does  not  need  any  other  training  to  that  frank  unconde- 
scending  courtesy  which  is  so  dear  to  the  poor.  "  Edward  walk- 
ed as  the  crow  flies,"  says  one  of  his  surviving  relatives  who  has 
accompanied  those  walks  when  time  was.  Such  an  eccentric,  joy- 
ful, straightforward  progress  must  have  been  specially  refreshing 
to  the  schoolboy  students,  hastening  to  all  the  delights  of  home 
and  country  freedom. 

I  Whether  Irving's  progress  during  this  period  was  beyond  that 
olf  his  contemporaries  there  is  no  evidence ;  but  he  succeeded  suf- 
ficiently well  to  take  his  degree  in  April,  1809,  when  he  was  just 
seventeen,  and  to  attract  the  friendly  regard  of  Professor  Christi- 
son,  and  of  the  distinguished  and  eccentric  Sir  John  Leslie,  then 
Mathematical  Professor  in  the  Edinburgh  University,  both  of 
whom  interested  themselves  in  his  behalf  as  soon  as  he  began  his 
own  independent  career.  So  far  as  the  library  records  go,  he 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  an  extraordinary  diligent  student. 
There  is  a  story  told,  which  I  have  not  been  able  to  trace  to  any 
authentic  source,  of  his  having  found  in  a  farm-house  in  the  neigh- 


EARLY  READING.— DISTINCTIONS  IN  SOCIETY.  37 

borhood  of  Annan  a  copy  of  Hooker's  Ecclesiastical  Polity^  which 
is  said  to  have  powerfully  attracted  him,  and  given  an  impulse  to 
his  thoughts.  He  is  also  said  to  have  expended  almost  the  whole 
sum  -which  he  had  received  for  the  expenses  of  a  journey  in  the 
purchase  of  Hooker's  works,  "together  with  some  odd  folios  of 
the  fathers,  Homer,  and  Newton,"  and  to  have  trudged  forward 
afoot  with  the  additional  load  upon  his  stalwart  shoulders,  in  great 
delight  with  his  acquisition.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  at  least,  of 
his  own  reference  to  "  the  venerable  companion  of  my  early  days 
— Eichard  Hooker."  In  opposition  to  this  serious  reading  stand 
the  Arabian  Nights,  and  sundry  books  with  forgotten  but  suspi- 
cious titles,  which  appear  against  his  name  in  those  early  times  in 
the  college  library  books — most  natural  and  laudable  reading  for 
a  boy,  but  curiously  inappropriate  as  drawn  from  the  library  of 
his  college.  "  He  used  to  carry  continually  in  his  waistcoat  pock- 
et," says  one  of  his  few  surviving  college  companions,  the  Eev. 
Dr.  Grierson,  of  Errol,  "a  miniature  copy  of  Ossian,  passages  from 
which  he  read  or  recited  in  his  walks  in  the  country,  or  delivered 
with  sonorous  elocution  and  vehement  gesticulation"  for  the  ben- 
efit of  his  companions.  This  is  the  first  indication  I  can  find  of 
his  oratorical  gifts,  and  that  natural  magniloquence  of  style  which 
belonged  equally  to  his  mind  and  person. 

Society  in  Edinburgh  was  at  this  period  in  its  culmination. 
Those  were  the  "Edinburgh  Eeview"  days,  when  the  brilliant 
groups  whose  reputation  is  more  entirely  identified  with  Edin- 
burgh than  that  of  generations  still  more  exclusively  her  own, 
were  in  full  possession  of  the  field.  Looking  back,  the  town 
seems  so  occupied  and  filled  by  that  brotherhood,  that  it  is  hard 
to  imagine  the  strains  of  life  all  unconscious  of  its  existence,  and 
scarcely  influenced,  even  unconsciously,  by  its  vicinity,  which 
went  serenely  on  within  the  same  limited  boundaries ;  and  it  is 
still  harder  to  fancy  a  youth  of  genius  pursuing  his  youthful  way 
into  the  secrets  of  literature  in  Edinburgh  without  the  slightest 
link  of  connection  with  the  brilliant  lettered  society  which  gave 
tone  and  character  to  the  place.  But  the  Antipodes  are  not  far- 
ther ofi"  from  us  than  were  the  lights  of  Edinburgh  society  from 
the  rustic  student  laboring  through  his  classes.  As  distinct  as  if 
they  had  belonged  to  different  countries  or  different  centuries 
were  the  young  lawyers,  not  much  richer,  but  standing  on  the 
threshold  of  public  life,  with  all  its  possibilities,  and  the  young 
clerical  students,  looking,  as  the  highest  hope  of  their  ambition, 


38  PATRONS  AND  ASSOCIATES. 

to  the  pulpit  of  a  parish  church,  with  a  stipend  attached  of  two 
or  three  hundred  a  year  at  the  utmost.  In  actual  means  the  one 
might  not  be  much  in  advance  of  the  other,  but  in  hopes,  pros- 
pects, and  surroundings,  how  widely  different!  Beneath  that 
firmament,  flashing  with  light  and  splendor,  the  common  day 
went  on  unconscious,  concealing  its  other  half- dawned  lights. 
Among  all  the  fellow-students  of  Edward  Irving,  there  are  no 
names  which  have  attained  more  local  celebrity  except  that  of 
Thomas  Carlyle,  whose  fame  has  overtopped  and  outlasted  that 
of  his  early  friend ;  and  Carlyle  did  not  share  the  studies  of  the 
four  first  years  of  his  college  life.  He  stands  alone  among  men 
who  subsided  into  parishes,  and  chaplaincies,  and  educational 
chairs,  but  who  were  his  equals,  or  more  than  his  equals,  in 
those  days — without  any  connection  with,  or  means  of  approach 
to,  that  splendid  circle  which,  one  would  imagine,  concentrated 
within  so  limited  a  sphere  as  that  of  Edinburgh,  must  have  found 
out  by  magnetic  attraction  every  light  of  genius  within  its 
bounds.  But  the  ecclesiastical  fiats  in  which  the  youth  stood, 
together  with  his  humble  origin,  more  than  counteracted  that 
magnetism.  If  the  Church  every  where  never  fails  to  be  re- 
minded that  her  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world,  that  reminder  is 
specially  thrust  upon  her  in  Scotland,  where  it  is  a  principle  of 
the  creed  of  both  ministers  and  people  to  believe  that  even  the 
payment  in  kind  of  applause  and  honor,  which  is  gained  in  every 
other  profession,  is  a  sinful  indulgence  to  a  preacher,  and  where 
demands  are  made  upon  his  time  and  patience  far  too  engrossing 
to  admit  the  claims  of  society.  Irving  went  on  in  his  early  ca- 
reer far  down  in  the  shade  of  common  life,  out  of  reach  of  those 
lights  which,  to  the  next  generation,  illuminate  the  entire  sphere, 
and  grew  from  a  boy  to  a  young  man,  and  took  his  boyish  share 
in  the  college  debating  societies,  and  made  his  way  among  other 
nameless  youths  with  no  great  mark  of  difference,  so  far  as  it  ap- 
pears. Dr.  Christison,  the  Humanity  professor,  noted  him  with  a 
friendly  eye ;  and  odd,  clumsy,  kindly  Leslie  observed  the  fervor 
of  the  tall  lad,  and  took  him  for  a  future  prop  of  science.  A 
younger  fellow-student  records  simply  how  Irving,  being  more 
advanced  than  he,  helped  him  on  with  his  studies,  according  to 
that  instinct  of  his  nature  which  never  forsook  him.  And  he 
read  Ossian,  and  argued  in  defunct  Philomathic  societies,  where 
he  and  other  people  fancied  he  met  equal  opponents,  till  it  be- 
came necessary  for  him,  seventeen  years  old  and  a  graduate  of 


CARLYLE'S  DESCRIPTION  OF  IRVING.— EARLY  LABORS.       39 

Edinburgh  University,  to  begin  to  help  himself  onward  during 
the  tedious  intervals  of  his  professional  training. 

He  did  this,  as  all  Scotch  clerical  students  do,  by  teaching,  A 
new  school,  called  the  Mathematical  School  by  some  strange  ca- 
price— since  it  seems  to  have  been  exactly  like  other  schools — 
had  just  been  established  in  Haddington,  and  by  the  recommend- 
ation of  Sir  John  Leslie  and  of  Professor  Christison,  Irving  got 
the  appointment.  It  was  in  the  spring  of  1810,  after  one  session, 
as  it  is  called,  in  the  "Divinity  Hall,"  and  at  the  age  of  eighteen, 
that  he  entered  upon  this  situation.  To  somewhere  about  the 
same  period  must  belong  the  description  given  of  him  in  Car- 
lyle's  wonderful  ^^Eloge^  "  The  first  time  I  saw  Irving  was  in 
his  native  town  of  Annan,  He  was  fresh  from  Edinburgh,  with 
college  prizes,  high  character  and  promise :  he  had  come  to  see 
our  schoolmaster,  who  had  also  been  his.  We  heard  of  famed 
professors,  of  high  matters  classical,  mathematical,  a  whole  won- 
derland of  knowledge;  nothing  but  joy,  health,  hopefulness  with- 
out end  looked  out  from  the  blooming  young  man," 

Another  spectator  of  more  prosaic  vision  declares  him  to  have 
been  "  rather  a  showy  young  man,"  a  tendency  always  held  in 
abhorrence  by  the  sober  Scotch  imagination,  which  above  all 
things  admires  the  gift  of  reticence ;  or  even,  in  default  of  better, 
that  pride  which  takes  the  place  of  modesty.  Irving,  utterly  in- 
genuous and  open,  always  seeking  love,  and  the  approbation  of 
love,  and  doubting  no  man,  did  not  possess  this  quality,  "  The 
blooming  young  man"  went  back  to  the  school  in  which  he  was 
once  kept  in  and  punished  with  candid,  joyful  self-demonstra- 
tion, captivating  the  eyes  which  could  see,  and  amusing  those 
which  had  not  that  faculty.  It  was  his  farewell  to  his  boyish, 
happy,  dependent  life. 

And  it  was  also  the  conclusion  of  his  University  education,  so 
far  as  reality  went.  For  four  or  five  years  thereafter  he  was  what 
is  called  a  partial  student  of  divinity,  matriculating  regularly,  and 
making  his  appearance  at  college  to  go  through  the  necessary  ex- 
aminations, and  deliver  the  prescribed  discourses,  but  carrying  on  - 
his  intermediate  studies  by  himself,  according  to  a  license  permit- 
ted by  the  Church,  His  Haddington  appointment  removed  him 
definitely  from  home  and  its  homely  provisions,  and  gave  him  an 
early  outset  for  himself  into  the  business  and  labors  of  independ- 
ent life.  So  far  from  being  a  hardship,  or  matter  to  be  lamented, 
it  was  the  best  thing  his  friends  could  have  wished  for  him. 


40  THE  MATHEMATICAL  SCHOOL. 

Such  interruptions  in  the  course  of  professional  education  were 
all  but  universal  in  Scotland,  and  he  went  under  the  best  auspices 
and  with  the  highest  hopes. 


CHAPTER  III. 

HADDINGTON. 

The  Doctor's  little  Daughter.  —  The  first  Declension.  —  Conflict  between  Pity  and 
Truth. — New  Friends. — Sport  and  Study. — Holiday  Science. — Incident  in  St. 
George's  Church. — Society  in  Haddington. — Bolton  Manse. — Young  Compan- 
ions.— Extent  of  his  Work. — Courage  and  Cheerfulness. — Leaves  Haddington. 

Irving  entered  upon  this  second  chapter  of  his  youthful  life  in 
the  summer  of  1810.  He  was  then  in  his  eighteenth  year — still 
young  enough,  certainly,  for  the  charge  committed  to  him.  Edu- 
cation was  at  a  very  low  ebb  inTIaddington,  which  had  not  even 
a  parish  school  to  boast  of,  but  was  lost  among  "  borough"  regu- 
lations, and  in  the  pottering  hands  of  a  little  corporation.  The 
rising  tide,  however,  stirred  a  faint  ripple  in  this  quiet  place ;  and 
the  consequence  was,  the  establishment  of  that  school  called  the 
mathematical,  to  which  came  groups  of  lads  not  very  much  younger 
than  the  young  teacher,  who  had  been  stupefied  for  years  in  such 
schools  as  did  exist,  and  some  of  whom  woke  up  like  magic  under 
the  touch  of  the  boy-student,  so  little  older  than  themselves. 
Coming  to  the  little  town  under  these  circumstances,  recommend- 
ed as  a  distinguished  student  by  a  man  of  such  eminence  as  Sir 
John  Leslie,  the  young  man  had  a  favorable  reception  in  his  new 
sphere.  "When  Irving  first  came  to  Haddington,"  writes  one  of 
his  pupils,  "he  was  a  tall,  ruddy,  robust,  handsome  youth,  cheerful 
and  kindly  disposed ;  he  soon  won  the  confidence  of  his  advanced 
pupils,  and  was  admitted  into  the  best  society  in  the  town  and 
neighborhood."  Into  one  house,  at  least,  he  went  with  a  more 
genial  introduction,  and  under  circumstances  equally  interesting 
and  amusing.  This  was  the  house  of  Dr.  Welsh,  the  principal 
medical  man  of  the  district,  whose  family  consisted  of  one  little 
daughter,  for  whose  training  he  entertained  more  ambitious  views 
than  little  girls  are  generally  the  subjects  of.  This  little  girl, 
however,  was  as  unique  in  mind  as  in  circumstances.  She  heard, 
with  eager  childish  wonder,  a  perennial  discussion  carried  on  be- 
tween her  father  and  mother  about  her  education;  both  were 


THE  FIRST  DECLENSION.  41 

naturally  anxious  to  secure  the  special  sympathy  and  companion- 
ship of  their  only  child.  The  doctor,  recovering  from  his  disap- 
pointment that  she  ivas  a  girl,  was  bent  upon  educating  her  like  a 
boy,  to  m^^e  up  as  far  as  possible  for  the  unfortunate  drawback 
of  sex;  while  her  mother,  on  the  contrary,  hoped  for  nothing 
higher  in  her  daughter  than  the  sweet  domestic  companion  most 
congenial  to  herself.  The  child,  who  was  not  supposed  to  under- 
stand, listened  eagerly,  as  children  invariably  do  listen  to  all  that 
is  intended  to  be  spoken  over  their  heads.  Her  ambition  was 
roused ;  to  be  educated  like  a  boy  became  the  object  of  her  entire 
thoughts,  and  set  her  little  mind  working  with  independent  projects 
of  its  own.  She  resolved  to  take  the  first  step  in  this  awful  but 
fascinating  course  on  her  own  responsibility.  Having  already  di- 
vined that  Latin  was  the  first  grand  point  of  distinction,  she  made 
up  her  mind  to  settle  the  matter  by  learning  Latin.  A  copy  of 
the  Rudiments  was  quickly  found  in  the  lumber-room  of  the 
house,  and  a  tutor  not  much  farther  off  in  a  humble  student  of 
the  neighborhood.  The  little  scholar  had  a  dramatic  instinct;  she 
did  not  pour  forth  her  first  lesson  as  soon  as  it  was  acquired,  or 
rashly  betray  her  secret.  She  waited  the  fitting  place  and  mo- 
ment. It  was  evening,  when  dinner  had  softened  out  the  asperi- 
ties of  the  day :  the  doctor  sat  in  luxurious  leisure  in  his  dressing- 
gown  and  slippers,  sipping  his  coffee,  and  all  the  cheerful  acces- 
sories of  the  fireside  picture  were  complete.  The  little  heroine 
had  arranged  herself  under  the  table,  under  the  crimson  folds  of 
the  cover,  which  concealed  her  small  person.  All  was  still ;  the 
moment  had  arrived:  " Penwa,  penwce,  ^ennaw .^"  burst  forth  the 
little  voice  in  breathless  steadiness.  The  result  may  be  imagined: 
the  doctor  smothered  his  child  with  kisses,  and  even  the  mother 
herself  had  not  a  word  to  say ;  the  victory  was  complete. 

After  this  pretty  scene,  the  proud  doctor  asked  Sir  John  Leslie 
to  send  him  a  tutor  for  the  little  pupil  who  had  made  so  promis- 
ing a  beginning.  Sir  John  recommended  the  youthful  teacher 
who  was  already  in  Haddington,  and  Edward  Irving  became  the 
teacher  of  the  little  girl.'  Their  hours  of  study  were  from  six  to 
eight  in  the  morning — which  inclines  one  to  imagine  that,  in  spite 
of  his  fondness,  the  excellent  doctor  must  have  held  his  household 
under  Spartan  discipline — and  again  in  the  evening  after  school 
hours.  When  the  young  tutor  arrived  in  the  dark  of  the  winter 
mornings,  and  found  his  little  pupil,  scarcely  dressed,  peeping  out 
of  her  room,  he  used  to  snatch  her  up  in  his  arms,  and  carry  her 


42  CONFLICT  BETWEEN  PITY  AND  TRUTH. 

to  tHe  door,  to  name  to  iier  the  stars  shining  in  the  cold  firmament 
hours  before  dawn ;  and  when  the  lessons  were  over,  he  set  the 
child  up  on  the  table  at  which  they  had  been  pursuing  their 
studies,  and  taught  her  logic,  to  the  great  tribulation  o^he  house- 
hold, in  which  the  little  philosopher  pushed  her  inquiries  into  the 
puzzling  metaphysics  of  life.  The  greatest  affection  sprang  up, 
as  was  natural,  between  the  child  and  her  young  teacher,  whose 
heart  at  all  times  of  his  life  was  always  open  to  children.  After 
the  lapse  of  all  these  years,  their  companionship  looks  both  pa- 
thetic and  amusing.  A  life-long  friendship  sprang  out  of  that 
early  connection.  The  pupil,  with  all  the  enthusiasm  of  child- 
hood, believed  every  thing  possible  to  the  mind  which  gave  its 
first  impulse  to  her  own ;  and  the  teacher  never  lost  the  affection- 
ate, indulgent  love  with  which  the  little  woman,  thus  confided  to 
his  boyish  care,  inspired  him.  Their  intercourse  did  not  have  the 
romantic  conclusion  it  might  have  been  supposed  likely  to  end  in, 
but,  as  a  friendship,  existed  unbroken  through  all  kinds  of  vicissi- 
tudes, and  even  through  entire  separation,  disapproval,  and  out- 
ward estrangement,  to  the  end  of  Irving's  life. 

When  the  lessons  were  over,  it  was  a  rule  that  the  young 
teacher  should  leave  a  daily  report  of  his  pupil's  jDrogress ;  when, 
alas!  that  report  was  ^9essi»2a,  the  little  girl  was  ]3unished.  One 
day  he  paused  long  before  putting  his  sentence  upon  paper.  The 
culprit  sat  on  the  table,  small»  downcast,  and  conscious  of  failure. 
The  preceptor  lingered  remorsefully  over  his  verdict,  wavering 
between  justice  and  mercy.  At  last  he  looked  up  at  her  with 
pitiful  looks:  "Jane,  my  heart  is  broken !"  cried  the  sympathetic 
tutor;  "but  I  must  tell  the  truth;"  and,  with  reluctant  pen,  he 
wrote  the  dread  deliverance,  79es5Z7?2a  .^  The  small  offender  doubt- 
less forgot  the  penalty  that  followed,  but  she  has  not  yet  forgot- 
ten the  compassionate  dilemma  in  which  truth  was  the  unwilling 
conqueror. 

The  youth  who  entered  his  house  under  such  circumstances 
soon  became  a  favorite  guest  at  the  fireside  of  the  doctor,  who, 
himself  a  man  of  education  and  intelligence,  and  of  that  disposi- 
tion which  makes  men  beloved,  was  not  slow  to  find  out  the  great 
qualities  of  his  young  visitor.  There  are  some  men  who  seem 
born  to  the  inalienable  good  fortune  of  lighting  upon  the  best 
people — "the  most  worthy"  according  to  Irving's  own  expression 
long  afterward — wherever  they  go.  Irving's  happiness  in  this 
way  began  at  Iladdington.    The  doctor's  wife  seems  to  have  been 


SPORT  AND  STUDY.  43 

one  of  those  fair,  sweet  women  whose  remembrance  lasts  longer 
than  greatness.  There  is  no  charm  of  beauty  more  delightful 
than  that  fragrance  of  it  which  lingers  for  generations  in  the 
place  where  it  has  been  an  unconsciously  refining  and  tender  in- 
fluence. The  Annandale  you^  came  into  a  little  world  of  hu- 
manizing graces  when  he  entered  that  atmosphere,  and  it  was 
only  natural  that  he  should  retain  the  warmest  recollection  of  it 
throughout  his  life.  It  must  have  been  of  countless  benefit  to 
him  in  this  early  stage  of  his  career.  The  main  quality  in  him- 
self which  struck  observers  was — in  strong  and  strange  contra- 
diction to  the  extreme  devotion  of  lelief  manifested  in  his  latter 
years — the  critical  and  almost  skeptical  tendency  of  his  mind, 
impatient  of  superficial  "received  truths,"  and  eager  for  proof 
and  demonstration  of  every  thing.  Perhaps  mathematics,  which 
then  reigned  paramount  in  his  mind,  were  to  blame ;  he  was  as 
anxious  to  discuss,  to  prove  and  disprove,  as  a  Scotch  student 
fresh  from  college  is  naturally  disposed  to  be.  It  was  a  pecul- 
iarity natural  to  his  age  and  condition ;  and  as  his  language  was 
always  inclined  to  the  sujDerlative,  and  his  feelings  invariably 
took  part  in  every  matter  which  commended  itself  to  his  mind,  it 
is  probable  that  this  inclination  showed  with  a  certain  exaggera- 
tion to  surrounding  eyes.  "This  youth  will  scrape  a  hole  in 
every  thing  he  is  called  on  to  believe,"  said  the  doctor;  a  strange 
prophecy,  looking  at  it  by  that  light  of  events  which  unfold  so 
many  unthought-of  meanings  in  all  predictions. 

In  the  mean  time  he  made  himself  popular  in  the  town,  and, 
apart  from  the  delightful  vignette  above,  appears  in  all  his  natu- 
ral picturesque  individuality  in  other  recollections.  The  young 
master  of  the  mathematical  school  commended  himself  to  the 
hearts  of  those  whose  sons  he  had  quickened  out  of  dunces  into 
intelligent  prize-winning  pupils.  He  was  young  and  poor,  and  in 
a  humble  position  still,  but  he  attracted  the  warm  admiration  of 
the  boj^s,  and  that  enthusiasm  which  only  young  creatures  in  the 
early  blush  of  existence  can  entertain  for  their  elders.  The  means 
by  which  he  won  the  hearts  of  those  lads  is  simple  and  apparent 
enough.  Though  he  was  severe  and  peremptory  in  school — "a 
sad  tyrant,"  somebody  says — out  of  doors  he  had  just  that  de- 
lightful mixture  of  superior  wisdom,  yet  equal  innocence — that 
junction  of  the  teacher  and  the  companion,  which  is  irresistible 
to  all  generous  young  people.  Enthusiastic  in  his  mathematical 
studies  as  he  had  come  from  Edinburgh,  and  loving  the  open  air 


44  HOLIDAY  SCIENCE.— INCIDENT. 

as  became  an  Annandale  lad  of  eighteen,  he  contrived  to  connect 
science  and  recreation  in  a  social  brotherly  fashion  quite  his  own. 
"Having  the  use  of  some  fine  instruments,"  says  one  of  his  pupils, 
Patrick  Sheriff,  Esq.,  of  Haddington,  "he  devoted  many  of  his 
school  holidays  to  the  measuring  of  heights  and  distances  in  the 
surrounding  neighborhood,  and  taking  the  altitudes  of  heavenly 
bodies.  Upon  such  occasions  he  was  invariably  accompanied  by 
several  of  his  pupils."  When  the  state  of  the  atmosphere,  or  any 
other  obstacle,  interrupted  the  particular  object  of  the  day's  ex- 
cursion, the  young  teacher  jeadily  and  joj^fully  diverged  into  the 
athletic  games  in  which  he  excelled;  and  with  the  scientific  in- 
struments standing  harmless  by,  enjoyed  his  holiday  as  well  as  if 
every  thing  had  been  favorable  for  their  use.  Another  pictur- 
esque glimpse  of  the  boy-philosopher  follows:  "About  this  time 
Mr.  Irving  frequently  expressed  a  wish  to  travel  in  Africa  in  the 
track  of  Mungo  Park,  and  during  his  holiday  excursions  prac- 
ticed, in  concert  with  his  pupils,  the  throwing  of  stones  into  pools 
of  water,  with  the  view  of  determining  the  depth  of  the  water  by 
the  sound  of  the  plunge,  to  aid  him  in  crossing  rivers ;"  a  species 
of  scientific  inquiry  into  which,  I  have  no  doubt,  the  Haddington 
boys  would  enter  with  devotion.  This  idea  of  travel,  not  unnat- 
ural to  the  schoolfellow  of  Hugh  Clapperton,  seems  to  have  re- 
turned on  many  occasions  to  Irving's  mind,  and  to  have  displayed 
itself  in  various  characteristic  studies,  as  unlike  the  ordinary 
course  of  preparation  for  a  journey  as  the  above  bit  of  holiday 
science.  His  great  bodily  strength  and  dauntless  spirit  made  the 
idea  congenial  to  him,  and  he  had  no  very  brilliant  prospects  at 
home;  indeed,  this  thought  seems  to  run,  a  kind  of  adventurous 
possibility,  through  a  great  part  of  his  life,  changing  in  aspect  as 
his  own  projects  and  feelings  changed,  and  to  have  afforded  his 
mind  a  refuge  from  the  fastidious  intolerance  of  youth  when  that 
came  upon  him,  or  when  cross  circumstances  and  adverse  persons 
drove  him  back  at  bitter  moments  upon  himself. 

"  Being  an  excellent  walker,"  continues  the  gentleman  already 
quoted,  "all  his  excursions  were  made  on  foot.  Upon  one  occa- 
sion, when  Dr.  Chalmers,  then  rising  into  fame,  was  announced 
to  preach  in  St.  George's,  Edinburgh,  upon  a  summer  week-day 
evening,  Irving  set  out  from  Haddington  after  school-hours,  ac- 
companied by  several  of  his  pupils,  and  returned  the  same  night, 
accomplishing  a  distance  of  about  thirty-five  miles  without  any 
other  rest  than  what  was  obtained  in  church."     The  fatigue  of 


SOCIETY  IN  HADDINGTON.  45 

this  long  walk  was  enlivened  when  the  little  party  arrived  at  the 
church  by  a  little  outbreak  of  imperious  pugnacity,  not,  perhaps, 
quite  seemly  in  such  a  place,  but  characteristic  enough.  Tired 
with  their  walk,  the  boys  and  their  youthful  leader  made  their 
way  up  to  the  gallery  of  the  church,  where  they  directed  their 
steps  toward  one  particular  pew  which  was  quite  unoccupied. 
Their  entrance  into  the  vacant  place  was,  however,  stopped  by  a 
man,  who  stretched  his  arm  across  the  pew,  and  announced  that 
it  was  engaged.  Irving  remonstrated,  and  represented  that  at 
such  a  time  all  the  seats  were  open  to  the  public,  but  without 
effect.  At  last  his  patience  gave  way ;  and,  raising  his  hand,  he 
exclaimed,  evidently  with  all  his  natural  magniloquence  of  voice 
and  gesture,  "Eemove  your  arm,  or  I  will  shatter  it  in  pieces!" 
His  astonished  opponent  fell  back  in  utter  dismay,  like  Mrs.  Sid- 
dons'  shopman,  and  made  a  precipitate  retreat,  while  the  rejoicing 
boys  took  possession  of  the  pew.  Thus,  for  the  first  time,  Irving 
and  Chalmers  were  brought,  if  not  together,  at  least  into  the  same 
assembly.  The  great  preacher  knew  nothing  of  the  lad  who  had 
come  nearly  eighteen  miles  to  hear  him  preach,  and  sat  resting 
his  mighty  youthful  limbs  in  the  seat  from  which  he  had  driven 
his  enemy.  Such  glimpses  are  curious  and  full  of  interest,  espe- 
cially in  remembrance  of  other  days  which  awaited  Chalmers  and 
Irving  in  that  same  church  of  St.  George. 

To  return  to  Haddington,  however:  Irving  not  only  established 
his  place  as  a  warm  and  life-long  friend  in  the  house  of  the  doc- 
tor, but  made  his  way  into  the  homes  and  society  of  many  of  the 
worthy  inhabitants  of  the  little  town.  Among  those  who  had 
children  at  the  ^Mathematical  School  and  opened  his  house  to  the 
teacher  was  Gilbert  Burns,  the  brother  of  the  poet,  with  whom  he 
is  said  to  have  had  some  degree  of  intimacy ;  and  though  the 
humble  position  of  dominie  did  not  give  him  a  very  high  place 
in  the  social  scale,  and  restricted  his  friendships  within  the  circle 
of  those  whose  sons  he  educated,  there  were  a  sufficiently  large 
number  of  the  latter  to  make  their  young  preceptor  known  and 
received  at  most  of  the  good  houses  in  Haddington. 

"  Social  supper-parties,"  says  Mr.  Alexander  Inglis,  once  a  resi- 
dent in  Haddington,  who  has  kindly  furnished  me  with  some  rec- 
ollections of  this  period,  "were  much  the  custom  at  this  time  in 
Haddington,  and  the  hospitalities  generally  extended  far  into  the 
night.  At  these  social  meetings  Irving  was  occasionally  in  the 
habit  of  broaching  some  of  his  singular  opinions  about  the  high 


46  BOLTON  MANSE.— YOUNG  COMPANIONS. 

(  destinies  of  the  human  race  in  heaven,  where  the  saints  were  not 
I  only  to  be  made  'kings  and  priests  unto  God,'  but  were  to  rule 
I  and  judge  angels.     Dr.  Lorimer  (the  senior  minister  of  the  town) 
I  used  to  hint  that  there  were  many  more  profitable  and  useful  sub- 
;  jects  in  the  New  Testament  for  a  divinity  student  to  occupy  his 
thoughts  about  than  such  speculations ;  but  Irving  was  not  to  be 
put  down  in  this  way.     '  Dare  either  you  or  I  deprive  God  of  the 
glory  and  thanks  due  to  his  name  for  this,  exceeding  great  re- 
ward?' cried  the  impetuous  young  man,  according  to  the  report 
of  his  old  friend :  the  good  doctor's  reply  was,  '  Well,  well,  my 
dear  friend,  both  you  and  I  can  be  saved  without  knowing  about 
that.'" 

Here  Irving  also  made  the  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Stewart,  then 
minister  of  Bolton,  afterward  Dr.  Stewart  of  Erskine,  who  was 
himself  the  subject  of  a  sufficiently  romantic  story.  This  gentle- 
man had  been  a  medical  man,  and  in  that  capacity  had  cured  the 
daughter  of  a  Scotch  nobleman  of  supposed  consumption.  The 
physician  and  patient,  after  the  most  approved  principles  of  po- 
etical justice,  fell  in  love  with  each  other  and  married,  and  the 
former  changed  his  profession,  and  becoming  a  minister,  settled 
down  in  the  parish  of  Bolton,  and  became  doubly  useful  to  his 
people  and  the  neighborhood  in  his  double  capacity.  He  too 
had  been  able  to  discern  in  some  degree  those  qualities  of  mind 
and  heart  which,  despite  his  vehement  speech  and  impatience, 
and  love  of  argumentation,  showed  themselves  in  the  young 
schoolmaster.  In  this  manse  of  Bolton  Irving  was  in  the  habit 
of  spending  his  Saturdays,  along  with  a  young  fellow-student  of 
his  own,  Mr.  Story,  afterward  of  Eosneath.  Nor  was  he  without 
society  of  his  own  age  and  standing.  In  those  days,  when  long 
walks  were  habitual  to  every  body,  Haddington  was  within  reach 
of  Edinburgh — perhaps  more  distinctly  within  reach  than  now, 
when,  instead  of  the  long  pleasant  summer  afternoon  walk,  cost- 
ing nothing,  the  rapid  railway,  with  inevitable  shillings  and  six- 
pences, and  fixed  hours  of  coming  and  going,  does  away  with  dis- 
tance, yet  magnifies  the  walk  into  a  journey.  On  Saturdays  and 
holidays  there  was  no  lack  of  visitors.  A  tide  of  eager  young 
life  palpitated  about  the  teacher-student  even  in  that  retirement — 
life  of  a  wonderfully  different  fashion  from  that  which  issues  from 
English  Universities ;  confined  to  limits  much  more  narrow,  and 
bound  to  practical  necessities;  a  world  more  hard  and  real. 
Among  these  comrades  there  were  perhaps  scarcely  two  or  three 


EXTENT  OF  HIS  WORK.  ■  47 

individuals  whose  studies  were  not  professional,  and  among  the 
professional  students  only  a  small  number  who  were  not,  like  Ir- 
ving himself,  taxing  their  youthful  strength  to  procure  the  means 
of  prosecuting  their  studies.  With  theological  students  in  par- 
ticular this  was  almost  the  rule,  for  few  were  the  fortunate  men 
who  were  rich  enough  to  spend  their  eight  long  years  entirely  in 
study.  Doubtless  this  fact  gave  a  certain  individual  character  to 
the  little  groups  who  came  to  share  the  liberal  boyish  hospitality 
of  tlie  young  schoolmaster,  and  filled  with  much  clangor  of  logic 
and  eager  Scottish  argumentation  his  little  rooms.  Some  youth- 
ful wits  among  them  took  pleasure  in  aggravating  the  vehement 
temper  of  their  young  host,  and  stirring  him  into  characteristic 
outbreaks — the  language  which  afterward  became  so  splendid 
being  then,  it  is  evident,  somewhat  magniloquent,  and  his  natural 
impetuosity  warm  with  all  the  passion  of  youth.  But  the  names 
of  them  have  passed  away,  or  live  in  merely  local  recollection ; 
some  became  teachers  of  some  distinction  in  Edinburgh ;  others, 
and  not  a  few,  went  abroad  and  died  off  in  colonial  chaplaincies ; 
some,  the  most  fortunate,  settled  down  into  respectable  parish 
ministers.  But  who  knows  any  thing  about- those  Browns  and 
Dicksons  now  ? 

Irving  was  also  a  member  of  a  local  literary  society,  which  he 
helped  to  originate  among  young  men  native  to  the  burgh.  The 
fashion  of  their  meetings  seems  to  have  been  an  excellent  one. 
They  were  in  the  habit  of  setting  out  together  to  some  place  of 
interest  near  them,  often  to  dainty  Dirleton,  that  pretty  artificial 
village  which  is  one  of  the  boasts  of  East  Lothian,  and,  after  the 
walk  and  talk  of  the  road,  holding  their  seance  there — a  method 
which  no  doubt  made  their  essays  and  discussions  more  reason- 
able, so  far  as  reason  was  to  be  expected.  It  was  thus  not  with- 
out activity  of  mind,  cultivated,  so  far  as  that  was  practicable, 
and  kept  in  constant  stimulation  by  contact  with  his  compeers, 
that  this  period  of  his  life  was  passed.  He  seems  to  have  taught 
most  things  common  to  elementary  education  in  his  mathematical 
school,  with  Latin  of  course,  the  unfailing  representative  of  high- 
er knowledge  and  key  to  advancement,  as  it  has  been  long  con- 
sidered in  Scotland ;  and  to  his  more  advanced  and  more  congen- 
ial pupils,  the  same  who  carried  his  instruments  after  him  afield, 
and  threw  stones  with  him  in  zealous  devotion,  unfolded  the  mys- 
teries of  mathematics.  His  life  must  have  been  sufficiently  la- 
borious to  need  all  the  relaxations  possible  to  it.     Starting  at  six 


48  COURAGE  AND  CHEERFULNESS. 

in  the  morning — not  always  in  winter  mornings,  certainly,  though 
the  idea  instinctively  recalls  the  icy  chill  of  those  starry  hours 
before  dawn  to  the  unheroic  hearer — to  conjugate  Latin  verbs 
with  the  little  maid,  who  perhaps  did  not  apprehend  all  that  her 
ambition  was  to  bring  upon  her ;  then  returning  to  his  fifty  boys, 
to  school  them  in  all  the  different  fundamentals  of  plain,  unem- 
bellished  knowledge  (and  the  teacher  himself  was  not  always  im- 
maculate in  his  spelling) ;  with  again  another  private  lesson  after 
the  fifty  had  gone  to  their  sports — those  sports  in  which  the  e'ight- 
een-year  old  lad  was  scarcely  above  joining — close  exercise  for 
the  youthful  brain  and  athletic  developing  form,  to  which  some 
counterbalance  of  strenuous  physical  exertion  was  necessary. 

His  independence  seems  now  to  have  been  complete.  In  his 
humble  Haddington  lodgings  he  was  no  longer  indebted  even  for 
his  oatmeal  and  cheese  to  the  home  household,  but  had  set  out 
manful  and  early  on  the  road  of  life  for  himself  Henceforward 
Edward's  expenses  did  not  rank  among  the  cares  of  the  Annan 
home.  At  seventeen  and  a  half  the  young  man  took  up  his  own 
burden  without  a  word  or  token  of  complaint,  and  ever  after  bore 
it  courageously  through  all  discouragements  and  trials,  never 
breaking  down  or  falling  back  upon  the  love  which,  notwith- 
standing, his  stout  heart  always  trusted  in.  Neither  genius,  nor 
that  temperament  of  genius,  impassioned  and  visionary,  which 
he  possessed  to  a  large  extent,  weakened  his  performance  of  this 
first  duty  which  manifested  itself  to  his  eyes ;  and  he  seems  to 
have  accepted  his  lot  with  a  certain  noble  simplicity,  neither  re- 
senting jt  nor  quarreling  with  those  whom  circumstances  made 
temporaily  his  superiors.  Either  people  did  not  ill-use  him,  or 
he  had  some  secret  power  of  endurance  which  turns  ill-usage 
aside.  At  all  events,  it  is  certain  that  the  agonies  of  the  sensi- 
tive, not  sufficiently  respected  tutor,  or  the  commotions  of  the 
indignant  one,  have  no  place  whatever  in  Irving's  youthful  life. 
When  the  Haddington  corporation,  not  likely  to  be  the  most  con- 
siderate masters  in  the  world,  afflicted  their  young  schoolmaster, 
it  is  to  be  supposed  that  he  blazed  up  at  them  manfully,  and  got 
done  with  it.  At  least  he  has  no  complaints  to  make,  or  old 
slights  to  remember ;  nor  does  it  seem  that  he  ever  sulked  at  his 
humble  position  or  close  labors  at  any  time  in  his  life. 

Irving  remained  two  years  at  Haddington,  during  which  time 
he  began  that  singular  grave  pretense  of  theological  education 
which  is  called  "partial"  study  in  the  Divinity  Hall.     From  the 


KIRKCALDY.  49 

little  Haddington  school  he  was  promoted,  always  with  the  good 
offices  »of  Sir  John  Leslie,  who  seems  to  have  had  a  sincere  kind- 
ness for  him,  to  the  mastership  of  a  newly-established  academy  in 
Kirkcaldy,  in  which  he  spent  a  number  of  years,  and  decided  va- 
rious important  matters  deeply  concerning  his  future  life. 


CHAPTER  lY. 

KIRKCALDY. 

Kirkcaldy  Academy.  —  Personal  Appearance.  —  Severe  Discipline.  —  Doing  all 
Things  heartily. — Kirkcaldy  Sands.  —  Milton  Class.  —  Schoolboy  Chivalry. — 
"Much  respected  Pupils." — Love-making. — Confidential  Disclosures. — Engage- 
ment.— The  Minister  of  Kirkcaldy. — The  Manse  Household. — Sister  Elizabeth. — 
Her  Husband. — Irving's  first  Sermon.  —  Superiority  to  "The  Paper." — "Ower 
muckle  Gran'ner." — Other  people's  Sermons. — His  Thoughts  about  Preaching. — 
In  a  Highland  Inn. — Warlike  Aspiration. — General  Assembly. — Debate  on  Plu- 
ralities.— Intolerance  of  Circumstances. — Abbotshall  School-house. 

"The  lang  town  of  Kirkcaldy"  extends  along  the  northern 
side  of  the  Firth  of  Forth,  and  is  one  of  the  most  important  of 
that  long  line  of  little  towns — fishing,  weaving,  trading  centres 
of  local  activity — which  gleam  along  the  margin  of  Fife,  and  help 
to  make  an  abrupt  but  important  edge  to  the  golden  fertile  fringe 
which,  according  to  a  pretty,  antique  description,  adorns  the  "  rus- 
set mantle"  of  that  characteristic  county.  These  little  towns  ex- 
tend in  a  scattered,  broken  line  downward  from  Queensferry,'  till 
the  coast  rounds  off  into  St.  Andrew's  Bay,  and  are  full  of  a  busy 
yet  leisurely  industry,  sometimes  quickened  almost  into  the  rest- 
less pulse  of  trade.  Kirkcaldy  earned  its  title  ofthe  "  lang  town" 
from  the  prolonged  line  of  its  single  street,  running  parallel  to  the 
shore  for  rather  more  than  a  mile,  and  at  that  time  had  not  wid- 
ened into  proportionate  breadth,  nor  invested  itself  with  tiny  sub- 
urbs and  the  body  of  scattered  population  which  now  gives  it 
importance.  In  the  year  1812  there  was  no  school  in  this  flour- 
ishing and  comfortable  place  except  the  parish  school,  with  its 
confusion  of  ranks  and  profound  Eepublicanism  of  letters,  where 
boys  and  girls  of  all  classes  were  rudely  drilled  into  the  common 
elements  of  education,  with  such  climaxes  of  Latin  and  mathe- 
matics as  were  practicable.  The  professional  people  of  Kirkcaldy, 
headed  by  the  minister,  who  had  himself  a  large  family  of  chil- 
dren to  educate,  and  the  well-to-do  shopkeepers  and  household- 

D 


50  KIRKCALDY  ACADEMY. 


til> 


ers  of  the  place,  determined,  accordingly,  upon  the  establishment 
of  a  new  school  of  higher  pretensions,  and  Edward  Irving  was 
selected  as  its  first  master.  Two  rooms  in  a  central  "wynd," 
opening  into  each  other,  with  a  tiny  class-room  attached — now 
occupied  by  a  humble  schoolmaster,  who  points  to  his  worm- 
eaten  oaken  desks  as  being  those  used  by  "  the  great  Mr,  Irving" 
— were  simply  fitted  up  into  the  new  academy. 

Without  any  accessories  to  command  respect,  in  a  humble 
locality,  with  a  cobbler's  hutch  in  the  sunk  story  beneath,  and 
common  houses  crowding  round,  the  new  institution,  notwith- 
standing, impressed  respect  upon  the  town,  and  soon  became  im- 
portant. Boys  and  girls,  as  was  usual,  sat  together  at  those  brown 
oaken  desks  without  the  least  separation,  and  pursued  their  studies 
together  with  mutual  rivalry.  For  some  time  Irving  managed 
them  alone,  but  afterward  had  an  assistant,  and  in  this  employ- 
ment remained  for  seven  years,  and  had  the  training  of  a  genera- 
tion in  his  hands.  The  recollection  of  him  is  still  fresh  in  the 
town  —  his  picturesque  looks,  his  odd  ways,  his  severities,  his 
kindnesses,  the  distinct  individuality  of  the  man.  Here  that  title 
which  afterward  was  to  be  the  popular  designation  of  a  religious 
community  came  into  playful  use,  long  and  innocently  antedating 
its  more  permanent  meaning,  and  the  academy  scholars  distin- 
guished each/)ther  as  "Irvingites" — a  special  and  affectionate 
bond  of  fraternity.  He  was  now  twenty,  and  had  attained  his  full 
height,  which  some  say  was  two,  and  some  four  inches  over  six 
feet;  his  appearance  was  noble  and  remarkable  to  a  high  degree: 
his  features  fine ;  his  figure,  in  its  great  height,  fully'  developed 
and  vigorous ;  the  only  drawback  to  his  good  looks  being  the  de- 
fect in  his  eye,  which,  with  so  many  and  great  advantages  to  coun- 
terbalance it,  seems  rather  to  have  given  piquancy  to  his  face  than 
to  have  lessened  its  attraction.  Such  a  figure  attracted  universal 
attention :  he  could  not  pass  through  a  village  without  being  re- 
marked and  gazed  after;  and  some  of  his  Kirkcaldy  pupils  remem- 
ber the  moment  when  they  first  saw  him,  with  the  clearness  which 
marks,  not  an  ordinary  meeting,  but  an  event.  This  recollection 
is  perhaps  assisted  by  the  fact  that,  though  a  divinity  student,  al- 
ready overshadowed  by  the  needful  gravity  of  the  priesthood, 
and  in  present  possession  of  all  the  importance  of  a  "dominie," 
he  had  no  such  solemn  regard  to  dress  as  afterward  became  one 
of  his  peculiarities,  but  made  his  appearance  in  Kirkcaldy  in  a 
mornin  gcoat  made  of  some  set  of  tartan  in  which  red  predom- 
inated, to  the  admiration  of  all  beholders. 


SEVEKE  DISCIPLINE.  51 

A  young  man  of  twenty,  with  the  full  charge  of  a  large  number 
of  boys  and  girls  in  a  limited  space,  and  undertaking  all  the  items 
of  a  miscellaneous  education,  no  doubt  needed  the  assistance  of  a 
somewhat  rigorous  discipline,  and  it  is  evident  that  he  used  its  help 
with  much  freedom.  Sounds  were  heard  now  and  then  proceed- 
ing from  the  schoolroom  which  roused  the  pity  and  indignation 
of  the  audience  of  neighbors  out  of  doors.  One  of  these,  a  joiner, 
deacon  of  his  trade,  and  a  man  of  great  strength,  is  reported  to 
have  appeared  one  day,  with  his  shirt-sleeves  rolled  up  to  his  el- 
bows and  an  axe  on  his  shoulder,  at  the  door  of  the  schoolroom, 
asking,  "Do  ye  want  a  hand*  the  day,  Mr. Irving?"  with  dreadful 
irony.  Another  ludicrous  mistake  testifies  to  the  general  notion 
that  careless  scholars  occasionally  got  somewhat  hard  measure 
from  the  young  master.  Some  good  men  loitering  about  their 
gardens  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  "Academy"  heard  outcries 
which  alarmed  them ;  and,  convinced  that  murder  was  being  ac- 
complished in  the  school,  set  off  to  save  the  victim ;  but  discover- 
ed, to  their  great  discomfiture,  that  the  cries  which  had  attracted 
their  sympathy  came  from  an  unfortunate  animal  under  the  hands 
of  a  butcher,  and  not  from  a  tortured  schoolboy.  These  severe 
measures,  however,  by  no  means  obliterate  the  pleasanter  recollec- 
tion with  which  Irving's  pupils  recall  his  reign  at  the  Academy. 
It  was  not  in  his  nature  to  work  among  even  a  set  of  schoolboys 
without  identifying  himself  with  them,  and  carrying  them  with 
him  into  all  the  occupations  and  amusements  which  they  could 
possibly  be  made  to  bear  a  share  in.  On  the  holidays  the  young 
teacher  might  be  seen,  with  both  boys  and  girls  in  his  train,  issuing 
forth  to  the  fields  with  such  scientific  instruments  as  he  could 
command,  giving  them  lessons  in  mensuration  and  surveying, 
which,  half  in  sport  and  half  in  earnest,  doubtless,  were  not  with- 
out their  use  to  the  fortunate  lads  thus  promoted  to  share  his 
hours  of  leisure.  The  same  lads  went  with  him  to  the  firth, 
where  he  renewed  those  feats  of  swimming  which  had  distin- 
guished him  on  the  Solway ;  and,  sometimes  with  an  urchin  on 
his  shoulder,  sometimes  holding  an  oar  or  rope  to  sustain  the  more 
advanced,  sometimes  lending  the  aid  of  his  own  vigorous  arm,  the 
young  Hercules  taught,  or  endeavored  to  teach,  his  pupils  to  be  as 
fearless  in  the  water  as  himself  If  he  might  sometimes  happen 
to  be  discontented  with  his  occupation,  as  was  very  possible,  it 
never  occurred  to  Irving  to  evidence  that  feeling  by  doing  just  as 

*  Anglice — assistance,  a  helper. 


52  DOING  ALL  THINGS  HEARTILY. 

little  as  could  be  demanded  of  him.  Exactly  the  reverse  was  the 
impulse  of  his  generous,  single-minded  nature.  He  went  into  it 
with  all  the  fresh,  natural  fulhiess  of  his  heart.  He  never  seems  to 
have  attempted  making  any  division  of  himself  And  this  is  no 
picture  of  an  interesting  student  compelled  to  turn  aside  from  his 
studies  by  the  necessity  of  maintaining  himself — and  if  not  resent- 
ful, at  least  preserving  a  certain  reserve  and  pathetical  injured  as- 
pect toward  the  world,  as  there  are  so  many ;  but  an  entire  indi- 
vidual man,  full  of  the  highest  ambition,  yet  knowing  no  possibility 
of  any  other  course  of  conduct  than  that  of  doing  what  his  hand 
found  to  do  with  all  his  heart,  as  freely  as  if  he  had  loved  the 
work  for  its  own  sake.  With  such  a  disposition,  he  could  not 
even  enter  into  any  work  without  insensibly  getting  to  love  it, 
and  spending  himself  freely,  with  exuberant  volunteer  efforts  not 
demanded  of  him.  Under  no  circumstances  was  indifference  pos- 
sible to  this  young  man ;  though,  even  then,  it  is  very  apparent, 
prophetic  visions  of  a  very  different  audience,  and  of  future  possi- 
bilities which  no  one  else  dreamt  of,  were  with  him  in  the  midst 
of  his  hearty  and  cordial  labors. 

Thus  for  a  circle  of  years  his  remarkable  figure  pervades  that 
little  town ;  seen  every  day  upon  the  shore,  pacing  up  and  down 
the  yellow  sands  with  books  and  meditations — the  great  firth 
rolling  in  at  his  feet  in  waves  more  grand  and  less  impetuous 
than  those  of  his  native  Solway ;  with  green  islands  gleaming  in 
the  light,  and  Arthur's  Seat  looming  out  through  the  Edinburgh 
smoke  in  the  distance,  a  moody  lion ;  and  many  a  moonlight  night 
upon  the  same  shore,  collecting  round  him  his  little  band  of  eager 
disciples,  to  point  out  the  stars  in  their  courses,  and  communicate 
such  poetical  elements  of  astronomy  as  were  congenial  to  such  a 
scene.  These  latter  meetings  were  disturbed  and  brought  to  a 
conclusion  in  a  whimsical  homely  fashion.  One  season  it  happen- 
ed that,  on  two  different  occasions  when  they  met,  falling  stars 
were  seen.  Forthwith  some  of  the  common  people  took  up  the 
notion  that  Irving  drew  down  the  stars,  or  at  least  knew  when 
they  were  to  fall.  They  accordingly  watched  for  him  and  his  pu- 
pils, and  pushing  in  among  them  with  ignorant,  half-superstitious 
curiosity,  broke  up  the  little  conclave.  A  curious  incident,  in 
which  a  fanciful  observer  might  see  some  dim,  mystic  anticipa- 
tions of  a  future  not  yet  revealed  even  to  its  hero.  Indoors,  in 
his  own  domain,  as  the  different  classes  went  on  with  their  lessons, 
he  moved  about  in  perpetual  activity,  seldom  sitting  down,  and 


MILTON  CLASS.— SCHOOLBOY  CHIVALRY.  53 

always  fully  intent  upon  the  progress  of  his  flock.  Now  and  then 
he  gave  them  a  holiday,  on  condition  of  receiving  afterward  an 
essay  describing  how  they  had  spent  their  time — receiving  in  re- 
turn some  amusing  productions  largely  taken  up  with  bird's-nest- 
ing and  other  such  exploits  of  rustic  boyhood.  Both  French  and 
Italian,  in  addition  to  the  steadier  routine  of  Latin  and  mathemat- 
ics, seem  to  have  been  attempted  by  the  ardent  young  teacher; 
and  his  own  class  read  Milton  with  him,  learning  large  portions 
oi  Paradise  Lost  by  heart.  "  Wherever  the  sense  seemed  involved, 
the  pupils  were  required  to  rearrange  the  sentence  and  give  it  in 
prose.  This  implied  a  thorough  understanding  of  the  passage 
and  appreciation  of  its  meaning" — altogether  a  system  of  educa- 
tion of  a  lofty  Optimist  character,  quite  as  rare  and  unusual  in  the 
present  day  as  at  that  time.  It  is  said  that  one  of  his  older  pu- 
pils came  on  one  occasion  to  this  same  Milton  Class  before  the  ar- 
rival of  her  companions,  and,  on  reaching  the  door  of  the  class- 
room, found  Irving  alone,  reciting  to  himself  one  of  the  speeches 
of  Satan,  with  so  much  emphasis  and  so  gloomy  a  countenance, 
that  the  terrified  girl,  unable  to  conceal  her  fright,  fled  precipitate- 
ly. Some  of  his  pupils — and  among  these  one  or  two  girls — came 
to  high  proficiency  in  the  mathematical  studies,  which  were  spe- 
cially dear  to  their  young  instructor;  and — much  apart  from 
mathematics — Irving  so  managed  to  impress  his  spirit  upon  the 
lads  under  his  charge,  that  the  common  conjunction  ofboys  and 
girls  in  this  school  became  the  means  of  raising  a  certain  chival- 
rous spirit,  not  naturally  abounding  among  schoolboys,  in  Kirk- 
caldy and  its  academy.  That  spirit  of  chivalry  which,  under  the 
form  of  respect  to  women,  embodies  the  truest  magnanimous  sen- 
timent of  strength,  rose  involuntarily  among  the  youths  command- 
ed by  such  a  leader.  They  learned  to  suspend  their  very  snow- 
ball bickers  till  the  girls  had  passed  out  of  harm's  way ;  and,  aw- 
ing the  less  fortunate  gamins  of  the  little  town  by  their  sturdy 
championship,  made  the  name  of  "an  Academy  lassie"  a  defense 
against  all  annoyance.  The  merest  snowball  directed  against  the 
sacred  person  of  one  of  these  budding  women  was  avenged  by  the 
generous  zeal  of  the  "  Irvingites."  The  girls,  perhaps,  on  their 
side  were  not  equally  considerate,  but  won  prizes  over  the  heads 
of  their  stronger  associates  with  no  compunction,  and  took  their 
full  share  of  the  labors,  though  scarcely  of  the  penalties  of  the 
school.  Amusing  anecdotes  of  the  friendship  existing  between 
the  teacher  and  his  pupils  are  told  on  all  sides :  his  patience  and 


54  "MUCH-RESPECTED  PUPILS." 

consideration  in  childish  disasters,  and  prompt  activity  when  ac- 
cidents occurred;  and  even  his  readiness  to  be  joked  with  when 
times  were  propitious.  It  was  necessary  to  secure  beforehand, 
however,  that  times  ivere  propitious.  On  one  such  sunshiny  occa- 
sion some  of  the  boys  propounded  the  old  stock  riddle  about  the 
seven  wives  with  their  stock  of  cats  and  kits  "  whom  I  met  going 
to  St.  Ives,"  and  the  whole  school  looked  on,  convulsed  with  se- 
cret titterings,  while  their  simple-minded  master  went  on  jotting 
down  upon  his  blackboard  in  visible  figures  the  repeated  sevens 
of  that  tricky  composition.  Their  floggings  do  not  seem  to  have 
much  damped  the  spirit  of  the  Kirkcaldy  boys,  or  diminished 
their  confidence  in  their  teacher. 

During  the  early  part  of  Irving's  residence  in  Kirkcaldy  he 
was  still  a  partial  student  at  the  Divinity  Hall.  During  the  first 
three  winters  he  had  to  go  over  to  Edinburgh  now  and  then,  to 
deliver  the  discourses  which  were  necessary,  in  order  to  keep  up 
his  standing  as  a  student.  "  On  these  occasions,"  says  the  lady 
from  whose  notes  the  chief  details  of  his  Kirkcaldy  history  are 
taken,  "  to  insure  his  pupils  losing  as  little  as  possible,  he  used  to 
ask  them  to  meet  him  at  the  school  at  six  or  half  past  six  in  the 
morning.  This  arrangement  enabled  him  to  go  over  the  most 
important  of  the  lessons  before  the  hour  at  which  the  fly  started 
to  meet  the  passage-boat  at  Kinghorn,"  that  being,  before  the  age 
of  steamers,  the  most  rapid  conveyance  between  Fife  and  Edin- 
burgh. On  his  return  from  one  such  expedition,  he  himself  de- 
scribes how,  "  in  fear  of  a  tedious  passage  across  the  ferry  under 
night,  I  requested  from  a  friend  of  mine  in  Edinburgh  a  book, 
which,  by  combining  instruction  with  amusement,  might  at  once 
turn  to  account  the  time  and  relieve  the  tiresomeness  of  the  voy- 
age." The  book  was  Rasselas  ;  and  was  afterward  sent,  with  an 
amusingly  elaborate,  schoolmaster  note,  to  two  young  ladies,  whom 
the  young  teacher  (who  afterward  made  one  of  them  his  wife)  ad- 
dressed as  "  My  much  respected  pupils."  The  friend  who  lent  the 
book  desired  it  to  be  given  as  a  prize  to  the  best  scholar  in  the 
school,  and,  having  been  present  at  the  examination,  distinguished 
these  two,  without  being  able  to  decide  between  them,  but  at  the 
same  time  deprecated  any  mention  of  himself  on  account  of  the 
trifling  value  of  his  gift.  Whereupon  Irving  adds,  with  quaint 
antique  solemnity,  that  "it  was  not  the  worth,  but  the  honor 
which  should  be  regarded :  that  the  conquerors  of  Greece  and 
Kome  reckoned  themselves  more  honored  by  the  laurel  crown 


LOVE-MAKING.— CONFIDENTIAL  DISCLOSUEE.  55 

than  if  they  had  enjoyed  the  splendid  pomp  of  the  noblest  tri- 
umph;" and  concludes  by  sending  the  book  to  both,  so  that  "by 
making  the  present  mutual,  it  will  not  only  be  a  testimonial  of 
your  progress,  but  also  of  that  attachment  which  I  hope  will  ripen 
into  cordial  friendship,  and  which  it  is  the  more  pleasant  to  ob- 
serve, as  its  place  is  too  often  occupied  by  jealousy  and  envy. 

He  was  not  always,  however,  so  exemplary  in  his  letter-writing. 
Only  next  spring,  a  year  after,  one  of  the  ladies  to  whom,  in  con- 
junction with  her  companion,  the  above  faultless  sentiments  were 
inscribed,  seems  to  have  ceased  to  be  Irving's  "  much  respected 
pupil."  The  hyperbolical  fiend  which  talks  of  nothing  but  ladies, 
seems  in  full  possession  of  the  young  man  in  the  next  glimpse  we 
obtain  of  him,  which  is  contained  in  a  letter  to  his  friend  Mr.  Sto- 
ry, who  had  apparently  met  with  some  temporary  obstruction  in 
his  career,  and  whom  Irving  felt  himself  called  upon  to  console. 
He  fulfills  this  friendly  office  in  the  following  fashion,  beginning 
with  sundry  philosophical,  but  far  from  original  arguments  against 
despondency : 

"  But  all  these  having  doiabtless  occurred  to  yourself,  I  proceed  to 
operate  upon  your  feelings  by  the  much-approved  method  of  awak- 
ening your  sympathy  to  the  much  keener  sufferings  of  your  humble 
servant  and  correspondent.  You  must,  then,  understand,  that  in  this 
town  or  neighborhood  dwells  a  fair  damsel,  whose  claims  to  esteem 
I  am  prepared,  at  the  point  of  my  pen,  to  vindicate  against  all  deadly. 
Were  I  to  enter  into  an  enumeration  of  those  charms  which  challenge 
the  Avorld,  I  miglit  find  the  low,  equal,  and  unrhyming  lines  of  prose 
too  feeble  a  vehicle  to  support  my  flights.  ...  I  got  to  know  that 
this  peerless  one  was  prevented  from  making  a  promised  visit  into 
the  country  by  a  stormy  Saturday.  I  took  the  earliest  opportunity 
on  the  next  lawful*  day  of  waiting  on  her,  and  hinting,  when  mamma's 
ear  was  engaged,  that  I  had  business  at  the  same  village  some  of 
these  evenings,  and  would  be  most  ineffably  blessed  to  be  her  j^ro- 
tector  liome,  if  not  also  abroad :  would  she  consent  ?  I  might  ask 
her  mother.  In  this  most  disagreeable  of  all  tasks  I  succeeded  better 
than  I  expected.  But,  alas !  after  I  thought  every  thing  was  in  a 
fair  way  for  yielding  me  a  half-hour's  enjoyment,  I  was  not  till  then 
informed  that  another  was  to  be  of  the  party.  This  was  a  terrible 
obstacle,  and  how  to  get  the  better  of  it  I  could  not  divine.  ...  I 
could  do  nothing  the  whole  afternoon  but  think  how  happy  I  might 
be  in  the  evening.  Left  home  about  seven  o'clock,  so  as  to  call  on  a 
friend  and  be  ready  at  eight,  the  appointed  hour.  'T^vas  a  most 
lovely,  still  evening;  just  such  as  you  could  have  chosen  from  the 
whole  year  for  the  sighs,  protestations,  invocations,  etc.,  of  lovers.  I 
called  on  my  friend  and  tried  to  get  him  along  with  me,  in  order  that 

*  A  common  Scotch  expression  for  2£'eei--days,  excluding  the  Sunday ;  public  con- 
veyances used  to  be  advertised  as  plying  "on  all  lawful  days." 


OQ  ENGAGEMENT.— THE  MINISTER  OF  KIRKCALDY. 

I  might  throw  on  his  charge  the  intruder,  if  she  should  happen  to  be 
there.  It  would  not  do,  and  I  was  forced  to  go  alone,  resolving  to 
make  the  best  of  a  bad  business  should  I  be  so  unfortunate.  What, 
think  you,  was  my  disappointment — what  imagination  can  figure — 
what  language  describe  my  torment  when  I  found  she  was  gone  some 
time  ago  ?  "What  could  I  do  ?  The  sea  was  at  hand,  but  then  the 
tide  was  not  full ;  there  were  rocks  at  hand,  but  they  were  scarcely 
elevated  enough  for  a  lover's  leap.  I  took  my  solitary,  gloomy  way 
down  by  the  dark  shore.  I  lingered  long  beneath  the  gloom  of  a  ru- 
ined castle  that  overhangs  the  billow.  I  listened  to  the  dash  of  the 
waves,  and  cast  my  melancholy  eye  to  the  solitary  beacon  gleaming 
from  afar.  I  fancied,  fantastically  enough,  that  it  was  an  image  of 
myself  separated  and  driven  to  a  distance  from  what  in  the  world  I 
valued.  At  last,  however,  my  tardy  feet,  after  scrambling  on  many 
a  ledgy  rock,  and  splashing  in  many  a  pool,  brought  me  to  the  haunts 
of  men.  .  .  .  where  there  were  few  stirring  to  disturb  the  repose  of 
my  silent  thoughts ;  I  stole  home,  and  endeavored  to  find  oblivion  of 
my  cares  in  the  arms  of  sleep.  .  .  .  Since  that  time  the  unfortunate 
subject  of  the  above  tragic  incident  has  consigned  every  serious  study 
to  neglect." 

This  whimsical  effusion  concludes  with  a  significant  note: 
"  Have  you  got  introduced  to  Miss  P.  or  Miss  D.  yet  ?  If  you  be, 
present  my  kind  compliments.  But  at  your  'peril  mention  a  word 
of  the  lady  to  whom  I  have  referred  as  honoring  this  part  of  the  world 
loith  her  presence ./" 

Out  of  the  serio-comic  levity  of  this  beginning,  however,  sprang 
important  conclusions.  Though  it  was  only  after  a  distance  of 
long  years  and  much  separation,  the  usual  vicissitudes  of  youthful 
life,  and  all  the  lingering  delays  of  a  classical  probation,  that  the 
engagement  was  completed,  Irving  found  his  mate  in  Fifeshire. 
Not  long  after  she  had  ceased  to  be  his  pupil  he  became  engaged 
to  Isabella  Martin,  the  eldest  daughter  of  the  parish  minister  of 
Kirkcaldy.  She  was  of  a  clerical  race,  an  hereditary  "daughter 
of  the  Manse,"  according  to  the  afifectionate  popular  designation, 
and  of  a  name  already  in  some  degree  known  to  fame  in  the  per- 
son of  Dr.  Martin,  of  Monimail,  her  grandfather,  who  survived 
long  enough  to  baptize  and  bless  his  great-grandchildren — who 
had  some  local  poetical  reputation  in  his  day,  and  whom  the 
grateful  painter,  entitled  in  Scotland  "  our  immortal  Wilkie,"  has 
commemorated  as  having  helped  his  early  struggles  into  fame  by 
the  valuable  gift  of  two  lay  figures ;  and  of  David  Martin,  his 
brother,  first  proprietor  of  the  said  lay  figures,  whose  admirable 
portraits  are  well  known.  Her  father,  the  Rev.  John  Martin,  was 
an  admirable  type  of  the  class  to  which  he  belonged — an  irre- 
proachable parish  priest,  of  respectable  learning,  and  talents,  and 


THE  MANSE  HOUSEHOLD.  57 

deep  piety,  living  a  domestic  patriarclial  life  in  tlie  midst  of  the 
little  community  under  his  charge,  fully  subject  to  their  observa- 
tion and  criticism,  but  without  any  rival  in  his  position  or  influ- 
ence; bringing  up  his  many  children  among  them,  and  spending 
his  active  days  in  all  that  fatherly  close  supervision  of  morals  and 
manners  which  distinguished  and  became  the  old  hereditary  min- 
isters of  Scotland.  He  was  of  the  party  then  called  "wild"  or 
"highflyers," in  opposition  to  the  "Moderates,"  who  formed  the 
majority  of  the  Church,  and  whose  flight  was  certainly  low  enough 
to  put  them  in  little  hazard  from  any  skyey  influences.  Such  a 
man  in  those  days  exercised  over  the  bulk  of  his  people  an  influ- 
ence which,  perhaps,  no  man  in  any  position  exercises  now,  and 
in  which  the  special  regard  of  the  really  religious  portion  of  his 
flock  only  put  a  more  fervent  climax  upon  the  traditionary  re- 
spect of  the  universal  people,  always  ready,  when  he  was  worthy 
of  it,  to  yield  to  the  traditionary  sway  of  the  minister,  though 
equally  ready  to  jeer  at  and  scorn  him  when  he  was  not,  with  a 
contempt  increased  by  their  national  appreciation  of  the  import- 
ance of  his  ofiice.  To  the  house  of  this  good  man  Irving  had 
early  obtained  access,  the  Manse  children  in  a  goodly  number 
being  among  his  scholars,  and  the  Manse  itself  forming  the  natu- 
ral centre  of  all  stray  professors  of  literature  in  a  region  which 
had  too  many  sloops  and  looms  on  hand  to  be  greatly  attracted 
that  way.  The  family  in  this  Manse  of  Kirkcaldy,  which  after- 
ward became  so  closely  related  to  him,  and  the  younger  members 
of  which  understood  him  all  the  better  that  their  minds  had  been 
formed  and  developed  under  his  instruction,  were,  during  all  his 
after  life,  Irving's  fast  friends,  accompanying  him,  not  with  con- 
currence or  agreement  certainly,  but  with  faithful  afiection  and 
kindness  to  the  very  edge  of  the  grave.  Irving  himself,  in  one 
of  his  somewhat  formal  early  letters,  gives  us  a  pleasant,  if  slight- 
ly elaborate  glimpse  of  this  domestic  circle.  He  is  writing  to  one 
of  its  absent  daughters,  and  apologizing  "for  not  having  expressed 
sooner  the  higher  regard  which  I  have  for  you." 

"  But,"  he  proceeds,  "  I  sometimes  find  for  myself  an  excuse  in 
thinking  that  almost  the  whole  of  that  leisure  of  which  you  were  so 
well  entitled  to  a  share  has  been  engrossed  in  that  family  circle  of 
which  you  were  wont  to  form  a  part,  and  with  which  your  warmest 
sympathies  will  for  a  long  time,  perhaps  forever,  dwell.  They  are 
well,  and  living  in  that  harmony  and  happiness  which  Providence,  as 
it  must  approve,  will  not,  I  pray,  soon  disturb.  Your  brothers  and 
sisters,  as  formerly,  have  gone  on  securing  the  esteem  of  their  teach- 


58  SISTER  ELIZx\.BETH.— HER  HUSBAND. 

ers,  delighting  the  hearts  of  your  worthy  parents  with  placid  joy, 
and  laying  up  for  themselves  a  fund  of  useful  knowledge,  of  warm 
and  virtuous  feelings,  and  of  pleasing  recollections,  which  will  go  far 
to  smooth  for  them  the  rugged  features  of  life.  God  grant  that  they 
and  you  may  continue  to  merit  all  the  good  that  I  for  one  do  wish 
you,  and  that  you  may  receive  all  that  you  merit.  By  me  it  shall 
ever  be  esteemed  among  the  most  fortunate  events  of  my  life  to  have 
been  brought  to  the  acquaintance  of  your  father  and  his  family,  and 
I  trust  that  the  intimacy  which  they  have  honored  me  with  shall  one 
day  ripen  into  a  closer  connection." 

Then  follow  some  counsels  to  the  young  lady  on  her  studies 
(particularly  recommending  the  acquirement  of  "  a  correct  Eng- 
lish accent  and  pronunciation"),  which  must  have  been  of  rather 
an  ambitious  kind. 

"  Last  night  we  had  a  talk  at  the  Manse  over  a  clause  in  your  last 
letter  about  your  Greek  pursuits ;  and  we  have  arranged  to  send  you 
by  the  first  opportunity  a  copy  of  Moor's  Grammar  and  Dunbar's 
Exercises,  which,  with  the  Greek  Testament,  will  withstand  your 
most  diligent  efforts  for  at  least  one  year.  You  are  not  fixr  from 
Cambridge ;  you  ought  to  possess  yourself  of  a  complete  set  of  the 
Cambridge  course  (Wood  and  Vine's),  and  study  them  regularly;  at 
the  same  time,  be  cautious  of  losing,  in  the  superior  convenience  and 
readiness  of  the  analytical  or  algebraical  method,  the  simple  and  ele- 
gant spirit  of  the  ancient  Geometry,  to  which  Leslie's  elements,  espe- 
cially the  Analysis,  is  so  good  an  introduction.    I  would  like  to  have 

a  correspondence  with  you  on  scientific  subjects The 

news  of  the  burgh  I  intrust  to  those  Avho  know  them  better.  The 
people  wear  the  same  faces  as  when  you  left,  and  their  manners  seem 
nearly  as  stationary.  I  leave  the  remainder  of  my  paper  to  Isabel. 
I  can  not  claim,  but  do  hope  for  a  letter  soon.  When  it  comes,  it 
shall  be  to  me  like  a  holiday." 

The  lady  addressed  in  this  strain  of  old-fashioned  regard  and 
kindness  was  one  with  whom,  in  after  life,  he  had  much  inter- 
course, and  who  was  not  only  a  sister,  but  a  friend  capable  of  ap- 
preciating his  character.  Years  after,  he  expresses,  with  a  certain 
naive  frankness  quite  his  own,  his  hopes  that  a  dear  friend  about 
to  return  to  Scotland,  and  whom  he  had  earnestly  advised  to 
marry,  should  be  "directed  by  the  Lord  to  one  of  those  sisters 
who  are  in  my  mind  always  represented  as  one."  Irving's  prayer 
was  granted.  The  warm-hearted  and  admirable  William  Hamil- 
ton,* the  friend  of  his  choice  and  faithful  counselor  to  the  end, 

*  William  Hamilton,  a  merchant  in  Cheapside,  and,  like  Irving,  a  native  of  Dum- 
friesshire, was  one  of  the  early  office-bearers  in  the  Caledonian  Chapel,  Ilatton  Gar- 
den ;  a  man  who,  in  the  inglorious  but  profitable  toils  of  business,  concealed  from  the 
world  an  amount  of  practical  sagacity,  unpurchasable,  unacquirable  endowment, 
which  might  have  honored  a  higher  place,  and  whose  warm  heart  and  benign  man- 


"TRIALS  FOR  LICENSE.'^— EXAMINATION.  59 

became  his  brother-in-law ;  and  to  the  sister  thus  brought  into 
his  immediate  neighborhood  some  of  his  most  touching  confiden- 
ces were  afterward  addressed. 

He  had  now  completed  his  necessary  tale  of  collegiate  sessions, 
having  been,  in  the  partial  and  irregular  way  necessitated  by  his 
other  occupations,  in  attendance  at  the  Divinity  Hall  for  six  long 
winters.  He  was  now  subjected  to  the  "  trials  for  license"  which 
Presbyterian  precautions  require.  "They  are  now  taken  to  se- 
verest trials  by  the  Presbytery  of  the  Church  in  those  bounds 
where  they  reside,"  he  himself  describes  with  loving  boastfulness, 
proud  of  the  severities  of  the  Church  from  which  he  never  could 
separate  his  heart,  "  and  circular  letters  are  sent  to  all  the  presby- 
ters in  that  district,  in  order  that  objections  may  be  taken  against 
him  who  would  have  the  honor,  and  take  upon  himself  the  trust 
of  preaching  Christ.  If  no  objections  are  offered,  they  proceed  to 
make  trial  of  his  attainments  in  all  things  necessary  for  the  min- 
istry— his  knowledge,  his  piety,  his  learning,  and  his  character. 
They  prescribe  to  him  five  several  discourses ;  one  an  '  Ecce  Je- 
sum,'  in  Latin,  to  discover  his  knowledge  in  that  language ;  an- 
other an  exercise  in  Greek  criticism,  to  discover  his  knowledge  in 
sacred  literature ;  another  a  homily ;  another  a  discourse  to  the 
clergy,  to  know  his  gifts  in  expounding  the  Scriptures ;  another 
a  sermon,  to  know  his  gifts  in  preaching  to  the  people.  These 
trials  last  half  a  year;  and,  being  found  sufficient,  he  is  permitted 
to  preach  the  Gospel  among  the  churches.  But  he  is  not  yet  or- 
dained, for  our  Church  ordaineth  no  man  without  a  flock." 

It  is  thus  that  Irving,  when  at  the  height  of  his  fame,  and  open- 
ing the  great  new  church  built  for  him  in  London,  affectionately 
vaunts  the  carefulness  of  his  ecclesiastical  mother.  He  went 
through  his  "trials"  in  the  early  part  of  the  year  1815,  and  was 
fully  licensed  to  preach  the  Gospel  by  the  Presbytery  of  Kirk- 
cald}"  in  the  June  of  that  year;  and  "  exercised  his  gift,"  accord- 
ing to  the  old  Scotch  expression,  thereafter  in  Kirkcaldy  and 
other  places  with  no  great  amount  of  popular  appreciation.  A 
humorous  description  of  his  first  sermon  preached  in  Annan  is 

ners  are  remembered  by  many  in  his  own  sphere,  where  no  man  possessed  a  more 
entire  popularity.  He  had  a  share  in  originating  the  "call"  from  the  scanty  Scotch 
congregation,  all  unaware  of  what  that  call  of  theirs  was  to  bring  about,  who  brought 
Irving  to  London  ;  was  his  close  and  affectionate  coadjutor  for  many  years ;  and, 
not  being  able  at  last  to  follow  so  far  as  his  beloved  friend  would  have  led  him,  stood 
silently  and  sorrowfully  by  to  witness  that  disruption  and  separation  which  he  could 
not  avert. 


60  "  OWER  MUCKLE  GRAN'NER." 

given  by  an  early  friend.  The  "haill  town,"  profoundly  critical 
and  miich  interested,  turned  out  to  hear  him ;  even  his  ancient 
teachers,  with  solemn  brows,  came  out  to  sit  in  judgment  on  Ed- 
ward's sermon.  A  certain  excitement  of  interest,  unusual  to  that 
humdrum  atmosphere,  thrilled  through  the  building.  "When  the 
sermon  was  in  fall  current,  some  incautious  movement  of  the 
young  preacher  tilted  aside  the  great  Bible,  and  the  sermon  it- 
self, that  direful  "paper"  which  Scotch  congregations  hold  in 
high  despite,  dropped  out  bodily,  and  fluttered  down  upon  the 
precentor's  desk  underneath.  A  perfect  rustle  of  excitement  ran 
through  the  church.  Here  was  an  unhoped-for  crisis!  What 
would  the  neophyte  do  now  ?  The  young  preacher  calmly  stoop- 
ed his  great  figure  over  the  pulpit,  grasped  the  manuscript  as  it 
lay,  broadways,  crushed  it  up  in  his  great  hand,  thrust  it  into  a 
pocket,  and  went  on  as  fluently  as  before.  There  does  not  exist 
a  congregation  in  Scotland  which  that  act  would  not  have  taken 
by  storm.  His  success  was  triumphant.  To  criticise  a  man  so 
visibly  independent  of  "the  paper"  would  have  been  presump- 
tion indeed. 

In  Kirkcaldy,  however,  his  appearances  neither  excited  such 
interest,  nor  were  attended  by  any  such  fortunate  accidents.  The 
people  listened  doubtfully  to  those  thunder-strains  which  echoed 
over  their  heads,  and  which  were  certainly  not  like  Dr.  Martin's 
sermons.  They  could  not  tell  what  to  make  of  discourses  so 
strangely  different  from  the  discourses  of  other  orthodox  young 
probationers,  and  doubtless  the  style  was  still  unformed,  and  had 
not  yet  attained  that  rhythm  and  music  which  would  not  have 
passed  unnoticed  even  in  Kirkcaldy ;  yet  the  common  complaint 
alleged  against  it  was  perfectly  characteristic.  "He  had  ower 
muckle  gran'ner,"  the  good  people  said,  with  disturbed  looks. 
Too  much  grandeur !  most  true,  but  most  singular  of  criticisms ! 
A  certain  baker,  Beveridge  by  name  (let  us  hand  it  down  to  such 
immortality  as  can  be  conferred  by  this  record),  rudely,  with 
Scotch  irreverence  for  the  place  in  which  he  was,  kicked  his  pew- 
door  open  and  bounced  forth  out  of  the  church  when  the  lofty 
head  of  the  young  schoolmaster  was  seen  in  the  pulpit ;  and  the 
same  church,  which  a  few  years  after  was  disastrously  crowded 
with  hearers  coming  far  and  near  at  the  name  of  the  great  preach- 
er, thinned  out  of  its  ordinary  attendance  in  those  early  daj-s  when 
he  was  to  supply  Dr.  Martin's  place.  He  got  no  credit  and  little 
encouragement  in  what  was,  after  all,  his  real  vocation.     The  fer- 


OTHER  PEOPLE'S  SERMONS.  gl 

vent  beginnings  of  his  eloquence  were  thrown  back  cold  upon 
his  heart ;  no  eye  in  his  audience  making  response  to  that  imper- 
fect splendid  voice  of  half-developed  genius,  which  was  so  won- 
derfully distinct  from  the  commonplace  shrills  of  ordinary  pulpit 
declamation  which  they  listened  to  and  relished.  He  had  "ower 
muckle  gran'ner"  for  the  good  people  of  Kirkcaldy.  His  chaotic 
splendors  disconcerted  them ;  and  no  doubt  there  was  a  certain 
justice  in  the  general  voice.  A  style  so  rich  and  splendid  might 
very  well  have  sounded  turgid  or  bombastic  in  youth,  before  the 
harmonious  key-note  had  been  found. 

He  lingered  three  years  after  his  license  as  a  preacher  in  his 
schoolmaster's  desk — silent,  listening  to  other  preachers,  not  al- 
ways with  much  edification — noting  how  the  people  to  whom  his 
own  "  unacceptableness"  was  apparent  relished  the  platitudes  of 
meaner  men ;  laying  in  unconsciously  a  certain  scorn  and  intol- 
erance of  those  limited  pretenders  to  wisdom,  whose  sham  or  bor- 
rowed coin  had  fuller  currency  than  his  own  virgin  gold ;  and  as 
he  sat  in  a  position  from  which  he  could  at  once  watch  the  pulpit 
and  the  audience,  with  thoughts  on  this  momentous  and  often-dis- 
cussed subject  taking  gradual  form  in  his  mind,  he  asked  himself 
the  reasons  of  his  own  apparent  failure.  He  asked  himself  a  still 
deeper  question,  whether  this  was  the  preaching  of  Paul  and  his 
brother  apostles  ?  This  process  of  thought  is  apparent  through- 
out all  his  works,  and  above  all  in  the  Orations  with  which  ho 
first  burst  upon  the  world.  Those  three  years  of  slow  successive' 
Sundays,  now  and  then  interrupted  by  an  occasional  appearance 
in  the  pulpit  hailed  by  no  gracious  looks,  gave  the  silent  listener, 
whose  vocation  it  was  to  preach,  deep  insight  into,  and  deeper  im- 
patience of,  the  common  conventionalities  of  the  pulpit.  He  found 
out  how  little  the  sermons  he  heard  touched  his  case :  to  his  own 
mind  he  represented  himself,  all  glowing  with  genius  and  eager- 
ness, as  a  representative  of  the  educated  hearer,  and  chafed,  as 
many  a  man  has  chafed  since,  over  the  dead  platitudes  which 
were  only  a  weariness.  It  is  probable  that  this  compulsory  pause, 
irksome  as  it  may  have  been,  was  of  the  profoundest  importance 
both  to  Irving  and  to  his  future  eloquence.  It  delivered  him  en- 
tirely from  the  snare  of  self-admiration,  so  far  as  his  pulpit  efibrts 
were  concerned,  and  concentrated  his  powers  on  the  perfection  of 
his  style  and  utterance ;  while  it  gave  at  once  to  his  Christian  zeal 
and  human  ambition  the  sharpest  of  all  spurs — the  keen  stimulus 
of  seeing  other  men  do  that  work  badly  or  slothfully  which  he 


62  HIS  THOUGHTS  ABOUT  PREACHING. 

felt  it  was  in  him  to  do  -well.  The  peculiar  position  of  a  Scotch 
probationer,  on  the  very  threshold  of  the  Church,  but  not  within 
it ;  a  preacher,  but  still  only  a  layman,  with  the  title  of  reverend 
sometimes  accorded  to  him  by  courtesy,  but  entirely  without  ec- 
clesiastical position,  gave  him  all  the  greater  facility  for  forming 
a  judgment  upon  the  inadequacies  of  the  ordinary  pulpit.  Such 
speculations  were  not  common  in  those  days.  People  who  ac- 
knowledged the  influence  of  the  Church  considered  themselves 
bound,  for  reasons  both  religious  and  political,  to  maintain  it  in  all 
points,  and  suffer  no  assault ;  while  those  who  did  not  held  it  in 
entire  contempt  as  an  unimprovable  institution.  The  Kirkcaldy 
probationer  belonged  to  neither  of  these  classes.  He  saw  with  an 
ideal  eye,  which  went  as  yet  far  beyond  his  powers  of  execution, 
what  that  pulpit  could  do  and  ought  to  do.  He  was  by  far  too 
bold  and  candid,  and  too  thoroughly  assured  of  the  truth  he  held 
to  be  afraid  of  attracting  notice  to  its  imperfections ;  on  the  con- 
trary, it  chafed  his  very  soul  to  permit  it  to  be  supposed  that  re- 
ligion and  religious  teaching  were  for  the  vulgar  onl}^,  and  that 
what  satisfied  baker  Beveridge  was  to  be  considered  sufficient  for 
the  world ;  and  while  he  was  silent  his  heart  burned.  With  a 
temperament  such  as  his,  loving  love  and  approbation,  as  it  was 
natural  for  him  to  do,  and  believing  in  the  sincerity  of  all  men, 
no  other  discipline  could  have  been  half  so  effective.  He  learned, 
if  not  to  distrust  himself,  at  least  to  admit,  with  a  certain  sorrow- 
ful but  candid  astonishment,  that  the  world  in  general  did  not 
take  a  lofty  view  of  his  qualifications ;  and  he  passed  over  it, 
weighing  that  and  its  causes  in  his  heart  with  manful  humility 
and  surprise — meaning  to  be  at  the  bottom  of  this  ere  all  was. 
done ;  feeling  in  his  heart  that  it  was  only  for  a  time. 

During  this  period  of  his  life,  his  personal  religious  sentiments 
are  not  very  apparent,  nor  is  there  any  record,  so  far  as  I  have 
been  able  to  ascertain,  of  such  a  critical  moment  in  his  life  as  those 
which  have  formed  the  turning-point  of  so  many  minds.  He  was 
spotless  in  morals  and  manners  at  all  times,  but  not  without  faults 
of  temper ;  and  was  specially  distinguished  by  a  certain  cheerful, 
cordial  pugnacity,  and  readiness,  when  occasion  called  for  it,  to 
adopt  a  boldly  offensive  line  of  tactics  in  support  of  his  own  dig- 
nity and  independence,  or  those  of  his  class ;  partly  stimulated 
thereto,  doubtless,  by  the  great  personal  strength  which  could  no 
more  consent  to  remain  inactive  than  any  other  of  his  gifts.  In 
one  of  his  many  walking  excursions,  for  example,  he  and  his  com- 


ADVENTURE  IN  A  HIGHLAND  INN.— ANECDOTE.  53 

panion  came  to  a  little  roadside  inn,  where  there  was  but  one  sit- 
ting-room, of  a  very  homely  description.  The  young  men  left 
their  coats  and  knapsacks  in  this  room,  ordered  dinner,  and  went 
out  to  investigate  the  neighborhood  while  it  was  getting  ready. 
On  their  return,  however,  they  found  the  room  occupied  by  a  party 
of  tourists,  the  only  table  filled,  their  dinner  forestalled,  and  their 
belongings  huddled  into  a  corner.  Remonstrances  were  unavail- 
ing ;  the  intruders  not  only  insisted  that  they  had  a  right  to  re- 
tain possession  of  the  room,  but  resisted  the  entrance  of  the  hun- 
gry and  tired  pedestrians,  and  would  neither  share  the  table  nor 
the  apartment.  When  fair  means  were  no  longer  practicable,  Ir- 
ving pushed  forward  to  the  window,  and  threw  it  wide  open ; 
then,  turning  toward  the  company,  all  ready  for  action,  gravely 
addressed  his  comrade:  "Will  you  toss  out  or  knock  down?"  a 
business-like  inquiry,  which,  according  to  the  story,  changed  with 
great  rapidity  the  aspect  of  affairs.  Other  anecdotes  not  unsimi- 
lar  might  be  quoted.  "In  the  year  1816,"  says  Dr. Grierson,  "  the 
42d  Regiment,  having  returned  after  Waterloo,  was  employed  to 
line  the  streets  of  Edinburgh  on  the  day  when,  at  the  opening  of 
the  General  Assembly,  the  Royal  Commissioner  proceeded  in  state 
from  the  reception  hall  in  Hunter  Square  to  St.  Giles's.  Standing 
in  front  of  the  Grenadier  Company,  Irving  said  to  me,  pointing  to 
the  tallest  man  among  them, '  Do  you  see  that  fellow  ?  I  should 
like  to  meet  him  in  a  dark  entry.'  '  For  what  reason  ?'  I  inquired. 
'  Just,'  said  he, '  that  I  might  find  out  what  amount  of  drubbing  I 
could  bear!' " 

The  meeting  of  Assembly  here  referred  to  was  enlivened  by  a 
momentary  specimen  of  the  young  man's  muscular  power.  It  is 
impossible,  out  of  Scotland,  to  form  any  idea  of  what  was  then  the 
interest  excited  by  the  General  Assembly,  which  had  been  for 
centuries  the  national  Parliament  of  exclusive  Scottish  principles 
and  feelings.  The  late  Lord  Cockburn  in  his  Memorials,  as  well  as 
in  his  life  of  Lord  Jeffrey,  has  reproduced,  in  slight  but  graphic 
sketches,  the  characteristic  aspect  of  that  unique  ecclesiastical 
body.  Scotch  churchmen  may  naturally  enough  object  to  the 
friendly  but  not  reverential  description  of  the  brilliant  lawyer; 
but  it  is  almost  the  only  popular  picture  of  the  most  national  of 
all  Scotch  institutions  which  can  be  referred  to.  Matters  are  al- 
tered nowadays ;  the  unity  is  broken ;  and,  however  interesting 
the  annual  meetings  of  the  Scotch  churches  may  be,  there  are 
now  two  of  them,  both  of  which  are  incomplete,  and  neither  of 


64  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY. 

which  has  a  full  title  to  be  called  national.  At  the  period  of 
which  we  are  now  speaking  there  was  scarcely  any  dissent  in  the 
country ;  the  body  of  the  nation  held  tenaciously  by  the  Kirk, 
laymen  of  the  highest  class  shared  in  its  deliberations,  and  the 
most  distinguished  lawyers  of  the  Scotch  bar  pleaded  in  its  judicial 
courts.  A  great  discussion  in  the  Assembly  was  as  interesting  to 
Edinburgh  as  a  great  debate  in  Parliament  would  be  in  London 
to-day ;  and  the  interest,  and  even  excitement,  which  attended 
this  yearly  convocation,  had  taken  a  stimulus  from  the  growing 
stir  of  external  life,  and  from  the  still  more  important  growth  of 
existence  within.  The  time  was  critical  for  every  existing  insti- 
tution. The  Church,  long  dormant,  was,  like  other  organizations, 
beginning  to  thrill  with  a  new  force,  against  which  all  the  slum- 
brous past  arrayed  itself;  and  the  Scotch  metropolis  was  stirred 
with  universal  emotion  to  see  the  new  act  of  that  world-long 
drama  which  is  renewed  from  age  to  age  in  every  church  and 
country ;  that  struggle  in  which,  once  in  a  century  at  least,  indif- 
ference and  common  usage  are  brought  to  bay  by  the  new  life 
rising  against  them,  and,  roused  at  last,  fight  for  their  sluggish 
existence  with  such  powers  as  they  are  able  to  muster.  At  such 
a  moment  occurred  the  famous  "Debate  on  the  Pluralities,"  which 
holds  an  important  place  in  the  modern  history  of  the  Scotch 
Church — a  debate  in  which  "Chalmers  of  Kilmany,"  not  long  be- 
fore zealously  ambitious  to  hold  such  pluralities  in  his  own  per- 
son, but  who  had  since  gone  through  that  mysterious  and  wonder- 
ful change  in  his  views,  which,  when  clearly  honest  and  undoubt- 
ed, no  human  audience  can  refuse  to  be  interested  in,  was  to  lead 
the  attack.  The  pluralities  in  question  were  such  as  might 
awaken  the  smiles  of  the  richer  establishment  on  the  other  side 
of  the  Tweed,  where  the  word  bears  a  more  important  meaning. 
The  widest  extent  of  pluralities  possible  to  a  Scotch  clergyman 
was  that  of  holding  a  professor's  chair  in  conjunction  with  his  pul- 
pit and  parochial  duties.  This  question,  which  at  the  time,  from  the 
parties  and  principle  involved,  interested  every  body,  had  natural- 
ly a  double  interest  for  the  future  ministers  of  the  Church.  The 
probationers  and  students  of  divinity  were  eager  to  gain  admit- 
tance. The  Assembly  sat  in  a  portion  of  St.  Giles's  known  by 
the  name  of  the  Old  Assembly  Aisle,  one  of  the  quaint  subdi- 
visions into  which  that  church,  like  Glasgow  Cathedral  in  former 
days,  has  been  partitioned  for  congregational  use  and  convenience 
and  where  the  narrow  pews  and  deep  steep  galleries,  thrust  in  be 


INTOLERANCE  OF  CIRCUMSTANCES.  65 

tween  tlie  lofty  pillars,  are  as  much,  out  of  keeping  with  thosje 
pillars  themselves  as  is  the  whitewashed  blank  of  wall,  despoiled 
of  its  tombs  and  altars,  under  the  calm  height  of  the  vault  above. 
"  The  Old  Assembly  Aisle,"  says  the  gentleman  already  quoted, 
"  afforded  but  very  limited  accommodation,  and  the  students'  gal- 
lery was  understood  to  be  occupied  by  some  persons  not  of  their 
body.  At  this  Irving  felt  great  indignation.  He  remonstrated 
■v^ith  the  doorkeeper,  but  in  vain ;  he  demanded  entrance  for  him- 
self and  others  who  were  excluded ;  and  when  no  attention  was, 
or  perhaps  could  be,  paid  by  that  official,  he  put  his  shoulder  to 
the  narrow  door,  and,  applying  his  Herculean  strength  to  it,  fairly 
wrenched  it  off  its  hinges !  The  crash  interrupted  the  proceedings 
of  the  court,  and  produced  both  surprise  and  diversion,  but  no  re- 
dress of  grievances." 

A  somewhat  unscrupulous  mode  of  entering  a  church,  it  must 
be  allowed.  Such  incidents  as  these — and  they  might  easily  be 
multiplied — display,  in  perhaps  its  least  objectionable  form,  that 
of  downright  personal  force  and  resistance,  the  national  charac- 
teristic intolerance  of  circumstances,  and  determination  to  subdue 
all  outside  obstacles  to  its  will,  which  shows  so  strongly  in  the 
youthful  development  of  Scotchmen ;  a  quality  little  recognized, 
but  most  influentia],  and  which  has  largely  affected  the  recent  his- 
tory of  the  Scotch  Church.  Nobody  can  read  the  life  of  Chalmers, 
manful  and  often  splendid  as  that  life  is,  without  a  perception  of 
this  determined  willfulness,  and  disinclination  to  yield  to  circum- 
stances. If  the  same  tendency  is  not  so  apparent  in  the  Jeffreys, 
Cockburns,  and  Tytlers  of  another  class,  it  is  probably  because  the 
somewhat  higher  social  sphere  of  the  latter  had  tempered  the 
sharpness  of  their  nationality.  Irving's  personal  strength  and 
relish  for  its  exercise  threw  into  amusing  outward  exhibitions  of 
force  a  quality  which,  though  always  picturesque  and  character- 
istic, is  not  always  amiable. 

As  the  time  of  his  probation  lengthened  out,  it  is  probable  that 
Irving,  with  all  his  inclinations  rising  toward  the  profession  which 
the  Church  had  now  solemnly  sanctioned  his  choice  of,  and  pro- 
nounced him  capable  for,  became  very  weary  of  his  schoolmaster 
life.  Another  school,  in  opposition  to  his,  was  set  up  in  the  town, 
not  apparently  from  any  distaste  toward  him,  but  from  the  ad- 
vancing desire  for  liberal  education  which  his  own  long  appren- 
ticeship in  Kirkcaldy  must  have  fostered ;  a  school  which — sin- 
gular luck  for  the  little  Fife  sea-port — secured  the  early  services 

E 


66  ABBOTSHALL  SCHOOL-HOUSE. 

of  Thomas  Carljle,  Changes  too,  and  attempts  at  widening  out 
his  limited  possibilities,  appear  in  his  own  life.  To  increase  the 
profits  of  his  post — which,  however,  of  themselves  appear  to  have 
been  considerable,  as  such  matters  go — Irving  made  an  attempt 
to  receive  private  pupils,  who  were  to  attend  his  school  and  live 
under  his  own  charge.  For  this  purpose  he  took  up  his  abode  in 
the  Abbotshall  school-house,  at  one  extremity  of  the  town  of 
Kirkcaldy,  but  in  another  parish,  the  parish  schoolmaster  of 
which  was,  like  himself,  a  candidate  for  the  Church.  The  house 
was  the  upper  flat  of  the  building  occupied  as  a  school,  and  was 
more  commodious  than  the  majority  of  schoolmasters'  houses.  A 
nobler  Marina  could  not  be  than  the  broad  terrace  overlooking 
the  firth,  but  totally  unappropriated  to  any  uses  of  fashion  or  vis- 
itors, upon  which  stands  the  school-house  of  Abbotshall,  beholding 
from  its  range  of  windows  a  wide  landscape,  always  interesting, 
and  often  splendid,  the  firth  with  all  its  islands,  the  distant  spires 
and  heights  of  Edinburgh,  and  the  green  Lothian  coast  with  its 
bays  and  hills.  Whether  the  pupils  were  slow  to  come,  or  the 
conjoint  household  did  not  answer,  or  Irving  himself  tired  of  the 
experiment,  does  not  appear ;  but  it  was  soon  given  up,  and  does 
not  seem  to  have  had  any  success.  "Ay,  Mr.  Irving  once  lived 
here — he  was  a  great  mathematician,"  says  the  present  incumbent, 
complacent  among  his  gooseberry  bushes ;  spoken  in  that  sunny 
garden,  such  words  throw  back  and  set  aside  the  years  which 
have  made  little  change  on  any  thing  but  man.  One  forgets  how 
his  sun  rose  to  noon,  and  at  noon  disastrously  went  down,  carry- 
ing with  it  a  world  of  hopes;  a  mist  of  distance  conceals  the  bril- 
liant interval  between  this  homely  house  and  the  Glasgow  Cathe- 
dral crypt.  Here,  where  once  he  lived,  it  is  not  the  great  preacher, 
the  prophet,  and  wonder  of  an  age,  whose  shadow  lingers  on  the 
kindly  soil.  He  was  master  of  Kirkcaldy  Academy  in  those 
"t  days.  He  was  "a  great  mathematician;"  the  glory  of  an  after 
career,  foreign  to  the  schoolroom,  has  not  rubbed  out  that  impres- 
sion from  the  mind  of  his  humble  successor  on  the  spot  where  as 
yet  he  had  no  other  fame. 


GIVES  UP  TEACHING.— BRISTO  STREET.  57 


CHAPTER  V. 

AFLOAT  ON  THE  WORLD. 

Bristo  Street. — Renewed  Studies. — Advice. — Literary  Societies. — Begins  Anew. — 
Was  his  own  Hearer. — Undisturbed  Belief. — His  Haddington  Pupil. — Candor 
and  Pugnacity. — Clouded  Prospects. — The  Apostolic  Missionaiy. — Domestic  Let- 
ters.— Carlyle. — Hopes  and  Fears. — Preaches  in  St.  George's,  Edinburgh. — Sus- 
pense.— Goes  to  Ireland. — Wanderings. — Invitation  to  Glasgow. — Interest  in 
Chui'ch  Affairs. — Doubtful  of  his  own  Success. 

In  1818,  when  lie  had  been  seven  years  in  Kirkcaldy,  and  had 
now  reached  the  maturity  of  his  twenty-sixth  year,  Irving  finally 
left  his  school  and  gave  up  teaching.  The  position  seems  to  have 
been  growing  irksome  to  him  for  some  time  before.  It  was  not 
his  profession ;  and  he  was  wasting  the  early  summer  of  his  life 
in  work  which,  however  cordially  he  embraced  it,  was  not  the 
best  work  for  such  a  man.  His  assistants,  too,  on  whom,  as  the 
school  increased,  he  had  to  depend,  brought  him  into  other  com- 
plications, and  he  was  now  no  longer  a  youth  lingering  at  the  be- 
ginning of  his  career,  but  a  man  eager  to  enter  the  arena  where 
so  many  others  less  worthy  were  contending  for  the  prize ;  and 
not  only  so,  but  a  man  engaged  to  be  married,  to  whom  Nature 
indicated  the  necessity  of  fixing  himself  permanently  in  life. 
Moved  by  the  rising  excitement  of  all  these  thoughts,  and  appa- 
rently not  without  means  of  maintaining  himself  for  some  time, 
while  he  saw  what  work  the  world  might  have  for  him  to  do,  he 
finally  gave  up  the  Kirkcaldy  Academy  in  the  summer  of  1818, 
and  resolving  henceforward  to  devote  himself  to  his  own  profes- 
sion alone,  came  to  Edinburgh,  where  he  took  lodgings  in  Bristo 
Street,  a  locality  still  frequented  by  students.  Here  he  was  near 
the  college,  and  in  the  centre  of  all  that  mental  activity  from 
which  he  had  been  separated  in  the  drowsy  retirement  of  the 
country  town.  He  entered  largely  and  gladly  into  all  academical 
pursuits.  He  renewed  his  acquaintance  with  friends  who  had 
been  with  him  in  his  early  college  days,  or  whom  he  had  met  in 
his  hurried  visits  to  Edinburgh  while  lingering  through  his  tedi- 
ous "partial"  sessions  in  the  Divinity  Hall;  and  seems  to  have 
heartily  set  to  work  to  increase  his  own  attainments,  and  make 


(38  EENEWED  STUDIES. 

himself  better  qualified  for  whatever  post  he  might  be  called  to. 
It  is  not  a  brilliant  period  in  the  young  man's  life.  He  presents 
^  himself  to  us  in  the  aspect  of  an  unsuccessful  probationer,  a  figure 
never  rare  in  Scotland ;  a  man  upon  whom  no  sunshine  of  pa- 
tronage shone,  and  whom  just  as  little  had  the  popular  eye  found 
out  or  fixed  upon;  whose  services  were  unsolicited  either  by 
friendly  ministers  or  vacant  congregations — a  man  fully  licensed 
and  qualified  to  preach,  whom  nobody  cared  to  hear.  With  the 
conviction  strong  in  his  mind  that  this  was  his  appointed  function 
in  the  world,  and  with  a  consciousness  of  having  pondered  the 
whole  matter  much  more  deeply  than  is  usual  with  young  preach- 
ers, there  rose  before  Irving  the  immovable  barrier  of  unsuccess — 
not  failure ;  he  had  never  found  means  to  try  his  powers  suffi- 
ciently for  failure ;  even  that  might  have  been  less  hard  to  bear 
than  the  blank  of  indifierence  and  "  unacceptability"  which  he 
had  now  to  endure.  His  services  were  not  required  in  the  world; 
the  profession  for  which,  by  the  labors  of  so  many  years,  he  had 
slowly  qualified  himself,  hung  in  his  hands  an  idle  capability  of 
which  nothing  came.  Yet  the  pause  at  first  seems  to  have  been 
grateful.  He  had  nothing  to  do ;  but,  at  all  events,  he  had  escaped 
from  long  toiling  at  a  trade  which  was  not  his. 

Accordingly,  he  attended  several  classes  in  the  college  during 
the  winter  of  1818-19,  among  which  were  Chemistry  and  Natural 
History.  "He  prosecuted  these  studies,"  says  a  fellow-student, 
"  at  least  in  some  of  their  branches,  with  great  delight ;"  although, 
iu  a  note  written  at  this  period  to  Mr.  Gordon,  afterward  Dr.  Gror- 
don  of  Edinburgh,  he  confesses,  while  mentioning  that  he  had  been 
studying  mineralogy,  "  that  he  had  learned  from  it  as  little  about 
the  structure  of  the  earth  as  he  could  have  learned  about  the 
blessed  Gospel  by  examining  the  book  of  kittle*  Chronicles !"  He 
was  also  much  occupied  with  the  modern  languages,  French  and 
Italian  especially.  These  were  before  the  days  of  Teutonic  en- 
thusiasm ;  but  Irving  seems  to  have  had  a  pleasure  in,  and  faculty 
for  acquiring  languages,  as  was  testified  by  his  rapid  acquirement 
of  Spanish  at  an  after  period  of  his  life.  Some  of  the  few  letters 
which  throw  any  light  on  this  period  are  occupied  with  discus- 
sions about  dictionaries  and  grammars,  and  the  different  prices  of 
the  same,  which  show  him  deep  in  the  pursuit  of  Italian,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  acting  as  general  agent  and  ready  undertaker  of 
country  commissions.     One  of  these,  addressed  to  one  of  his  pu- 

*  Difficult,  puzzling. 


LITERARY  SOCIETIES.  69 

pils  in  the  manse  of  Kirkcaldy,  conveys,  after  reporting  bis  dili- 
gence in  respect  to  sundry  of  such  commissions,  the  following 
advice : 

"  Let  me  entreat  you  to  pursue  your  own  improvement  sedu- 
lously, both  religious  and  intellectual.  Read  some  of  the  Latin 
and  Italian  classics  with  a  view  to  the  higher  accomplishments  of 
taste  and  sentiment,  directing  all  your  studies  by  the  principle  of 
fitting  your  mind  still  more  and  more  for  perceiving  the  beauties 
and  excellencies  God  has  spread  over  the  existence  of  man." 

Such  a  motive  for  studies  of  this  description  has  novelty  in  it, 
though  it  is  one  that  we  are  well  enough  accustomed  to  see  ap- 
plied to  all  those  educational  preparations  of  science  with  which 
our  schools  abound.  While  he  thus  occupied  himself  in  com- 
pleting an  education  which  throughout  must  have  been  more  a 
gradual  process  of  improving  and  furnishing  the  mind  than  of 
systematic  study,  Irving  had  also  engaged  warmly  in  all  the  rec- 
ognized auxiliaries  of  University  training.  He  had  been  in  the 
habit  for  years  before  of  occasionally  attending  the  meetings  of 
one  of  the  literary  societies  of  the  college,  the  Philomathic,  and 
taking  a  considerable  share  in  its  proceedings.  "  He  was  some- 
times very  keen  and  powerful  in  debate,"  says  Dr.Grierson,  "  and, 
without  being  unfair  or  overbearing,  was  occasionally  in  danger, 
by  the  vehemence  of  his  manner  and  the  strong  language  he  em- 
ployed, of  being  misunderstood  and  giving  offense."  But  on 
coming  to  Edinburgh  in  1818,  he  found  this  society,  now  defunct, 
too  juvenile  for  his  maturer  age  and  thoughts,  and  was  instru- 
mental in  instituting  another  of  riper  pretensions,  intended  "  for 
the  mutual  improvement  of  those  who  had  already  completed  the 
ordinary  academic  course."  This  was  called  the  Philosophical 
Association,  and  consisted  only  of  seven  or  eight  members,  of 
whom  Edward  Irving  was  one  and  Thomas  Carlyle  another. 
Some  teachers  of  local  eminence  and  licentiates  of  the  Church 
made  up  the  number.  The  vast  disproportion  which  exists  now 
between  these  immortals  and  the  nameless,  but,  in  their  own 
sphere,  not  undistinguished  men  who  surrounded  them,  was  not 
apparent  in  those  days,  and  probably  the  lesser  men  were  at  no 
such  disadvantage  in  their  argumentations  as  one  would  imagine 
at  the  first  glance.  The  first  essay  delivered  by  Irving  in  this 
society  was  "somewhat  unexpectedly,"  his  old  companion  says, 
on  the  subject  of  Bihle  Societies,  and  "  was  full  of  thought,  ardor, 
and  eloquence,  indicating  large  views  and  a  mind  prepared  for 


70  BEGINS  ANEW. 

high  and  holy  enterprise."  It  would  be  curious  to  know  what 
he  had  to  say  on  a  subject  which  afterward  caused  so  much  com- 
motion, and  on  which  some  of  his  own  most  characteristic  appear- 
ances were  made.  But  the  Philosophical  Association  is  also  de- 
funct ;  other  generations  have  formed  other  societies  of  their  own, 
and  the  early  sentiments  of  Irving  and  Carlyle  are  as  entirely  lost 
as  are  those  of  their  less  distinguished  colleagues. 

In  the  reviving  glow  of  intellectual  life,  his  long  pondering 
upon  the  uses  of  the  pulpit  came  to  a  distinct  issue.  He  an- 
nounced his  intention  of  burning  all  his  existing  sermons,  and  be- 
ginning on  a  new  system ;  an  intention  which  was  remorselessly 
carried  out.  Those  prelections  which  the  youth  had  delivered 
from  year  to  year  in  the  Divinity  Hall,  and  those  discourses 
which  the  Kirkcaldy  parishioners  had  despised,  and  Beveridge 
the  baker  had  boldly  escaped  from  hearing,  were  sacrificed  in 
this  true  auto  da  fe.  No  doubt  it  was  a  fit  and  wise  holocaust. 
Sacrificing  all  his  youthful  conventionalities  and  speculations,  Ir- 
ving, at  six-and-twent}^,  began  to  compose  what  he  was  to  address 
to  such  imaginary  hearers  as  he  himself  had  been  in  Kirkcaldy 
church.  The  wonderful  fame  which  flashed  upon  him  whenever 
he  stood  forth  single  before  the  world  takes  a  certain  explanation 
even  beyond  the  perennial  explanation  of  all  wonders  which  lies 
in  genius  from  this  fact.  For  the  four  silent  years  during  which 
he  had  possessed  the  right  to  speak,  other  people  had  been  ad- 
dressing him  out  of  Dr.  Martin's  pulpit ;  all  the  ordinary  round 
of  argument  and  exhortation  had  been  tried  in  unconscious  ex- 
periment upon  the  soul  of  the  great  preacher,  who  sat  silent, 
chafing,  yet  weighing  them  all  in  his  heart.  He  knew  where 
they  failed,  and  how  they  failed,  far  more  distinctly  than  reason 
or  even  imagination  could  have  taught  him.  Their  tedium,  their 
ineffectiveness,  their  wasted  power  and  superficial  feeling,  told  all 
the  more  strongly  upon  him  because  of  his  consciousness  that  the 
place  thus  occupied  was  his  own  fit  place,  and  that  he  himself 
had  actually  something  to  say ;  and  when  the  schoolmaster's  daily 
duties  were  over,  and  he  had  time  and  leisure  to  turn  toward  his 
own  full  equipment,  the  result  was  such  as  I  have  just  described. 
(Warmed  and  stimulated  by  his  own  experience,  he  began  to 

trite  sermons  to  himself — that  impatient,  vehement  hearer, 
hose  character  and  intelligence  none  of  the  other  preachers  had 
{Studied.  Perhaps,  in  the  midst  of  all  the  modern  outcry  against 
^ermons,  the  preachers  of  the  world  might  adopt  Irving's  method 


UNDISTURBED  BELIEF.  71 

with  advantage.  While  he  wrote  he  had  always  iu  his  eye  that 
brilliant,  dissatisfied,  restless  listener  among  the  side  pews  in  Kirk- 
caldy church.  He  knew  to  a  hair's-breadth  what  that  impatient 
individual  wanted — how  much  he  could  bear — how  he  could  be 
interested,  edified,  or  disgusted.  I  have  no  doubt  it  was  one  of 
the  greatest  secrets  of  his  after  power ;  and  that  the  sweet  breath 
of  popular  applause,  pleasant  though  it  might  have  been,  would 
have  injured  the  genius  which,  in  silence,  and  unacceptableness, 
and  dire  prolonged  experiment  of  other  people's  preaching,  came 
to  be  its  own  perennial  hearer — the  first  and  dee|)est  critic  of  its 
own  powers. 

One  of  the  first  occasions  when  he  preached  on  this  new  sys- 
tem, Dr.  Grierson  addsj  "He  was  engaged  to  supply  the  pulpit 
of  his  old  professor  of  divinity  (Dr.  Eitchie),  when,  in  his  noble 
and  impassioned  zeal  for  the  supreme  and  infallible  standard  of 
Scripture,  he  startled  his  audience  by  a  somewhat  unqualified 
condemnation  of  ecclesiastical  formulas,  although  he  still  unques- 
tionably maintained,  as  he  had  conscientiously  subscribed,  all  the 
doctrines  of  our  orthodox  Confession  of  Faith."  "  He  was  very 
fearless,  original,  striking,  and  solemn,"  continues  the  same  au- 
thority, "in  many  of  his  statements,  illustrations,  and  appeals." 
Though  he  is  described,  and  indeed  afterward  describes  himself, 
as  still  "  feeling  his  way"  in  respect  to  some  matters  of  religious 
truth,  doubt  does  not  seem  ever  to  have  invaded  his  mind.  At 
no  period  is  there  any  appearance  of  either  skepticism  or  uncer- 
tainty. While  his  mind  took  exception  at  the  manner  in  which 
the  truth  was  set  forth,  there  is  no  trace  in  his- life  of  that  period 
of  uncertain  or  negative  belief — that  agony  of  conflict  which  has 
come,  falsely  or  truly,  to  be  looked  upon  as  one  of  the  inevitable 
phenomena  of  spiritual  life  in  every  i*hdependent  mind.  The  he- 
roic simplicity  of  Irviug's  character  seems  to  have  rejected  that 
vain  contest  among  the  incomprehensibles  with  which  so  many 
young  men  begin  their  career.  Even  in  the  arbitrary,  reasoning,  ' 
unreasonable  days  of  youth,  logic  was  not  the  god  of  the  young- 
man,  who  never  could  disjoin  his  head  from  his  heart,  nor  dis- 
solve the  absolute  unity  of  nature  in  which  God  had  made  him; 
and  he  seems  to  have  come  through  all  the  perils  of  his  time — a 
time  in  which  skepticism,  if  less  refined,  was  by  a  great  deal 
franker,  honester,  and  more  outspoken  than  now — with  a  heart 
untouched,  and  to  have  entirely  escaped  what  was  then  called  | 
Free-thinking.     Whether  his  personal  piety  originated  in  any  '> 


72  HIS  HADDINGTON  PUPIL. 

visible  crisis  of  conversion  it  is  impossible  to  tell.  There  is  no 
trace  of  it  in  bis  history,  neither  does  he  himself  refer  to  any  sud- 
den light  cast  npon  his  life.  "  I  was  present  once  or  twice  about 
this  period,"  Dr.Grierson  tells  us,  "  when  he  was  asked  to  conduct 
family  prayers.  He  was  very  slow,  pointed,  and  emphatic,  and 
gave  one,  as  yet,  more  the  idea  of  profound,  earnest,  and  devout 
thinking  than  of  simple  and  fervent  petitioning."  But  it  is  im- 
possible to  point  to  any  portion  of  his  life  as  that  in  which  the 
spiritual  touch  was  given  which  vivified  all.  His  behavior  was 
at  all  times  blameless,  but  never  ascetical.  "  He  associated  with, 
and  lived  in  the  world  without  restraint,  joining  the  forms  and 
fashions  of  mixed  society,"  says  an  anonymous  writer,  supposed 
to  be  Allan  Cunningham,  who  afterward  acknowledges,  with  an 
apologetic  touch  of  horror,  that  his  social  habits  went  almost  the 
length  of  vulgarity,  since  he  was  once  in  the  habit  of  smoking 
when  in  the  company  of  smokers !  But  this  seems  the  hardest 
thing  that  any  one  has  to  say  against  him. 

"While  in  Edinburgh,  and  entering  into  all  the  modest  pleasures 
of  the  little  intellectual  society  above  described,  Irving  met  once 
more  the  little  pupil  whose  precocious  studies  he  had  superintend- 
ed at  Haddington.  He  found  her  a  beautiful  and  vivacious  girl, 
with  an  affectionate  recollection  of  her  old  master ;  and  the  young 
man  found  a  natural  charm  in  her  society.  I  record  this  only  for 
a  most  characteristic,  momentary  appearance  which  he  makes  in 
the  memory  of  his  pupil.  It  happened  that  he,  with  natural  gen- 
erosity, introduced  some  of  his  friends  to  the  same  hospitable 
house.  But  the  generosity  of  the  most  liberal  stops  somewhere. 
When  Irving  heard  the  praises  of  one  of  those  same  friends  fall- 
ing too  warmly  from  the  young  lady's  lips,  he  could  not  conceal 
a  little  pique  and  mortification,  which  escaped  in  spite  of  him. 
When  this  little  ebullition  was  over,  the  fair  culprit  turned  to 
leave  the  room,  but  had  scarcely  passed  the  door  when  Irving  hur- 
ried after  her,  and  called,  entreating  her  to  return  for  a  moment. 
When  she  came  back,  she  found  the  simple-hearted  giant  standing 
penitent  to  make  his  confession.  "The  truth  is, I  was  piqued," 
said  Irving ;  "I  have  always  been  accustomed  to  fancy  that  / 
stood  highest  in  your  good  opinion,  and  I  was  jealous  to  hear  you 
praise  another  man.  I  am  sorry  for  what  I  said  just  now — that 
is  the  truth  of  it ;"  and  so,  not  pleased,  but  penitent  and  candid, 
let  her  go.  It  is  ^a  fair  representation  of  his  prevailing  character- 
istic.   He  could  no  more  have  retained  what  he  felt  to  be  a  mean- 


CANDOR  AND  PUGNACITY.— CLOUDED  PROSPECTS.  73 

ness  on  his  mind  uncoufcssed  than  he  could  have  persevered  in 
the  wrong. 

With  this  humility,  however,  was  conjoined,  in  the  most  natu- 
ral and  genial  union,  all  that  old  pugnacity  which  had  distinguish- 
ed him  in  former  times.  Pretension  excited  his  wrath  wherever 
he  saw  it ;  and  perhaps  he  was  not  so  long-suffering  as  his  gigan- 
tic uncle.  A  story  of  a  similar  description  to  some  already  quoted 
belongs  to  this  period  of  his  life.  lie  had  undertaken  to  escort 
some  ladies  to  a  public  meeting,  where  it  was  necessary  to  be  in 
early  attendance  at  the  door  to  obtain  a  place.  Irving  had  taken 
up  a  position  on  the  entrance  steps  with  his  charges  under  his 
wing,  when  an  official  personage  came  pushing  his  way  through 
the  crowd,  and  ordering  the  people  to  stand  back.  "When  no  at- 
tention was  paid  to  him,  this  authoritative  person  put  out  his  hand 
to  thrust  the  Hercules  beside  him  out  of  his  way.  Irving  raised 
in  his  hand  the  great  stick  he  carried,  and  turned  to  the  intruder : 
"Be  quiet,  sir,  or  I  will  annihilate  you!"  said  the  mighty  proba- 
tioner. The  composure  with  which  this  truculent  sentence  was 
delivered  ^rew  a  burst  of  laughter  from  the  crowd,  which  com- 
pleted the  discomfiture  of  the  unfortunate  functionary. 

Thus  the  session — the  few  busy  months  of  University  labors — 
the  long  year  of  expectation  and  hope,  passed  over  amid  many  oc- 
cupations and  solacements  of  friendship.  But  when  the  door  was 
closed  in  the  dun-colored  Bristo  Street  room,  where  nothing  was 
to  be  seen  from  the  windows  but  a  dusty  street,  which  might  have 
flourished  in  any  vulgar  town  jn  existence,  and  bore  no  trace  of 
those  enchantments  of  Edinburgh  windows  which  make  up  for 
long  stairs  and  steep  ascents,  the  young  man's  prospects  were  not 
overcheerful.  He  had  put  forth  all  his  powers  of  mind  and  warn- 
ings of  experience  upon  his  sermons,  but  the  result  had  not  fol- 
lowed his  expectation.  He  was  still,  after  a  year's  interval,  the 
same  unemployed  probationer  that  he  had  left  Kirkcaldy ;  his 
money  nearly  about  spent,  most  likely,  and  his  cogitations  not 
joyful.  What  he  was  to  do  was  not  clearly  apparent.  That  he 
was  not  to  be  a  teacher  again  seems  distinct  enough,  but  whether 
he  was  ever  to  be  a  preacher  on  Scottish  soil  was  more  than  un- 
certain. When  he  had  shut  out  the  world  which  would  not  have 
him,  the  young  man  returned  into  his  solitude,  making  up  his 
mind  with  a  grieved  surprise,  which  is  quite  touching  and  grand 
in  its  unthought-of  humilty,  that  this  gift  of  his,  after  all  his  la- 
bors, was  still  not  the  gift  which  was  to  prove  effectual  in  his  na- 


74  THE  APOSTOLIC  MISSIONARY. 

tive  country.  He  loved  Lis  country  with  a  kind  of  worship,  but 
still,  if  she  would  not  have  him,  it  was  needful  rather  to  carry 
what  he  could  do  elsewhere,  than  to  lie  idle,  making  no  use  of 
those  faculties  which  had  to  be  put  to  usury  according  to  his  Mas- 
ter's commandment.  The  countryman  of  Mungo  Park  and  school- 
fellow of  Hugh  Clapperton  bethought  himself.  In  all  the  heathen 
world  which  hems  Christianity  about  on  every  side,  was  there 
not  room  for  a  missionary  according  to  the  apostolic  model — a 
man  without  scrip  or  purse,  entering  in  to  whosoever  would  re- 
ceive him,  and  passing  on  when  he  had  said  his  message  ?  A 
missionary,  with  Exeter  Hall  expectant  behind  him,  and  a  due 
tale  of  conversions  to  render  year  after  year,  Irving  never  could 
have  been  ;  but  in  Lis  despondency  and  discouragement,  the  youth- 
ful thought  which  had  stirred  him  long  ago  returned  as  a  kind  of 
comfort  and  hopeful  alternative  to  his  mind.  He  no  longer  cast 
stones  into  the  pools  as  he  did  with  the  Haddington  schoolboys, 
but  he  set  about  the  zealous  study  of  languages,  in  order  to  qual- 
ify himself  for  the  kind  of  mission  he  purposed.  To  make  his 
way  through  the  Continent,  a  religious  wanderer  totally  unencum- 
bered with  worldly  provisions,  it  was  necessary  to  know  the  lan- 
guages of  the  countries  which  he  had  to  cross ;  and  the  idea  re- 
freshed him  in  the  tedium  of  his  long  probation.  When  the  ar- 
rival of  summer  dispersed  his  friends,  Irving  took  refuge  among 
his  books,  with  thoughts  of  this  knight-errantry  and  chivalrous 
enterprise  swelling  above  the  weariness  of  sickened  hope.  It  was 
not  the  modern  type  of  missionary,  going,  laden  with  civilization 
and  a  printing-press,  to  clear  his  little  garden  in  the  wilderness. 
It  was  the  red-cross  knight  in  that  armor  dinted  with  the  impress 
of  many  battle-fields ;  it  was  the  apostolic  messenger,  undaunted 
and  solitary,  bearing  from  place  to  place  the  Gospel  for  which  he 
could  be  content  to  die.  The  young  man  looked  abroad  on  this 
prospect,  and  his  heart  rose.  It  comforted  him  when  the  glow  of 
summer  found  him,  country  bred  and  country  loving  as  he  was, 
still  shut  up  in  the  shabby  world  of  Bristo  Street.  "  Eejected  by 
the  living,"  he  is  recorded  to  have  said,  "  I  conversed  with  the 
dead,"  His  eyes  turned  to  the  East,  as  was  natural.  He  thought 
of  Persia,  it  is  said,  where  the  Malcolms,  his  countrymen,  from  the 
same  vigorous  soil  of  Annandale,  were  making  themselves  illus- 
trious. And  with  grammars  and  alphabets,  with  map  and  histo- 
ry, with  the  sileht  fathers  of  all  literature  standing  by,  prepared 
himself  for  this  old  world  demonstration  of  his  allegiance  and  his 
faith. 


DOMESTIC  LETTERS.  75 

Some  letters  which  have  lately  come  into  my  hands,  and  of  the 
existence  of  which  I  was  unaware  at  the  time  the  above  pages 
were  written,  lift  the  veil  from  this  silent  period  of  his  life,  and 
reveal,  if  not  much  of  his  loftier  aspirations,  at  least  all  the  hopeful 
uncertainty,  the  suspense,  sometimes  the  depression,  always  the 
warm  activity  and  expectations,  naturally  belonging  to  such  a 
pause  in  the  young  man's  existence.  They  are  all  addressed  to 
the  Martin  family,  who  had  done  so  much  to  brighten  his  life  in 
Kirkcaldy;  and  show  how  his  style  in  letter- writing  begins  to 
widen  out  of  its  youthful  formality  into  ease  and  characteristic 
utterance.  Ever  exuberant  in  his  expressions  of  obligation  and 
gratitude,  he  writes  to  the  kind  mother  of  the  Kirkcaldy  manse  as 
"her  to  whom,  of  matrons,  I  owe  the  most  after  her  who  gave  me 
birth;"  and  warmly  acknowledges  that  "the  greater  part  of  that 
which  is  soothing  and  agreeable  in  the  experiences  of  my  last  six 
years  is  associated  with  your  hospitable  house  and  delightful 
family ;"  while,  amid  somewhat  solemn  compliments  on  the  ac- 
quirements of  that  family,  their  former  teacher  joins  special  mes- 
sages "  to  Andrew,  with  my  request  that  each  day  he  would  read, 
as  regularly  as  his  Bible,  some  portion  of  a  classical  and  of  a 
French  author ;  and  to  David,  that  he  would  not  forget  the  many 
wise  havers  he  and  I  have  had  together."  In  another  letter  to 
Mrs.  Martin,  the  young  man  begs  her  acceptance,  with  many  dfepre- 
cations  of  the  clumsy  present,  of  a  hed^  which  he  describes  as  "the 
first  article  of  furniture  of  which  I  was  possessed,"  confessing  that 
"it  is  a  cumbrous  and  inelegant  memorial."  "But  let  me  dignify 
it  what  I  can,"  he  adds  quaintly,  "by  the  fervent  prayer  that 
while  it  appertains  to  your  household  it  may  always  support  a 
healthful  body,  and  pillow  a  sound  head,  and  shed  its  warmth 
over  a  warm  and  honest  heart.  After  such  a  benediction  you 
never  can  be  unkind  enough  to  refuse  me."  To  Mr.  Martin, 
Irving  writes  more  gravely  of  his  own  affairs,  discussing  at  length 
some  projects  for  his  future  occupation,  all  of  which  culminate  in 
the  proposed  travels  on  which  he  had  set  his  heart,  and  which 
were  to  be  commenced  by  study  in  Grermany.  The  following 
letter  opens  a  glimpse  into  that  youthful  world,  all  unaware  of  its 
own  future,  and  thinking  of  terminations  widely  different  from 
those  which  time  has  brought  about,  which  will  show  how  another 
career,  as  brilliant  and  longer  than  Irving's,  took  its  beginning  in 
the  same  cloudy  regions  of  uncertainty  and  unsuccess : 

"  Carlyle  goes  away  to-morrow,  and  Brown  the  next  day.    So  here 


76  CAKLYLE.— HOPES  AND  FEARS. 

I  am  once  more  on  my  own  resources,  except  Dixon,  who  is  [better] 
fitted  to  swell  the  enjoyment  of  a  joyous  than  to  cheer  the  soUtude 
of  a  lonely  hour.  For  this  Carlyle  is  better  fitted  than  any  one  I 
know.  It  is  very  odd,  indeed,  that  he  should  be  sent  for  want  of 
employment  to  the  country ;  of  course,  like  every  man  of  talent,  he 
has  gathered  around  this  Patmos  many  a  splendid  purpose  to  be  ful- 
filled, and  much  improvement  to  be  wrought  out.  '  I  have  the  ends 
of  my  thoughts  to  bring  together,  which  no  one  can  do  in  this 
thoughtless  scene.  I  have  my  views  of  life  to  reform,  and  the  whole 
plan  of  my  conduct  to  new-model;  and  into  all  I  have  my  health  to 
recover.  And  then  once  more  I  shall  venture  my  bark  upon  the 
waters  of  this  wide  realm,  and  if  she  can  not  weather  it,  I  shall  steer 
West,  and  try  the  waters  of  another  world.'  So  he  reasons  and  re- 
solves ;  but  surely  a  worthier  destiny  aw\aits  him  than  voluntary  ex- 
ile. And  for  myself,  here  I  am  to  remain  until  farther  orders — if 
from  the  East,  I  am  ready ;  if  from  the  West,  I  am  ready ;  and  if 
from  the  folk  of  Fife,  I  am  not  the  less  ready.     I  do  not  think  I  shall 

go  for  the  few  weeks  with  Kinloch and  I  beUeve,  after  all, 

they  are  rather  making  their  use  of  me  than  any  thing  else,  but  I 
know  not ;  and  it  is  mysejf,  not  them,  I  have  to  fend  for,  both  tempo- 
rally and  spiritually.  God  knows  how  ill  I  do  it ;  but  perhaps  in  His 
grace  He  may  defend  me  till  the  arrival  of  a  day  more  pregnant  to 
me  with  hours  of  religious  improvement. 

"  I  had  much  more  to  say  of  the  religious  meetings  I  have  been 
attending,  and  of  the  Burgher  Synod,  and  of  purposes  of  a  literary 
kind  I  am  conceiving,  but  lo !  I  am  at  an  end  Avith  my  paper  and 
time,  having  just  enough  of  both  to  commend  me  to  the  love  of  your 
household  and  to  the  fellowship  of  your  prayers. 

"  Your  most  affectionate  friend,  Edwakd  Irving." 

It  was  "while  in  this  condition,  and  with  contending  hopes  and 
despairs  in  his  mind,  that  Irving  received  a  sudden  invitation 
from  Dr.  Andrew  Thomson,  the  minister  of  St.  George's,  to  preach 
in  his  pulpit.  It  would  be  inconsistent  with  the  loved  principles 
of  Presbyterian  parity  to  distinguish  even  so  eminent  a  man  as 
Dr.  Andrew  Thomson  as  of  the  highest  clerical  rank  in  Edinburgh ; 
but  he  really  was  so,  in  as  far  as  noble  talent,  a  brilliant  and  dis- 
tinct character,  and — not  least  important — a  church  in  the  most 
fashionable  quarter  could  make  him.  With  the  exception  of  Dr. 
Chalmers,  he  was  perhaps  the  first  man  of  his  generation  then  in 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  so  that  the  invitation  itself  was  a  compli- 
ment to  the  neglected  probationer.  But  the  request  conveyed  also 
an  intimation  that  Dr.  Chalmers  was  to  be  present,  and  that  he 
was  then  in  search  of  an  assistant  in  the  splendid  labors  he  was 
beginning  in  Glasgow.  This  invitation  naturally  changed  the 
current  of  Irving's  thoughts.  It  turned  him  back  from  his  plans 
of  apostolical  wandering,  as  well  as  from  the  anxious  efforts  of  his 


PREACHES  IN  ST.  GEORGE'S,  EDINBURGH.  77 

friends  to  procure  pupils  who  might  advance  his  interests,  and 
placed  before  him  the  most  desirable  opening  to  his  real  profes- 
sion which  he  could  possibly  light  upon.  That  path  which  should 
lead  him  to  his  chosen  work,  at  home,  in  the  country  of  his  kin- 
dred, his  love,  and  his  early  affections,  was  dearer  to  him  than 
even  that  austere  martyr-path  which  it  was  in  his  heart  to  follow 
if  need  was.  He  went  to  St.  George's  with  a  new  impulse  of  ex- 
pectation, and  preached,  there  can  be  little  doubt,  that  one  of  his 
sermons  which  he  thought  most  satisfactory.  He  describes  this 
event  to  Mr.  Martin  as  follows,  with  a  frankness  of  youthful  pleas- 
ure, and,  at  the  same  time,  a  little  transparent  assumption  of  in- 
difference as  to  the  result,  in  a  letter  dated  the  2d  of  August, 
1819: 

"  I  preached  Sunday  week  in  St.  George's  before  Andrew  Thomson 
and  Dr.  Chalmers,  with  general,  indeed  so  far  as  I  have  heard,  imi- 
versal  approbation.  Andrew  said  for  certain  '  it  was  the  production 
of  no  ordinary  mind ;'  and  how  Dr.  Chalmers  expressed  his  approba- 
tion I  do  not  know,  for  I  never  put  myself  about  to  learn  these 
things,  as  you  know.  I  am  pleased  with  this,  perhaps  more  so  than 
I  ought  to  be,  if  I  were  as  spiritually-minded  as  I  should  be;  but 
there  is  a  reason  for  it.  To  you  yet  behind  the  curtain,  la  voild  !  I 
believe  it  was  a  sort  of  pious  and  charitable  plot  to  let  Dr.  C.  hear 
me  previous  to  his  making  inquiries  about  me  as  fit  for  his  assistant. 
T\"hether  he  is  making  them  now  he  has  heard  me,  and  where  he  is 
making  them,  I  do  not  know.  For,  though  few  people  can  fight  the 
battle  of  jDreferment  without  preoccupying  the  ground,  etc.,  I  would 
wish  to  be  one  of  that  few.  Full  well  I  know  it  is  impossible  with- 
out His  aid  who  has  planned  the  field  and  who  guides  the  weapons 
more  unerringly  than  Homer's  AjdoIIo,  and  inspirits  the  busy  cham- 
pions ;  and  that  I  am  not  industrious  in  procuring.  Oh,  do  you  and 
all  who  wish  me  v/ell  give  me  the  only  favor  I  ask — the  favor  of  your 
prayers." 

The  important  movement,  however,  passed,  and  the  young  man 
returned  unsatisfied  to  his  lonely  apartments.  He  waited  there 
for  some  time  in  blank,  discouraging  silence ;  then  concluded  that 
nothing  was  to  come  of  it,  and  that  this  once  again  his  longing 
hope  to  find  somebody  who  understood  him  and  saw  what  he 
aimed  at  was  to  be  disappointed.  This  last  failure  seems  to  have 
given  the  intolerable  touch  to  all  his  previous  discouragements. 
He  got  up  disgusted  from  that  dull  probation  which  showed  him 
only  how  effectually  all  the  gates  of  actual  life  and  labor  were 
barred  against  him.  Even  at  that  disconsolate  moment  he  could 
still  find  time  to  write  to  his  pupil  and  future  sister-in-law  about 
the  Italian  dictionary  which  he  had  undertaken  to  procure  for 


78  GOES  TO  IRELAND.— WANDERINGS. 

lier.  Then  he  packed  up  bis  books  and  boxes,  and  sent  them  off 
"t  to  his  father's  house  in  Annan ;  but,  probably  desirous  of  some 
interval  to  prepare  himself  for  that  farewell  which  he  intended, 
went  himself  to  Greenock,  meaning  to  travel  from  thence  by  some 
of  the  coasting  vessels  which  call  at  the  little  ports  on  the  Ayr- 
shire and  Galloway  coast.  Sick  at  heart,  and  buried  in  his  own 
thoughts,  he  took  the  wrong  boat,  and  was  obliged  to  come  ashore 
again.  At  that  moment  another  steamer  was  in  all  the  bustle  of 
departure.  Struck  with  a  sudden  caprice,  as  people  often  are  in 
such  a  restless  condition  of  mind  and  feeling,  Irving  resolved,  in 
his  half  desperation  and  momentary  recklessness,  to  take  the  first 
which  left  the  quay,  and  leaping  listlessly  into  this,  found  it  Irish, 
and  bound  for  Belfast.  The  voyage  was  accomplished  in  safety, 
but  not  without  an  adventure  at  the  end.  Some  notable  crime 
had  been  perpetrated  in  Ireland  about  that  time,  the  doer  of  which 
was  still  at  large,  filling  the  minds  of  the  people  with  dreams  of 
capture,  and  suspicions  of  every  stranger.  Of  all  the  strangers 
entering  that  port  of  Belfast,  perhaps  there  was  no  one  so  remark- 
able as  this  tall  Scotchman,  with  his  knapsack  and  slender  belong- 
ings, his  extraordinary  powerful  frame,  and  his  total  ignorance  of 
the  place,  who  was  traveling  without  any  feasible  motive  or  ob- 
ject. The  excited  authorities  found  the  circumstances  so  remark- 
able that  they  laid  suspicious  hands  upon  the  singular  stranger, 
who  was  only  freed  from  their  surveillance  by  applying  to  the 
Presbyterian  minister,  the  Eev.  Mr.  Hanna,  who  liberated  his  cap- 
tive brother  and  took  him  home  with  Irish  frankness.  That  visit 
was  a  jubilee  for  the  children  of  the  house.  Black  melancholy 
and  disgust  had  fled  before  the  breezes  at  sea,  and  the  amusing 
but  embarrassing  contretemps  on  land ;  and  Irving's  heart,  always 
open  to  children,  expanded  at  once  for  the  amusement  of  the  chil- 
dren of  that  house.  One  of  those  boys  was  the  Eev.  Dr.  Hanna, 
of  Edinburgh,  the  biographer  and  son-in-law  of  Chalmers,  who,  at 
the  distance  of  so  many  years,  remembers  the  stories  of  the  stran- 
ger thus  suddenly  brought  to  the  fireside,  and  his  genial,  cordial 
presence  which  charmed  the  house. 

After  this  the  young  man  wandered  over  the  north  of  Ireland, 
as  he  had  often  wandered  over  the  congenial  districts  of  his  own 
country,  for  some  weeks ;  pursuing  the  system  he  had  learned  to 
adopt  at  home — walking  as  the  crow  flies,  finding  lodging  and 
shelter  in  the  wayside  cottages,  sharing  the  potato  and  the  milk 
which  formed  the  peasant's  meal.    A  singular  journey ;  performed 


INVITATION  TO  GLASGOW.  79 

in  primitive  hardship,  fatigue,  and  brotherly  kindness ;  ont  of  the 
reach  of  civiHzed  persons  or  conventional  necessities ;  undertaken 
out  of  pure  caprice,  the  evident  sudden  impulse  of  letting  things 
go  as  they  would  ;  and  persevered  in  with  something  of  the  same 
abandon  and  determined  abstraction  of  himself  from  all  the  dis- 
gusts and  disappointments  of  life.  Neither  letters  nor  tokens  of 
his  existence  seem  to  have  come  out  of  this  temporary  flight  and 
banishment.  He  had  escaped  for  the  moment  from  those  mo- 
mentous questions  which  shortly  must  be  faced  and  resolved. 
Presently  it  would  be  necessary  to  go  back,  to  make  the  last  prep- 
arations, to  take  the  decisive  steps,  and  say  the  farewells.  He 
fairly  ran  away  from  it  for  a  moment's  breathing-time,  and  took 
refuge  in  the  rude  unknown  life  of  the  Irish  cabins — a  thing 
which  most  people  have  somehow  done,  or  at  least  attempted  to 
do,  at  the  crisis  of  their  lives. 

When  he  re-emerged  out  of  this  refreshing  blank,  and  came  to 
the  common  world  again,  where  letters  and  ordinary  ap]3eals  of 
life  were  awaiting  him,  he  found  a  bulky  inclosure  from  his  fa- 
ther in  the  Coleraine  post-ofiice.  Gavin  Irving  wrote,  in  expla- 
nation of  his  double  letter  (for  postage  was  no  trifle  in  those  days), 
that  he  would  have  copied  the  inclosed  if  he  could  have  read  it ; 
but,  not  being  able  to  make  out  a  word,  was  compelled  to  send  it 
on  for  his  son's  own  inspection.  This  inclosure  was  from  Dr. 
Chalmers,  inviting  Irving  to  go  to  Glasgow ;  but  the  date  was 
some  weeks  back,  and  the  invitation  was  by  no  means  distinct  as 
to  the  object  for  which  he  was  wanted.  It  was  enough,  however, 
to  stir  the  reviving  heart  of  the  young  giant,  whom  his  fall,  and 
contact  with  kindly  mother  earth,  had  refreshed  and  reinvigorated. 
He  set  out  without  loss  of  time  for  Glasgow,  but  only  to  find  Dr. 
Chalmers  absent,  and  once  more  to  be  plunged  into  the  lingering 
pangs  of  suspense. 

While  waiting  the  doctor's  return,  Irving  again  reported  him- 
self and  his  new  expectations  to  his  friends  in  Kirkcaldy. 

"Glasgow,  1st  September,  181SL 
"  You  see  I  am  once  more  in  Scotland ;  and  how  I  came  to  have 
found  my  way  to  the  same  place  I  started  from  you  sliall  now  learn. 
On  Friday  last  arrived  at  Coleraine  a  letter  from  Dr.  Chalmers,  press- 
ing me  to  meet  him  in  Edinburgh  on  the  30th,  or  in  Glasgow  the 
31st  of  August.  So  here  I  arrived,  after  a  very  tempestuous  pas- 
sage in  the  Roh  Roy  ;  and  upon  calling  on  the  doctor,  I  find  he  is 
still  in  Anstruther,  at  which  place  he  proposes  remaining  a  while 
longer  than  he  anticipated,  and  requests  to  have  a  few  days  of  me 


8Q  INTEREST  LN  CHURCH  AFFAIRS. 

there/    So,  but  for  another  circumstance,  you  might  have  seen  me 
i  posting  through  Kirkcaldy  to  Anster,  the  famed  in  song.     That  cir- 

^  cumstance  is  Mrs.  Chalmers's  ill  health,  of  which  he  will  be  more  par- 
ticularly informed  than  he  is  at  present  by  this  post;  and  then  Miss 
Pratt  tells  me  there  is  no  doubt  he  will  return  post-haste,  as  all  good 
husbands  ought.  Here,  then,  I  am,  a  very  sorry  sight,  I  can  assure 
you.  You  may  remember  how  disabled  in  my  rigging  I  was  in  the 
kino-dom  ;*  conceive  me,  then,  to  have  wandered  a  whole  fortnight 
amono-  the  ragged  sons  of  St.  Patrick,  to  have  scrambled  about  the 
Giant's  Causeway,  and  crossed  the  Channel  twice,  and  sailed  in  fish- 
boats  and  pleasure-boats,  and  driven  gigs  and  jaunting-cars,  and  never 
once  condescended  to  ask  the  aid  of  a  tailor's  needle.  Think  of  this, 
and  figure  what  I  must  be  now.  But  I  have  just  been  ordering  a 
refit  from  stem  to  stern,  and  shall  by  to-morrow  be  able  to  appear 
among  the  best  of  them;  and  you  know  the  Glasgow  bodies  ken  fu' 
weel  it's  mei-ely  impossible  to  carry  about  with  ane  a'  the  comforts 
of  the  Sa't  Market  at  aue's  tail,  or  a'  the  comforts  of  Bond  Street 
either.  I  shall  certainly  now  remain  till  I  have  seen  and  finally  de- 
termined with  Dr.  Chalmers ;  for  my  time  is  so  short  that  if  I  get 
home  Avithout  a  finale  of  one  kind  or  other,  it  will  interfere  with  the 
department  of  my  foreign  aflairs,  which  imperiously  call  for  atten- 
tion." 

The  letter  which  begins  thus  is  filled  up,  to  the  length  of  five 
long  pages,  by  an  account  of  the  organization  of  the  Synod  of 
Ulster,  and  of  a  case  of  discipline  which  had  just  occurred  in  it, 
on  which,  on  behalf  of  a  friend  at  Coleraine,  the  traveler  was 
anxious  to  consult  the  experience  of  the  minister  of  Kirkcaldj. 
In  respect  to  his  own  prospects,  Irving's  suspense  was  now  speed- 
ily terminated.  Dr.  Chalmers  returned,  and  at  once  jDroposed  to 
him  to  become  his  assistant  in  St.  John's.  The  solace  to  the 
young  man's  discouraged  mind  must  have  been  unspeakable. 
Here,  at  last,  was  one  man  who  understood  the  unacceptable  pro- 
bationer, and  perceived  in  him  that  faculty  which  he  himself  dis- 
cerned dimly  and  still  hoped  in — troubled,  but  not  convinced  by 
the  general  disbelief.  To  have  his  gift  recognized  by  another 
mind  was  new  life  to  Irving ;  and  such  a  mind !  the  generous  in- 
telligence of  the  first  of  Scotch  preachers.  But  with  Presbyterian 
scrupulosity,  in  the  midst  of  his  eagerness,  Irving  hung  back  still. 
He  could  not  submit  to  be  "intruded  upon"  the  people  by  the 
mere  will  of  the  incumbent,  and  would  not  receive  even  that 
grateful  distinction  if  he  continued  as  distasteful  as  he  had  hith- 
erto found  himself.  He  was  not  confident  of  his  prospects  even 
when  backed  by  the  powerful  encouragement  of  Dr.  Chalmers. 
"  I  will  preach  to  them  if  you  think  fit,"  he  is  reported  to  have 

*  The  kingdom  of  Fife,  fondly  so  called  by  its  affectionate  population. 


DOUBTFUL  OF  HIS  OWN  SUCCESS.— GLASGOW.      81 

said;  "but  if  they  bear  witli  my  preaching,  they  will  be  the  first 
people  who  have  borne  with  it."  In  this  spirit,  with  the  uncon- 
scious humility  of  a  child,  sorry  not  to  satisfy  his  judges,  but  con- 
fessing the  failure  which  he  scarcely  could  understand,  he  preach- 
ed his  first  sermon  to  the  fastidious  congregation  in  St.  John's. 
This  was  in  October,  1819.  "He  "was  generally  well  liked,  but 
some  people  thought  him  rather  flowery.  However,  they  were 
satisfied  that  he  must  be  a  good  preacher,  since  Dr.  Chalmers  had 
chosen  him,"  says  a  contemporary  witness.  It  was  thus,  with  lit- 
tle confidence  on  his  own  part,  and  somewhat  careless  indulgence 
on  the  part  of  the  people,  who  were  already  in  possession  of  the 
highest  preaching  of  the  time,  that  Irving  opened  his  mouth  at 
last,  and  began  his  natural  career. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

GLASGOW. 

Dr.  Chalmers's  Helper. — Condition  of  Glasgow. — Irving's  Political  Sentiments. — 
State  of  the  Country  in  General, — Irving's  Confidence  in  the  Radicals. — The 
Calton  Weavers. — Chalmers  and  Irving. — Incessant  Labors. — The  Parish  of  St. 
John. — Its  Autocrat. — The  Shoemaker. — "He  kens  about  Leather." — Apostolic 
Benediction. — Intercoui-se  with  the  Poor. — A  Legacy. — The  Help  of  a  Brother. — 
"It's  no  himsel." — Two  Presbyters, — The  Peddler, — "A  Man  on  Horse," — The 
Howies, — Holiday  Adventures,  —  Simplicity  of  Heart, — Solemnity  of  Deport- 
ment,— Convicts  in  Glasgow  Jail. — Irving  patronized  by  the  Office-bearers. — In 
the  Shade, — His  Loyalty  and  Admiration, — The  bright  Side. — The  dark  Side. — 
Missionary  Projects  renewed. — The  Caledonian  Chapel,  Hatton  Garden. — Letter 
of  Recommendation. — Favorable  Prognostications. — Irving  desires  to  go  to  Lon- 
don, — His  Pleasure  in  his  Reception  there, — Obstacles, — The  Caledonian  Asy- 
lum,— Pledges  himself  to  learn  Gaelic, — Bond  required  by  the  Presbytery. — Visits 
to  Paisley. — Removal  of  Obstacles, — Rosneath. — Happy  Anticipations. — Farewell 
Sermon, — Offers  his  Services  in  London  to  all. — Receives  a  farewell  Present. — 
The  Annandale  Watchmaker. — A  "singular  Honor." — Goes  to  London. 

It  was  in  October,  1819,  that  Irving  began  his  work  in  Glas- 
gow— the  first  real  work  in  his  own  profession  which  had  opened 
to  him.  He  was  then  in  the  full  strength  of  early  manhood, 
seven-and-twenty,  the  "Scottish  uncelebrated  Irving,"  whom  his 
great  countryman  regretfully  commemorates.  His  remarkable 
appearance  seems,  in  the  first  place,  to  have  impressed  every  body. 
A  lady,  who  was  then  a  member  of  Dr.  Chalmers's  church,  and 
who  had  access  to  the  immediate  circle  surrounding  him,  tells 

F 


82  DR-  CHALMEES'S  HELPER. 

how  she  herself,  on  one  occasion,  being  particularly  engaged  in 
some  domestic  duties,  had  given  orders  to  her  servants  not  to  ad- 
mit any  visitors.  She  was  interrupted  in  her  occupation,  how- 
ever, notwithstanding  this  order,  by  the  entrance  of  one  of  her 
maids,  in  a  state  of  high  excitement  and  curiosity.  "Mem!" 
burst  forth  the  girl,  "there's  a  wonderful  grand  gentleman  called; 
I  couldna  say  you  were  engaged  to  him.  I  think  he  maun  be 
a  Highland  chief!"  ^'That  Mr.  Irving!"  exclaimed  another  in- 
dividual of  less  elevated  and  poetical  conceptions — ^'■that  Dr. 
Chalmers's  helper!  I  took  him  for  a  cavalry  officer!"  "Do  you 
know,  doctor,"  said  a  third,  addressing  Chalmers  himself,  "  what 
things  people  are  saying  about  your  new  assistant?  They  say 
he's  like  a  brigand  chief."  "  Well,  well,"  said  Dr.  Chalmers,  with 
a  smile,  "whatever  they  say,  they  never  think  him  like  any  thing 
but  a  leader  of  men."  Such  was  the  impression  he  produced 
upon  the  little  mercantile-ecclesiastical  world  of  Glasgow.  There, 
as  every  where,  people  were  instinctively  suspicious  of  this  strange 
unconventional  figure — did  not  know  what  to  make  of  the  natu- 
ral grandeur  about  him — the  lofty  fashion  of  speech  into  which 
he  had  already  fallen,  and  which  seems  to  have  been  entirely  ap- 
propriate to  the  garb  and  aspect  in  which  Nature  had  clothed 
him.  But  he  found  warm  friends  here,  as  every  where,  and  by 
means  of  all  his  qualities,  mental  and  bodily,  his  frankness  and 
warmth,  and  habit  of  making  himself  the  friend  of  the  humblest 
individual  he  encountered,  his  splendid  person  and  stately  man- 
ners, took  the  hearts  of  the  poor  by  storm.  They  are  now  dying 
out  of  those  closes  and  wynds  of  Glasgow  who  remember  Irving 
as  Dr.  Chalmers's  helper,  but  there  still  lingers  here  and  there  a 
recollection  of  that  kindliest  genial  visitor.  Chalmers  himself, 
though  a  man  of  the  warmest  humanity,  had  at  all  times  a  certain 
abstract  intentness  about  him,  which  must  have  altered  the  char- 
acter of  individual  kindness  as  coming  from  his  hands.  His  pa- 
rishioners were  to  him  emphatically  his  parishioners,  the  "body" 
(not  vile,  perhaps,  but  still  more  profoundly  important  for  the  ex- 
periment's sake  than  for  its  own)  upon  which  one  of  the  most 
magnificent  of  experiments  was  to  be  tried.  But  to  Irving  they 
were  the  Johns  and  Sandys,  the  Campbells  and  Macalisters — the 
human  neighbors  who  were  of  his  personal  acquaintance  and  in- 
dividually interesting  to  himself.  Such  a  distinction  makes  itself 
known  involuntarily.  The  position  he  held  was  one  completely 
secondary  and  auxiliary,  not  even  answering  to  that  of  a  curate ; 


CONDITION  OF  GLASGOW.  83 

for  lie  was  still  only  a  probationer,  unordained,  wirhout  any  rights 
in  the  Church  except  the  license  to  preach,  which  was  his  sole 
qualification.  He  was  not  responsible  for  any  part  of  the  work- 
ing of  that  huge  machinery  which  Dr.  Chalmers  bore  up  on  his 
Herculean  shoulders,  and  which  naturally  collapsed  when  his 
mighty  vital  force  was  withdrawn.  The  "helper"  went  about 
more  lightly,  unburdened  by  social  economy,  and  gained  for  him- 
self among  the  poor  people  whom  it  was  his  daily  work  to  visit 
the  place  of  an  undoubted  and  much-prized  friend. 

Glasgow  was  at  this  period  in  a  very  disturbed  and  troublous 
condition.  "Want  of  work  and  want  of  food  had  wrought  their 
natural  social  effect  upon  the  industrious  classes,  and  the  eyes  of 
the  hungry  weavers  and  cotton-spinners  were  turned  with  spas- 
modic anxiety  to  those  wild  political  quack  remedies,  the  inefS.- 
cacy  of  which  no  amount  of  experience  will  ever  make  clear  to 
people  in  similar  circumstances.  The  entire  country  was  in  a 
dangerous  mood,  palpitating  throughout  with  deep-seated  com- 
plaint and  grievance,  to  which  the  starving  revolutionaries  in 
such  towns  as  Glasgow  acted  only  as  a  kind  of  safety-valve,  pre- 
venting a  worse  explosion.  The  discontent  was  drawing  toward 
its  climax  when  Irving  received  his  appointment  as  assistant  to 
the  minister  of  St.  John's.  In  such  a  large  poor  parish  he  en- 
countered on  all  sides  the  mutterings  of  the  popular  storm.  Chal- 
mers, always  liberal  and  statesmanlike,  saw  the  real  grievance, 
which  finally  labored  and  struggled,  through  the  contest  of  years, 
into  that  full  redress  and  establishment  of  popular  rights  which 
seems  to  make  any  such  crisis  impossible  now.  But  Irving's 
mind  was  of  a  different  construction.  He  was  one  of  those  men 
of  inconsistent  politics,  governed  at  once  by  prejudices  and  sym- 
pathies, whose  "  attitude"  it  is  impossible  to  foretell,  and  of  whom 
one  can  only  predict  that  their  political  opinions  will  take  the 
color  given  by  their  heart,  and  that  the  side  most  strongly  and 
feelingly  set  forth  before  them  will  undoubtedly  carry  the  day. 
His  nature  was  profoundly  conservative ;  and  yet  the  boldest  in- 
novation might  have  secured  his  devoted  support,  had  it  approved 
itself  to  his  individual  thoughts.  His  political  opinions,  indeed, 
seem  to  have  been  such  as  are  common  to  literary  men,  artists, 
and  women  entirely  unconnected  with  politics,  and  who  only  now 
and  then  find  themselves  sufficiently  interested  to  inform  them- 
selves upon  public  matters.  Accordingly,  he  appears  in  after-life 
in  strong  opposition  to  every  measure  known  as  liberal;  while  in 


84  STATE  OF  THE  COUNTRY  IN  GENERAL. 

Glasgow,  ■witli  those  poor  revolutionary  weavers  round  him  on 
every  side,  his  heart  convincing  him  of  their  miseries  and  despair, 
and  his  profound  trust,  not  in  human  nature,  but  in  the  human 
creatures  known  to  himself,  persuading  him  that  no  harm  could 
come  from  their  hands,  he  stands  perfectly  calm  and  friendly 
amid  the  panic,  disdaining  to  fear.  That  the  crisis  was  an  alarm- 
ing one  every  body  allows.  Nothing  less  than  the  horrors  of  the 
French  Eevolution — battle  and  murder,  and  sudden  death — float- 
ed before  the  terror-stricken  eyes  of  all  who  had  any  thing  to  lose. 
Whig  Jeffrey,  a  non-alarmist  and  (in  moderation)  friend  of  the 
people,  declares  solemnly  that  "if  the  complaints  of  the  people 
are  repressed  with  insults  and  menaces — if  no  step  is  taken  to  re- 
lieve their  distresses  and  redress  their  real  and  undeniable  griev- 
ances— if  the  whole  mass  of  their  complaints,  reasonable  and  un- 
reasonable, are  to  be  treated  as  seditious  and  audacious,  and  to 
meet  with  no  other  answer  than  preparations  to  put  them  down 
by  force,  then  indeed  we  may  soon  have  a  civil  war  among  us — 
and  a  civil  war  of  a  character  far  more  deplorable  and  atrocious 
than  was  ever  known  in  this  land — a  war  of  the  rich  against  the 
poor ;  of  the  government  against  the  body  of  the  people ;  of  the 
soldiery  against  the  great  bulk  of  the  laboring  classes — a  war 
which  can  never  be  followed  by  any  cordial  or  secure  peace,  and 
which  must  end,  or  rather  begin,  with  the  final  and  complete  sub- 
version of  those  liberties  and  that  constitution  which  has  hitherto 
been  our  pride,  our  treasure,  aad  our  support  and  Consolation  un- 
der all  other  calamities." 

It  was  a  conjunction  of  many  troubles,  foremost  among  which 
was  that  sharp  touch  of  starvation  which  makes  men  desperate ; 
that  Want — most  pertinacious  and  maddest  of  all  revolutionaries, 
who  never  fails  to  revenge  bitterly  the  carelessness  which  lets 
him  enter  our  well-defended  doors — he  was  there,  wolfish  and 
seditious,  in  Glasgow  in  the  winter  of  1819,  plotting  pikes  and 
risings,  with  wild  dreams  of  that  legislation  never  yet  found  out, 
which  is  to  make  a  paradise  of  earth ;  dreams  and  plots  which 
were  to  blurt  out,  so  far  as  Scotland  was  concerned,  in  the  dismal 
little  tragi-comedy  of  Bonnymuir  some  months  later,  and  there 
be  made  a  melancholy  end  of.  But  while  every  body  else  was 
prophesying  horrors,  it  is  thus  that  Irving,  with  tender  domestic 
prefaces  of  kindness  and  congratulation,  writes  to  his  brother-in- 
law,  Mr.  Fergusson,  a  few  months  after  his  arrival  in  Glasgow. 
The  immediate  object  of  the  letter  is  to  congratulate  his  sister 


IRVING'S  CONFIDENCE  IN  THE  RADICALS.  85 

and  her  husband  on  the  birth  of  their  first-born.  Eeferring  to 
this  event  in  the  first  place,  he  says : 

"You  have  now  consigned  to  your  care  a  more  vahiable  article 
than  the  greatest  emperor,  who  is  not  a  father,  can  boast  of — the 
care  of  an  immortal  who  shall  survive  when  this  earth  shall  have  re- 
moved without  leaving  a  memorial,  save  in  the  memories  of  those 
spirits  to  whom  it  has  been  the  training-place  for  heaven  or  hell. 
How  much  the  diiference  is  between  the  real  value,  so  much  the  dif- 
ference in  general  is  between  the  reputed  value ;  but,  as  the  mathe- 
maticians say,  it  is  in  the  inverse  way.  But  of  you  I  know  and  hope 
better,  that  you  will  account  of  him  while  you  are  spared  together 
as  a  precious  deposit  the  Almighty  has  thought  you  worthy  of  .  .  . 

"  You  will  look  for  Glasgow  intelligence,  and  truly  I  can  neither 
get  nor  give  any.  If  I  should  reiaort  from  ray  daily  ministrations 
among  the  poorest  class  and  the  worst  reported-of  class  of  our  popu- 
lation, I  should  deliver  an  opinion  so  favorable  as  it  would  be  hardly 
safe  for  myself  to  deliver,  lest  I  should  be  held  a  radical  likewise. 
Now  the  truth  is,  I  have  visited  in  about  three  hundred  families,  and 
have  met  with  the  kindest  welcome,  and  entertainment,  and  invita- 
tions. Nay,  more,  I  have  entered  on  the  tender  subject  of  their 
present  sufierings,  in  which  they  are  held  so  ferocious,  and  have 
found  them,  in  general,  both  able  and  willing  to  entertain  the  relig- 
ious lesson  and  improvement  arising  out  of  it.  This  may  arise  from 
the  way  of  setting  it  forth,  which  I  endeavor  to  make  with  the  ut- 
most tenderness  and  feeling,  as  well  is  due  when  you  see  people  in 
the  midst  of  nakedness  and  starvation.  Yet  we  are  armed  against 
them  to  the  teeth ;  and  the  alarm  took  so  generally  that,  for  all  my 
convictions  and  knowledge,  I  had  engaged  a  horse-pistol  to  stand 
out  in  defense  of  my  own  castle  like  a  true  Englishman !  But  the 
storm  seems  overdriven,  although  this  morning,  even,  there  was  a 
summons  to  the  sharp-shooters  by  break  of  day,  and  all  the  soldiers 
to  arms  in  the  barracks.  Nobody  knows  a  whit,  and  every  body 
fears  a  deal.  The  common  ignorance  is  only  surpassed  by  the 
common  alarm,  and  that,  you  know,  is  the  most  agitating  of  all 
alarms.  But  from  Monday  to  Saturday  I  am  going  among  them 
without  the  slightest  apprehension ;  but  perhaps  I  may  be  convinced 
by  point  of  pike  some  day,  which  I  pray  may  be  averted  for  his  sake 
that  should  hold  it.  This  is  not  braggadocio,,  but  Christian  (feel- 
ing); for  the  blood  of  the  innocent  always  stains  most  deeply  the 

hand  that  sheds  it I  hope  my  father  and  you  won't  forget 

your  Glasgow  jaunt.  I  will  introduce  you  to  some  of  our  Calton 
weavers,  now  so  dreaded,  whom  Jeffrey  the  reviewer  calls  the  finest 
specimens  of  the  human  intellect  he  has  met  with  ....  I  commend 
to  your  afiection  my  dear  mother,  from  whom  I  have  had  a  most  af- 
fectionate letter ;  and  George,  who  will  prove  a  credit,  I  trust,  to 
such  two  gifted  masters  as  yourself  and  your  humble  servant  .... 
To  all  others,  my  good  and  kind  friends,  commend  your  afiectionate 
brother,  Edward  Irving." 

It  was  thus  that  Irving  judged  of  the  dangerous  masses,  who 

seemed  to  other  eyes  so  ripe  for  mischief;  and  it  is  characteristic 


QQ  CHALMERS  AND  lEVING. 

to  observe  tlie  difference  between  the  manner  in  wliicli  tliis  opin- 
ion is  expressed,  and  Dr.  Chalmers's  deliverance  on  the  same  sub- 
ject, contained  in  his  letters  to  Wilberforce.  There  the  clear- 
sighted Scotch  legislator,  whom  his  profession  bounded  to  a  par- 
ish, makes  a  stride  of  twenty  years  to  the  conclusions  of  another 
generation,  and  lays  his  hand  broadly  upon  that  principle  which 
has  now  been  received  among  the  standard  principles  of  English 
government.  "  From  my  extensive  minglings  with  the  people," 
says  Dr.  Chalmers,  "  I  am  quite  confident  in  affirming  the  power 
of  another  expedient  (that  is,  besides  the  repeal  of  certain  speci- 
fied taxes)  to  be  such  that  it  would  operate  with  all  the  quickness 
and  effect  of  a  charm  in  lulling  their  agitated  spirits — I  mean  the 
repeal  of  the  Corn  Bill.  I  have  ever  been  in  the  habit  of  dislik- 
ing the  interference  of  the  Legislature  in  matters  of  trade  saving 
for  the  purpose  of  a  revenue."  Irving  has  no  theories  of  cure  on 
hand.  His  thoughts  do  not  embrace  the  polity  of  nations.  He 
has  not  contemplated  that  troubled  sea  to  divine  what  secret  cur- 
rent it  is  which  heaves  its  billows  into  storm.  He  goes  down 
among  the  crowds  which  are  made  of  flesh  and  blood ;  he  stands 
among  them,  and  calls  out  with  courageous,  tender  voice  that  they 
are  all  men  like  others ;  men  trustful  and  cordial ;  kind  to  him- 
self, open  to  kindness ;  whom  it  behooves  their  neighbors  to  treat, 
not  with  the  cruelty  of  fear,  but  "  with  tenderness  and  feeling,  as 
well  is  due,^^  he  adds,  with  manly  and  touching  simplicity,  "  ivhen 
you  see  people  in  the  midst  of  nakedness  and  starvation.^^  A  greater 
contrast  in  agreement  could  scarcely  be. 

A  similar  testimony  to  that  which  I  have  already  quoted,  and 
evidence  of  the  position  he  took  in  his  Glasgow  labors,  is  convey- 
ed in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Martin,  written  upon  occasion  of  the  death  of 
a  relative,  in  which,  after  some  thoughtful  regrets  that  men  take 
so  little  pains  to  "perpetuate  for  themselves" ties  "which  give  so 
much  enjoyment  here,  and  which,  judging  from  the  proportion  of 
things,  must  give  infinitely  more  hereafter,"  he  thus  conveys  his 
impressions  of  his  new  sphere  in  the  light  most  interesting  to  his 
friend : 

"It  gave  me  singular  pleasure  the  other  night  to  hear  a  young 
man,  Mr.  Ileggie,  from  Kirkcaldy  (foot  of  Tolbooth  Wynd),  who  has 
been  of  singular  utility  in  this  city,  reclaiming  by  Sabbath-school  op- 
erations the  forlorn  hope  of  the  Salt  Market  and  Briggate — to  hear 
him  date  his  first  impressions  of  serious  religion  from  the  conversa- 
tions lie  held  with  you  before  his  first  communion.  Tliis  should  en- 
courage your  heart ;  for  he  is,  as  it  were,  the  7iudeus  of  an  estabUsh- 


INCESSANT  LABORS.— THE  PARISH  OF  ST.  JOHN.  87 

ment  includiug  not  less  than  700  children ;  and  he  is  giving  them 
sjjirit  and  example  in  truly  a  Christian  style.  Thus  the  Lord  has 
made  you  in  your  parlor  instrumental  in  penetrating  and  pervading 
the  noisome  recesses  of  this  overgrown  city.  For  all  the  impressions 
which  are  abroad,  I  entertain  the  best  opinion  of  our  people,  and  I 
consider  the  leading  ones  most  grossly  misinformed,  if  not  misguided 
by  design.  Dr.  Chalmers's  plan  is  to  take  up  his  district  of  the  par- 
ish by  groups.  I  have  superadded  the  taking  of  them  uj)  family  by 
family,  so  that  every  mortal  comes  in  review  before  me,  and  into  con- 
tact with  me  upon  a  subject  on  which  they  are  spoken  of  as  being 
held  by  no  bounds.  Yet  so  it  is  —  I  have  hardly  encountered  any 
thing  but  the  finest  play  of  welcome  and  congeniality ;  and  this  very 
half  hour  have  I  returned  from  so  pervading  twenty  families  in  our 
sorest  district,  and  have  been  hailed  as  the  bearer  of  good  tidings, 

though  I  carried  nothing  with  me  but  spiritual  ofiers I  am 

making  the  best  of  St.  John's  I  can,  though  I  have  been  of  late  hard- 
ly doing  myself  justice,  being  generally  compressed  to  Saturday  for 
pulpit  preparations  by  the  week-day  occupations  of  visiting,  etc. ; 
yet  I  think  it  is  well  employed." 

This  Glasgow  parisb  bad  come  to  singular  fortune  at  that  mo- 
ment. After  much  labor  and  many  exertions,  Chalmers,  already 
the  greatest  preacher  and  most  eminent  man  in  the  entire  Scotch 
establishment,  had  got  himself  translated  from  the  Tron  Church, 
which  was  his  first  charge  in  Glasgow — solely  in  order  to  carry 
out  those  social  plans  which  are  the  greatest  distinctive  feature  of 
his  life — to  St.  John's.  His  theory  is  well  known ;  but  as  theories 
which  are  well  known  are  apt  enough  to  glide  into  vagueness 
from  that  very  reason,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  repeat,  in  the  sim- 
plest manner,  what  it  was.  The  truth  was  simply  that  he  had 
been  born,  like  other  men  of  his  generation,  into  a  primitive  Scot- 
land, comparatively  little  affected  by  English  usages  and  manners 
— a  self-supporting,  independent  nation,  ignorant  of  poor-laws  and 
work-houses,  and  full  of  strenuous  hatred  to  all  such  hateful  char- 
ities. During  all  the  centuries  of  Presby terianism,  "  the  plate,"  or 
weekly  offering  made  at  the  door  of  the  church  on  entering,  had 
furnished  the  parochial  revenue  of  charity ;  and  upon  this  nation- 
al and  universal  provision  for  the  poor  the  statesman  eye  of  Chal- 
mers fixed  with  characteristic  intentness.  Like  other  men  of  the 
greatest  type,  he  was  unable  to  believe  that  what  he  might  do  was 
yet  impossible  to  others.  Eesolute  to  show  all  Scotland  and  the 
world  that  the  Church's  ancient  primitive  provision  could  yet 
meet  all  increased  modern  emergencies,  and  able  from  his  high 
position  and  influence  to  bring,  half  by  coercion  of  moral  force, 
half  by  persuasion,  the  Glasgow  magistrates  to  accept  his  terms, 


88  AUTOCRAT  OF  ST.  JOHN'S. 

he  made  it  a  condition  of  his  remaining  among  them  that  this  par- 
ish of  St.  John's,  one  of  the  largest,  poorest,  and  most  degraded  in 
the  town,  should  be  handed  over  to  him  in  undisturbed  posses- 
sion, swept  clean  of  all  poor-rates,  work-houses,  and  public  parish 
aid.  He  did  not  demand  the  criminal  supervision  and  power  of 
the  sword,  certainly ;  though,  at  this  distance  of  time,  and  to  En- 
glish readers,  the  one  might  seem  almost  as  reasonable  as  the  oth- 
er ;  but  he  secured  his  terms  with  the  puzzled  civic  functionaries, 
who  half  believed  in  him.  In  this  parish  Chalmers  set  up  the 
most  surprising,  splendid  autocracy  that  has  ever  been  attempted 
— an  autocracy  solely  directed  to  the  benefit  of  that  little  world 
of  people  in  the  most  unlovely  portion  of  Glasgow.  He  was  no 
sooner  established  in  his  new  dominion  than  he  issued  imperial 
orders  for  a  census,  and  made  one  in  true  royal  fashion.  There 
were  10,30-i  souls.  The  condition  in  life  of  most  among  them 
was  that  of  weavers,  laborers,  and  factory- workers.  About  one 
family  in  thirty-three  kept  a  servant,  and  in  some  parts  of  the  dis- 
trict this  point  of  domestic  luxury  was  even  more  rare.  Bad 
times,  failure  of  work,  and  all  the  casualties  of  accident  and  dis- 
ease would,  according  to  ordinary  calculations,  leave  a  large  mar- 
gin of  inevitable  pauperism  in  such  a  district.  But  the  minister- 
autocrat  had  sworn  that  pauperism  was  to  be  no  longer,  and  he 
made  good  his  word.  For  three  brilliant  years  "  the  plate"  not 
only  supplied  all  the  wants  of  the  poor  in  the  parish,  but  did  large 
service  besides  in  the  erection  of  schools*  and  for  thirteen  years, 
as  long  as  the  machinery  originated  by  the  wonderful  imperious 
vitality  of  this  great  man  could  go  on  without  a  new  impulse,  its 
success  continued  as  perfect  as  it  was  extraordinary.  This  seems 
to  me  the  highest  and  most  wonderful  victory  of  Chalmers's  life. 
It  is  unique  in  modern  annals — a  bold  return,  out  of  the  heart  of 
all  those  evils  of  extreme  civilization  which  crush  the  poor,  into 
that  primitive  life  when  neighbor  helped  neighbor  and  friend 
stood  by  friend.  What  an  ideal  despot,  grand  patriot  autocrat, 
or  irresponsible  vizier  that  Scotch  minister  would  have  made ! 

In  this  system  of  things,  Irving  took  his  place  in  perfect  accord, 
but  not  resemblance.  Statesmanship  was  not  in  him,  but  admira- 
tion and  loyal  service  were  of  his  very  essence.  Without  any  ul- 
terior views,  he  visited  those  "three  hundred  families"  —  won 
their  confidence  and  friendship,  in  most  cases  readily  enough; 
and  when  that  was  not  the  case,  took  them  captive  by  innocent 
wiles  and  premeditation.     One  such  case,  which  must  have  been  a 


"HE  KENS  ABOUT  LEATHER."  gg 

remarkable  one,  is  told  in  so  many  different  versions,  that  it  is 
difficult  to  decide  which,  is  the  true  one.  A  certein  shoemaker, 
radical  and  infidel,  was  among  the  number  of  those  under  Irving's 
special  care ;  a  home-workman  of  course,  always  present,  silent, 
with  his  back  turned  upon  the  visitors,  and  refusing  any  commu- 
nication except  a  sullen  humjoh  of  implied  criticism,  while  his 
trembling  wife  made  her  deprecating  courtesy  in  the  foreground. 
The  way  in  which  this  intractable  individual  was  finally  won  over 
is  attributed  by  some  tellers  of  the  story  to  a  sudden  happy  inspi- 
ration on  Irving's  part,  but  by  others  to  plot  and  intention.  Ap- 
proaching the  bench  one  day,  the  visitor  took  up  a  piece  of  patent 
leather,  then  a  recent  invention,  and  remarked  upon  it  in  some- 
what skilled  terms.  The  shoemaker  went  on  with  redoubled  in- 
dustry at  his  work ;  but  at  last,  roused  and  exasperated  by  the 
speech  and  pretense  of  knowledge,  demanded,  in  great  contempt, 
but  without  raising  his  eyes,  "What  do  ye  ken  about  leather?" 
This  was  just  the  opportunity  his  assailant  wanted ;  for  Irving, 
though  a  minister  and  a  scholar,  was  a  tanner's  son,  and  could  dis- 
course learnedly  upon  that  material.  Gradually  interested  and 
mollified,  the  cobbler  slackened  work,  and  listened  while  his  visitor 
described  some  process  of  making  shoes  by  machinery  which  he 
had  carefully  got  up  for  the  purpose.  At  last  the  shoemaker  so 
far  forgot  his  caution  as  to  suspend  his  work  altogether,  and  lift 
his  eyes  to  the  great  figure  stooping  over  his  bench.  The  con- 
versation went  on  with  increased  vigor  after  this,  till  finally  the 
recusant  threw  down  his  arms:  "Od,  you're  a  decent  kind  o'  fel- 
low! do  you  preach?"  said  the  vanquished,  curious  to  know 
more  of  his  victor.  The  advantage  was  discreetly,  but  not  too 
hotly  jDursued ;  and  on  the  following  Sunday  the  rebel  made  a  de- 
fiant, shy  appearance  at  church.  Next  day  Irving  encountered 
him  in  the  savory  Gallowgate,  and  hailed  him  as  a  friend.  "Walk- 
ing beside  him  in  natural  talk,  the  tall  probationer  laid  his  hand 
upon  the  shirt-sleeve  of  the  shrunken  sedentary  workman,  and 
marched  by  his  side  along  the  well-frequented  street.  By  the 
time  they  had  reached  the  end  of  their  mutual  way  not  a  spark 
of  resistance  was  left  in  the  shoemaker.  His  children  hencefor- 
ward went  to  school ;  his  deprecating  wife  went  to  the  kirk  in 
peace.  He  himself  acquired  that  suit  of  Sunday  "  blacks"  so  dear 
to  the  heart  of  the  poor  Scotchman,  and  became  a  church-goer  and 
respectable  member  of  society ;  while  his  acknowledgment  of  his 
conqueror  was  conveyed  with  characteristic  reticence,  and  con- 


90  APOSTOLIC  BENEDICTION. 

cealment  of  all  deeper  feeling,  in  the  self-excusing  pretense— 
"He's  a  sensible  man,  yon;  he  kens  about  leather!" 
^  The  preacher  who  knew  about  leather  had,  however,  in  con- 
junction with  that  cordiality  which  won  the  shoemaker's  heart,  a 
solemnity  and  apostolic  demeanor  which  might  have  looked  like 
affectation  in  another  man,  and  has,  indeed,  been  called  affectation 
even  in  Irving  by  those  who  did  not  know  him,  though  never  by 
any  man  who  did.  Probably  his  long  silent  contemplation  of 
that  solitary  mission  which  he  had  set  his  heart  on  had  made  him 
frame  his  very  manner  and  address  according  to  apostolic  rule. 
When  he  entered  those  sombre  apartments  in  the  Gallowgate,  it 
was  with  the  salutation  "  Peace  be  to  this  house,"  with  which  he 
might  have  entered  a  Persian  palace  or  Desert  tent.  "It  was  very 
peculiar;  a  thing  that  nobody  else  did,"  says  a  simple-minded 
member  of  Dr.  Chalmers's  agency ;  "  it  was  impossible  not  to  re- 
mark it,  out  of  the  way  as  it  was ;  but  there  was  not  one  of  the 
agency  could  make  an  objection  to  it.  It  took  the  people's  atten- 
tion wonderfully."  A  certain  solemn  atmosphere  entered  with 
that  lofty  figure,  speaking  in  matchless  harmony  of  voice,  its 
"  Peace  be  to  this  house."  To  be  prayed  for,  sometimes  edify- 
ingly,  sometimes  tediously,  was  not  uncommon  to  the  Glasgow 
poor ;  but  to  be  blessed  was  a  novelty  to  them.  Perhaps,  if  the 
idea  had  been  pursued  into  the  depths  of  their  minds,  these  Pres- 
byterians, all  retaining  something  of  ecclesiastical  knowledge,  how- 
ever little  religion  they  might  have,  would  have  been  disposed  to 
deny  the  right  of  any  man  to  assume  that  priestly  power  of  bless- 
ing. Irving,  however,  did  not  enter  into  any  discussion  of  the 
subject.  It  was  his  habitual  practice;  and  the  agency,  puzzled 
and  a  little  awed,  "could  not  make  an  objection  to  it."  He  did 
still  more  than  this.  He  laid  his  hands  upon  the  heads  of  the 
children,  and  pronounced,  with  imposing  solemnity,  the  ancient 
benediction,  "The  Lord  bless  thee  and  keep  thee,"  over  each  of 
them — a  practice  startling  to  Scotch  ears,  but  acquiesced  in  invol- 
untarily as  natural  to  the  man  Who,  all  solitary  and  individual  in 
picturesque  homely  grandeur,  went  to  and  fro  among  them.  So 
grave  a  preface  did  not  detract  from  the  entire  heartiness  with 
which  he  entered  into  the  concerns  of  the  household,  an  inter- 
course which  he  himself  describes  with  touching  simplicity  in  his 
farewell  sermon  addressed  to  the  people  of  St.  John's.  It  is  im- 
possible to  give  any  account  of  this  part  of  his  work  half  so  true 
or  so  affecting  as  is  conveyed  thus,  in  his  own  words : 


INTERCOURSE  WITH  THE  POOR.— A  LEGACY.  91 

"  Oh,  how  my  heart  rejoices  to  recur  to  the  hours  I  have  sitten 
under  the  roofs  of  the  j^eople,  and  been  made  a  partaker  of  then-  con- 
fidence, and  a  witness  of  the  hardships  they  had  to  endure.  In  the 
scantiest  and  perhaps  worst  times  with  which  this  manufacturing  city 
hath  ever  been  pressed,  it  was  my  almost  daily  habit  to  make  a  round 
of  their  fomilies,  and  uphold,  what  in  me  lay,  the  declining  cause  of 
God.  There  have  I  sitten,  with  little  silver  or  gold  of  my  own  to 
bestow,  with  little  command  over  the  charity  of  others,  and  heard 
the  various  narratives  of  hardship — narratives  uttered  for  the  most 
part  with  modesty  and  patience ;  oftener  drawn  forth  with  difficulty 
than  obtruded  on  your  ear — their  wants,  their  misfortunes,  their  ill- 
requited  labor,  their  hopes  vanishing,  their  families  dispersing  in 
search  of  better  habitations,  the  Scottish  economy  of  their  homes 
giving  way  before  encroaching  necessity ;  debt  rather  than  saving 
their  condition ;  bread  and  water  their  scanty  fare ;  hard  and  un- 
grateful labor  the  portion  of  their  house.  All  this  have  I  often  seen 
and  listened  to  within  naked  walls ;  the  witness,  oft  the  partaker,  of 
their  miserable  cheer ;  with  little  or  no  means  to  relieve.  Yet  be  it 
known,  to  the  glory  of  God  and  the  credit  of  the  poor,  and  the  en- 
couragement of  tender-hearted  Christians,  that  such  application  to 
the  heart's  ailments  is  there  in  our  religion,  and  such  a  hold  in  its 
promises,  and  such  a  pith  of  endurance  in  its  noble  examples,  that 
when  set  forth  by  one  inexperienced  tongue,  Avith  soft  words  and 
kindly  tones,  they  did  never  fail  to  drain  the  heart  of  the  sourness 
that  calamity  engenders,  and  sweeten  it  with  the  balm  of  resignation 
— often  enlarge  it  with  cheerful  hope,  sometimes  swell  it  high  with 
the  rejoicings  of  a  Christian  triumph." 

A  more  affecting  picture  of  the  position  of  a  Christian  visitor, 
"  with  little  or  no  means  to  relieve"  except  by  sympathy,  and  tes- 
timony to  the  consolatory  uses  of  the  Gospel,  was  never  made. 
There  does  not  exist  human  misery  under  the  sun  which  would 
not  be  cheered  and  softened  by  such  ministrations.  He  who  was 
"often  the  partaker  of  their  miserable  cheer,"  who  blessed  the 
poor  meal  and  blessed  the  house,  and  linked  himself  to  the  suffer- 
ers by  such  lialf-sacramental  breaking  of  the  bread  of  sorrow, 
could  never  fail  to  find  his  way  into  their  hearts.  He  was  not  al- 
ways, however,  without  silver  or  gold  of  his  own  to  bestow.  A 
little  legacy  was  left  him  just  at  the  time  he  describes,  a  legacy 
of  some  sum  between  thirty  and  a  hundred  pounds — for  tradition 
has  come  to  be  doubtful  as  to  the  amount.  Such  a  little  windfall, 
one  might  suppose,  would  have  been  very  acceptable  to  Dr.  Chal- 
mers's helper,  and  so  it  was,  but  after  a  fashion  entirely  his  own. 
Irving  melted  his  legacy  into  the  one-pound  notes  current  in  Scot- 
land, deposited  them  in  his  desk,  and  every  morning,  as  long  as 
they  lasted,  put  one  in  his  pocket  when  he  went  out  to  his  visita- 
tions.    The  legacy  lasted  just  as  many  days  as  it  was  pounds  in 


92 


"IT'S  NO  HIMSEL'." 


value,  and  doubtless  produced  as  much  pleasure  to  its  owner  as 
ever  was  purchased  by  money.  What  Dr.  Chalmers  said  to  this 
barefaced  alms-giving,  in  the  very  midst  of  his  social  economy,  I 
can  not  tell.  As  to  its  destination  nobody  but  Irving  was  any 
the  wiser.  It  melted  into  gleams  of  comfort,  transitory  but  pre- 
cious ;  and  he  who  shared  the  hard  and  scanty  bread  on  the  poor 
man's  table,  could  share  the  better  meal  when  it  was  in  his  power 
to  bestow  it.  This  was  Irving's  idea  of  his  office  and  functions 
among  the  poor.  He  had  learned  it  theoretically  from  no  other 
teacher  than  his  own  heart ;  but  he  had  learned  the  practice  of  it, 
which  so  many  fain  would  acquire  without  knowing  how,  in  those 
primitive  journeys  of  his,  where  his  lodgings  were  found  in  the  cot- 
house  and  cabin ;  and  it  was  his  pleasure  to  make  himself  as  ac- 
ceptable a  guest  as  if  the  potato  or  porridge  had  been  festive  dain- 
ties, and  his  entertainers  lords  and  princes.  Such  a  gift  of  broth- 
erhood, however,  is  as  rare  as  any  gift  of  genius.  Irving  was 
unique  in  it  among  his  contemporaries,  and  has  had  but  few  equals 
in  any  time. 

Matters,  however,  had  not  changed  much  up  to  this  period  in 
respect  to  his  preaching.  Friends  who  accompanied  him  to  church 
when  it  was  his  turn  to  conduct  the  services,  tell,  as  a  very  com- 
mon incident,  that  the  preacher  going  in  was  met  by  groups  com- 
ino-  out  with  disappointed  looks,  complaining,  as  the  reason  of 
their  departure,  that  "  it's  no  liimseV  the  day."  Nothing  better 
was  to  be  looked  for  when  himseV  was  such  a  man  as  Chalmers ; 
and  if  his  assistant  felt  at  all  sore  on  the  subject,  his  mortification 
must  have  been  much  allayed  by  the  unrivaled  gifts  of  his  great 
colleague.  There  is,  however,  no  sign  of  soreness  or  mortification 
in  him.  A  brilliant  vision  of  what  he  yet  might  attain  had  flick- 
ered before  his  eyes  all  through  his  probation,  as  is  apparent  by 
many  tokens,  but  he  never  disguised  from  himself  his  failure  in 
popularity.  He  smiled  to  his  companions,  not  without  an  appre- 
ciation of  the  joke,  when  the  good  people  came  out  of  the  church 
door  because  it  was  "  no  himsel'."  He  did  not  forget  what  he  had 
said,  that  if  this  people  bore  with  him,  they  were  the  first  who 
ever  would ;  nor  did  he  hesitate  to  repeat  that  "  this  congregation 
is  almost  the  first  in  which  our  preaching  was  tolerated,"  and  even 
that  still,  "  we  know,  on  the  other  hand,  that  our  imperfections 
have  not  been  hid  from  your  eyes."  Yet  this  unpopularity,  ad- 
mitted with  frankness  so  unusual  and  perhaps  excessive,  was  by 
no  means  universal.     Within  the  great  assembly  who  venerated 


TWO  PRESBYTERS.  93 

Dr.  Chalmers  was  a  smaller  circle  who  looked  upon  Irving  with  all 
the  enthusiastic  admiration  naturally  given  to  a  man  whose  mer- 
its the  admirer  himself  has  been  the  first  to  find  out.  "  Irving's  ' 
preaching,"  said  Dr.  Chalmers,  evidently  not  with  any  very  great 
admiration  of  it,  "is  like  Italian  music,  appreciated  only  by  con- 
noisseurs." But  he  does  not  hesitate  to  compare  the  influence  of 
his  assistant,  on  another  and  more  cordial  occasion,  to  a  special 
magnetic  spell,  which  went  to  the  very  hearts  of  those  susceptible 
to  it,  though  it  fell  blank  upon  the  unimpressionable  multitude. 
On  the  whole,  Dr.  Chalmers's  opinion  of  him  is  the  opinion  of  one 
who  only  half  understands,  and  does  not  more  than  half  sympa- 
thize with,  a  character  much  less  broad,  but  in  some  respects  more 
elevated  than  his  own.  A  certain  impatience  flashes  into  the  judg- 
ment. The  statesman  and  philosopher  watches  the  poet-enthusi- 
ast with  a  doubtful,  troubled,  half-amused,  half-sad  perplexity; 
likes  him,  yet  does  not  know  what  he  would  be  at ;  is  embar- 
rassed by  his  warm  love,  praise,  and  gratitude ;  vexed  to  see  him 
commit  himself;  impatient  of  what  he  himself  thinks  credulity, 
vanity,  waste  of  power,  but  never  without  a  sober,  regretful  affec- 
tion for  the  bright,  unsteady  light  that  could  not  be  persuaded  to 
shine  only  in  its  proper  lantern.  This  sort  of  admiring,  indul- 
gent, affectionate  half-comprehension  is  apparent  throughout  the 
whole  intercourse  of  these  two  great  men.  That  Chalmers  was 
the  greater  intellect  of  the  two  I  do  not  attempt  to  question,  nor 
yet  that  he  was  in  all  practical  matters  the  more  eminent  and 
serviceable  man ;  but  that  Irving  had  instinctive  comprehensions 
and  graces  which  went  high  over  the  head  of  his  great  contem- 
porary seems  to  me  as  evident  as  the  other  conclusion. 

A  light  quite  peculiar  and  characteristic  falls  upon  Glasgow  by 
means  of  these  two  figures — Chalmers  with  a  certain  sweep  and 
wind  of  action  always  about  him,  rushing  on  impetuous,  at  the 
height  of  his  influence,  legislating  for  his  parish  in  bold  independ- 
ence, perhaps  the  only  real  autocrat  of  his  day — Irving,  almost 
loitering  about  the  unlovely  streets,  open  to  all  the  individual 
interests  thereabouts ;  learned  in  the  names,  the  stories,  the  pe- 
culiarities of  his  three  hundred  families ;  still  secondary,  depend- 
ent, dallying  with  dreams  of  a  time  when  he  should  be  neither, 
of  a  Utopia  all  his  own ;  not  influential  at  all  as  yet,  only  remark- 
able ;  noted  on  the  streets,  noted  in  the  houses  he  frequented,  an 
out-of-the-way,  incomprehensible  man,  whose  future  fortune  it  was 
not  safe  to  foretell.     In  the  anecdotes  told  of  him  he  often  looms 


94  THE  PEDDLER. 

fortli  with  a  certain  simple  elevation  wHcli  is  unmoved  by  ordi- 
nary restraints  and  motives,  and  always  leaves  some  recollection 
of  his  im^DOsiug  presence  upon  the  memories  of  all  whom  he  en- 
counters. Amid  all  the  luxuries  of  rich,  lavish  Glasgow,  he  still 
set  forth  afoot  in  his  times  of  relaxation,  in  primitive  hardness, 
carrying  his  own  belongings  on  his  shoulder,  or  helped  the  weak 
on  his  way  without  a  moment's  consideration  of  the  propriety  of 
the  matter.  Thus,  on  one  occasion,  he  is  reported  to  have  been 
on  his  way  to  some  Presbytery  meeting  in  the  country — proba- 
bly some  ordination  or  settlement  which  attracted  his  interest, 
though  not  a  member  of  the  court.  The  ministers  of  the  Presby- 
tery were  to  be  conveyed  in  carriages  to  the  scene  of  action ;  but 
Irving,  who  was  only  a  spectator  and  supernumerary,  set  off  on 
foot,  according  to  his  usual  custom.  The  "brethren"  in  their  car- 
riages came  up  to  him  on  the  way — came  up  at  least  to  a  tall,  re- 
markable figure,  which  would  have  been  undeniably  that  of  Dr. 
Chalmers's  helper  but  that  it  bore  a  peddler's  pack  upon  its  stal- 
wart shoulders,  and  was  accompanied  side  by  side  by  the  fatigued 
proprietor  of  the  same.  To  the  laughter  and  jokes  which  hailed 
him,  however,  Irving  presented  a  rather  affronted,  indignant  as- 
pect. He  could  see  no  occasion  for  either  laughter  or  remark. 
The  peddler  was  a  poor  Irishman  worn  out  with  his  burden. 
"  His  countrymen  were  kind  to  me,"  said  the  offended  probation- 
er, recalling  those  days  when,  sick  at  heart,  he  plunged  among  the 
Ulster  cabins,  and  got  some  comfort  out  of  his  wanderings.  He 
carried  the  pack  steadily  till  its  poor  owner  was  rested  and  ready 
to  resume  it,  and  thought  it  only  natural.  On  another  occasion 
he  had  gone  down  to  visit  his  old  friend,  Mr.  Story,  of  Eosneath, 
in  that  beautiful  little  peninsula ;  and  in  the  sweet  gloaming  of  a 
summer  night  stood  on  the  narrow  tongue  of  land  called  Eow 
Point,  and  shouted  across  the  tiny  strait  for  a  boat.  As  he  stood 
with  his  portmanteau  on  his  shoulder,  among  the  twilight  shad- 
ows, he  heard  an  answer  over  the  water,  and  presently  saw  the 
boat  gliding  across  the  loch ;  but  when  it  had  reached  half  way, 
to  Irving's  amazement  and  impatience,  it  turned  back:  some  com- 
motion arose  on  the  opposite  side,  lights  flickered  about  the  bank, 
and  only  after  a  considerable  interval  and  many  impatient  shouts, 
the  oars  began  again  to  dip  into  the  water,  and  the  boat  approach- 
ed heavily.  When  Irving  demanded  why  he  had  turned  back, 
and  had  kept  him  so  long  waiting,  the  boatman,  gliding  up  to  the 
beach, looked  discomfited  and  incredulous  at  his  passenger.     "I 


"A  MAN  ON  HORSE."— THE  HOWIES.  95 

thought  you  were  a  man  on  liorse !"  cried  the  startled  ferryman, 
looking  up  bewildered  at  the  gigantic  figure  and  portmanteau, 
which  distance  and  darkness  had  shaped  into  a  centaur.  He  had 
gone  back  to  fetch  the  horse-boat,  which  in  all  its  cumbrous  con- 
venience was  now  thrust  up  upon  the  shingle.  Irving  did  not 
appreciate  the  consideration.  It  even  appears  that  he  lost  his 
temper  on  the  occasion,  and  did  not  see  the  joke  when  the  story 
was  told. 

In  one  of  those  walking  excursions  he  penetrated  into  the 
depths  of  Ayrshire,  and  reached  at  nightfall  the  house  of  the 
Howies  of  Lochgoin — a  name  which  recalls  all  the  covenanting 
traditions  of  that  wild  district.  The  family  were  at  prayers — or 
"worship,"  as  it  is  usual  to  call  it  in  Scotland — and  one  of  its 
members  remembers  the  surprising  apparition  of  the  tall  stranger 
in  the  sjxnce,  or  outer  room,  when  they  all  rose  from  their  knees, 
as  having  had  a  rather  alarming  effect  upon  the  family,  whose  de- 
votions he  had  joined  unheard,  and  to  whose  house  he  bade  his 
usual  "  Peace."  Though  they  were  entirely  strangers  to  him,  Ir- 
ving not  only  made  friends,  but  established  to  his  own  satisfaction 
a  link  of  relationship  by  means  of  the  Waldensian  Howys,  from 
whom  he  himself  boasted  descent.  The  original  family  of  refu- 
gees, according  to  his  own  account,  had  split  into  two  branches, 
one  of  which  wandered  to  Ayrshire,  while  one  settled  in  Annan. 
The  link  thus  accidentally  found  was  warmly  remembered,  and 
the  Orations,  published  when  Irving  was  at  his  height  of  early  glo- 
ry, and  one  of  the  most  largely  read  and  brilliantly  criticised  of 
modern  works,  found  its  way,  by  the  hand  of  the  first  traveler  he 
could  hear  of,  from  that  world  of  London  which  turned  his  head, 
as  people  imagine,  down  to  the  moorland  solitudes  of  Lochgoin. 

The  year  after  his  arrival  in  Glasgow  he  made  another  visit  to 
Ireland,  which  was  attended  by  one  amusing  result,  upon  which 
his  friends  often  rallied  him.  He  had  made  an  appointment  with 
a  young  Glasgow  friend  to  meet  him  at  Annan,  in  his  father's 
house,  with  the  idea  of  guiding  the  stranger  through  those  moors 
and  mosses  of  Dumfriesshire  which  were  so  dear  and  well  known 
to  himself.  But  while  his  friend  kept  the  appointment  carefully, 
Irving,  seduced  by  the  pleasures  of  his  ramble,  or  induced,  as  ap- 
pears from  a  letter,  to  lengthen  it  out  by  a  little  incursion  into 
England  from  Liverpool,  forgot  all  about  it.  The  accommoda- 
tions of  Gavin  Irving's  house  at  Annan  were  limited;  and  though 
there  was  no  limit  to  Mrs.  Irving's  motherly  hospitality,  it  was 


96  HOLIDAY  ADVENTUKES. 

not  easy  to  entertain  the  unknown  guest.  The  youngest  of  the 
handsome  sisters  had  to  exert  herself  in  this  emergency.  She 
showed  the  young  stranger  the  way  to  the  waterside  and  all  the 
modest  beauties  of  the  little  town.  The  young  man  did  not  miss 
his  friend,  nor  was  any  way  impatient  for  Edward's  arrival ;  and 
when  the  truant  did  come,  at  the  end  of  a  fortnight,  he  was  called 
upon  to  greet  the  stranger,  whom  he  had  himself  sent  to  Annan, 
as  his  sister's  affianced  husband— an  astonishing  but  very  happy 
conclusion,  as  it  turned  out,  to  his  own  carelessness. 
.-  At  another  holiday  time  Irving  accompanied  a  member  of  his 
congregation  in  some  half-pleasure,  half-business  excursion  in  a 
gig.  During  this  journey  the  pair  were  about  to  drive  down  a 
steep  descent,  when  Irving,  whose  skill  as  a  driver  was  not  great, 
managed  to  secure  the  reins,  and  accomplished  the  descent  at  so 
amazing  a  pace  that  several  of  a  little  party  of  soldiers,  who  were 
crossing  a  bridge  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  were  driven  into  the 
stream  by  the  vehemence  of  the  unexpected  charge.  Some  little 
distance  farther  on,  the  gig  and  the  travelers  paused  at  a  roadside 
inn,  into  the  public  room  of  which  entered,  after  a  while,  several 
of  these  soldiers.  Two  of  them  regarded  with  whispered  confer- 
ences the  driver  of  the  gig ;  and  when  an  opportunity  of  conver- 
sation offered,  oa^"of  the  two  addressed  Irving.  "This  man," 
s^d  the  skillful -Scotch  conversationalist,  "thinks  he's  the  wisest 
man  in  a'  the  regiment.  What  do  ye  think,  sir?  He  says 
you're  the  great  Dr.  Chalmers."  "And  do  you  really  think," 
asked  Irving,  with  an  appeal  to  the  candor  of  this  inquiring  mind, 
"that  I  look  like  a  minister?"  "  My  certy,  no!"  cried  the  sim- 
ple-minded warrior,  "or  you  wouldna  drive  like  yonr 

Such  comic  lights,  often  dwelt  upon  and  much  appreciated  by 
his  friends,  played  about  this  unusual  figure,  necessary  accom- 
paniments of  its  singular  aspect.  To  his  intimates  he  opened  his 
heart  so  freely,  and  exhibited  all  his  peculiarities  after  so  trans- 
parent a  fashion,  that  those  points  of  his  character  which  might 
have  appeared  defects  to  the  eyes  of  strangers  were  dear  to  those 
who  loved  him,  originating  as  they  did  in  his  own  perfect  affec- 
tionateness  and  sincerity.  "  He  was  vain,  there  is  no  denying  it," 
writes  a  dear  friend  of  his;  "but  it  was  a  vanity  proceeding  out 
of  what  was  best  and  most  lovable  in  him — his  childlike  simplic- 
ity and  desire  to  be  loved — his  crystal  transparency  of  character 
letting  every  little  weakness  show  through  it  as  frankly  as  his  no- 
blest qualities ;  and,  above  all,  out  of  his  loyal,  his  divine  trust  in 


SOLEMNITY  OF  DEPORTMENT.  97 

the  absolute  truth  and  sincerity,  and  the  generous  sympathy  and 
good-will  of  all  who  made  friendly  advances  toward  him."  But 
his  aspect  to  the  general  mass,  who  saw  him  only  "  in  society"  or 
in  the  pulpit,  was  of  a  different  kind.  The  solemnity  of  his  ap- 
pearance and  manners  impressed  that  outside  audience.  He 
spoke  in  language  "such  as  grave  livers  do  in  Scotland  use," 
with  a  natural  pomp  of  diction  at  all  times,  and  took  a  certain 
priestly  attitude  which  is  not  usual  in  Scotland — the  attitude  of  a 
man  who  stands  between  God  and  his  fellows.  A  story,  for  which 
I  will  not  vouch,  is  told  of  one  such  remarkable  appearance  which 
he  made  at  a  Glasgow  dinner-party.  A  young  man  was  present 
who  had  permitted  himself  to  talk  profanely,  in  a  manner  now 
unknown,  and  which  would  not  be  tolerated  in  any  party  nowa- 
days. After  expending  all  his  little  wit  upon  priestcraft  and  its 
inventions,  this  youth,  getting  bold  by  degrees,  at  last  attacked 
Irving — who  had  hitherto  taken  no  notice  of  him — directly,  as 
one  of  the  world-deluding  order.  Irving  heard  him  out  in  si- 
lence, and  then  turned  to  the  other  listeners.  "  My  friends,"  he 
said,  "I  will  make  no  reply  to  this  unhappy  youth,  who  hath  at- 
tacked the  Lord  in  the  persofb  of  his  servant ;  but  let  us  pray  that 
this  his  sin  may  not  be  laid  to  his  charge;"  and  with  a  solemn 
motion  of  his  hand,  which  the  awe-struck  diners-out  instinctively 
obeyed,  Irving  rose  up  to  his  full  majestic  height,  and  solemnly 
commended  the  offender  to  the  forgiveness  of  God.  Whether 
this  incident  really  occurred  I  can  not  tell ;  but  it  is  one  of  the 
anecdotes  told  of  him,  and  it  certainly  embodies  the  most  popular 
conception  of  his  demeanor  and  bearing. 

The  labors  of  all  engaged  in  that  parish  were  unceasing ;  and  in 
addition  to  the  two  services  on  each  Sunday,  which  were  Irving's 
share  of  the  work,  and  the  perpetual  round  of  parochial  visits  and 
occasional  services,  he  was  "  always  ready" — as  says  Mr.  David 
Stowe,  the  educational  reformer  of  Glasgow,  whose  lifelong  work 
was  then  commencing  in  a  great  system  of  Sunday-schools — to 
lend  his  aid  wherever  it  was  required.  When  the  Sunday-schol- 
ars were  slow  to  be  drawn  out,  or  the  district  unpromising,  or  a 
more  distinct  impulse  necessary  than  could  be  given  by  mere  vis- 
its and  invitations,  Irving  did  not  hesitate  to  go  down  with  the 
anxious  teacher  to  his  "proportion,"  and,  with  his  Bible  in  his 
hand,  take  his  station  against  the  wall,  and  address  the  slowly- 
gathering  assembly  all  unused  to  out-of-door  addresses,  a  species 
of  ministrations  which  were  at  the  period  considered  rather  be- 

G 


98  IRVING  PATRONIZED  BY  THE  OFFICE-BEARERS. 

neath  the  dignity  of  ministers  of  the  Church.  Irving  had  also 
the  charge  of  visiting  the  convicts  in  prison,  and  is  said  to  have 
done  so  on  some  occasions  with  great  effect.  One  of  those  un- 
happy persons  had  been  condemned  for  a  murder,  though  strenu- 
ously denying  his  guilt.  After  his  conviction,  the  unhappy  man 
succeeded  in  interesting  his  visitor  by  his  assertions  of  innocence ; 
and  when  Irving  left  the  prison,  it  was  to  plunge  into  the  dens 
of  the  Gallowgate,  taking  with  him  as  assistants  a  private  friend 
of  his  own  and  a  member  of  Dr.  Chalmers's  agency,  to  make  a  last 
anxious  effort  to  discover  whether  any  exculpatory  evidence  was 
to  be  found.  The  surviving  member  of  that  generous  party  re- 
members how  they  searched  through  the  foul  recesses  of  the  Glas- 
gow St.  Giles's,  and  went  to  all  the  haunts  of  their  wretched  client, 
a  charitable  forlorn  hope.  But  the  matter,  it  turned  out,  was 
hopeless ;  what  they  heard  confirmed,  instead  of  shaking,  the  just- 
ice of  the  conviction,  and  the  bootless  investigation  was  given 
up. 

But  the  kind  of  work  in  which  he  was  thus  engaged  was  not 
the  great  work  in  which  his  fame  was  to  be  gained,  or  his  use  in 
his  generation  manifested.  In  all  that  is  told  of  him  he  appears 
in  the  shade — only  supplementing  the  works  of  another ;  and  it 
is  amusing  to  observe,  even  at  this  long  distance  of  time,  that  the 
ancient  ofiice-bearers  of  St.  John's,  once  Dr.  Chalmers's  prime  min- 
isters in  the  government  of  that,  his  kingdom,  can  scarcely  yet 
forbear  a  certain  patronizing  regard  toward  Dr.  Chalmers's  help- 
er. They  all  went  to  hear  him,  like  virtuous  men,  who  set  a  good 
example  to  the  flock,  and  tolerated  the  inexperience  of  the  strange 
probationer;  and  sat  out,  with  a  certain  self-complacence,  those 
sermons  which  were  to  stir  to  its  depths  a  wider  world  than  that 
of  Glasgow.  One  here  and  there  even  detected  a  suspicion  of  un- 
soundness in  the  vehement  addresses  of  the  young  preacher ;  and 
I  have  been  told  of  a  most  singular,  unorthodox  sentiment  of  his 
— unorthodox,  but  at  exact  antipodes  from  later  sentiments  equal- 
ly unlawful — which  one  zealous  hearer  noted  down  in  those  old 
days,  and  submitted  to  Dr.  Chalmers  as  a  matter  which  should  be 
noticed.  Wise  Chalmers  only  smiled  and  shook  his  head.  He 
himself  had  but  an  imperfect  understanding  of  his  assistant,  but 
he  was  not  to  be  persuaded  by  the  evidence  of  one  stray  sentence 
that  his  brother  had  gone  astray. 

Thus  Irving  lived  in  the  shade.  Some  of  those  friends  to 
whom  he  attached  himself  so  fervently,  young  men  like  himself, 


IN  THE  SHADE.  99 

not  yet  settled  down  into  the  proprieties  of  life,  supported  his 
claims  to  a  higher  appreciation  with  vehement  partisanship, 
which  proceeded  as  much  from  love  to  the  man  as  from  admira- 
tion of  his  genius.  Here  and  there  an  eager  boy,  in  the  ragged 
red  gown  which  Glasgow  uses  for  academical  costume,  recognized, 
with  the  intuition  of  youth,  the  high  eloquence  flashing  over  those 
slumbrous  heads.  But,  on  the  whole,  the  Glasgow  congregation 
sat  patronizingly  quiet,  and  listened,  without  much  remarking 
what  the  "helper  had  to  say."'  As  much  as  the  ordinary  brain 
could  bear  they  had  already  heard,  or  were  to  hear  the  same  day 
from  "the  doctor  hirnsel'."  Under  such  circumstances,  it  was 
scarcely  to  be  expected  that  they  could  do  more  than  listen  calm- 
ly to  the  addresses  of  the  other  preacher,  whose  manner  and  looks, 
and  mode  of  address  were  all  undoubtedly  exceptional,  and  sub- 
ject to  criticism.  Such  a  strain  would  have  been  impossible  to 
any  merely  mortal  audience ;  so  the  good  people  drowsed  through 
the  afternoons,  and  were  kind  to  Mr.  Irving ;  they  were  very  glad 
to  hear  the  doctor  found  him  so  serviceable  among  his  poor ;  that 
the  agency  made  such  a  good  report  of  him ;  and  that,  altogether, 
he  was  likely  to  do  well.  They  told  the  current  stories  of  his 
gigantic  form,  and  doubtful  looks,  and  odd  ways ;  laughed  at  his 
impetuous  individuality  with  kindness,  but  amusement ;  and  had 
as  little  idea  of  the  fame  he  was  to  reach  as  of  any  other  incom- 
prehensible event.  The  profound  unconsciousness  in  which  this 
strange  little  community,  all  dominated  and  governed  by  their 
leader  and  his  great  project,  held  lightly  the  other  great  intelli- 
gence in  the  midst  of  them,  is  as  strange  a  picture  of  human  na- 
ture as  could  be  seen.  It  reminds  one  of  that  subtle  law  of  evi- 
dence which  Sir  Walter  Scott  introduces  so  dramatically  in  ac- 
counting for  the  recognition  of  his  hero  Bertram,  in  Guy  Manner- 
ing,  by  the  postillion,  who  had  seen  him  without  an  idea  of  recog- 
nizing him  before.  "Wha  was  thinking  o'  auld  Ellangowan 
then?"  says  Jock  Jabos.  The  principle  holds  good  in  wider 
questions.  The  Glasgow  people  had  their  eyes  fixed  upon  one 
man  of  genius  and  his  great  doings.  They  certainly  saw  the 
other  man  in  the  shadow  of  his  chief,  and  had  a  perception,  by 
the  way,  of  his  stature  and  peculiarities.  But  who  was  thinking 
of  genius  or  extraordinary  endowments  in  Dr.  Chalmers's  helper? 
Their  eyes  had  not  been  directed  to  him;  they  saw  him  always 
in  the  shade,  carrying  out  another  man's  ideas,  and  dominated  by 
another  man's  superior  influence ;  and  this  most  natural  and  pre- 


100  His  LOYALTY  AND  ADMIRATION. 

vailing  principle  of  human  thought  kept  Irving  obscure  and  un- 
revealed  to  their  eyes. 

The  same  influence  gradually  wrought  upon  himself.  It  is 
apparent  that  there  was  much  in  his  Glasgow  life  which  he  en- 
joyed, and  which  suited  him;  and  no  more  loyal  expression  of 
regard  for  a  master  and  leader  was  ever  written  than  the  dedica- 

O 

tion  afterward  addressed  to  Dr.  Chalmers,  in  which  he  thanks  God 
for  "that  dispensation  which  brought  me  acquainted  with  your 
good  and  tender-hearted  nature,  whose  splendid  accomplishments 
I  knew  already ;  and  you  now  live  in  the  memory  of  my  heart 
more  than  in  my  admiration.  While  I  labored  as  your  assistant, 
my  labors  were  never  weary;  they  were  never  enough  to  express 
my  thankfulness  to  God  for  having  associated  me  with  such  a 
man,  and  my  affection  to  the  man  with  whom  I  was  associated." 
To  the  same  tenor  is  the  tone  of  his  farewell  sermon,  the  first  pro- 
duction which  he  ever  gave  to  the  press,  and  in  which,  not  without 
much  strenuous  argument  for  the  freedom  of  individual  preach- 
ing, his  favorite  and  oft-repeated  theme,  he  acknowledges  "the 
burden  of  my  obligations  to  my  God"  in  respect  to  his  residence 
in  Glasgow.  "  He  has  given  me,"  says  the  preacher,  his  heart 
swelling  with  all  the  gratitude  and  affection  which  kindness  al- 
ways produced  in  him,  and  the  warm  impulse  of  his  nature  cast- 
ing all  drawbacks  behind,  "the  fellowship  of  a  man  mighty  in 
his  Church,  an  approving  congregation  of  his  people,  the  attach- 
ment of  a  populous  corner  of  his  vineyard.  I  ask  no  more  of 
heaven  for  the  future  but  to  grant  me  the  continuance  of  the  por- 
tion which,  by  the  space  of  three  years,  I  have  here  enjoyed.  But 
this  I  need  not  expect.  Never  again  shall  I  find  another  man  of 
transcendent  genius  whom  I  can  love  as  much  as  I  admire — into 
whose  house  I  can  go  in  and  out  like  a  son — whom  I  can  revere 
as  a  father,  and  serve  with  the  devotion  of  a  child — ^never  shall  I 
find  another  hundred  consociated  men  of  piety,  and  by  free  will 
consociated,  whose  every  sentiment  I  can  adopt,  and  whose  every 
scheme  I  can  delight  to  second.  And  I  feel  I  shall  never  find 
another  parish  of  ten  thousand  into  every  house  of  which  I  was 
welcomed  as  a  friend,  and  solicited  back  as  a  brother." 

This  was  one  side  of  the  picture ;  sincerely  felt  and  fully  ex- 
pressed, without  any  restraint  from  the  thought  that  on  the  other 
side  he  had  expressed,  and  yet  should  express  as  fully,  his  weari- 
ness, his  longings  for  a  scene  of  action  entirely  his  own,  his  al- 
most disgust  with  a  subordination  which  had  now  exceeded  the 


MISSIONARY  PROJECTS  RENEWED.  101 

natural  period  of  probation.  It  was  no  part  of  Irving's  temper  to 
acknowledge  any  such  restraint.  What  he  said  in  the  fullest, 
grateful  sincerity,  he  did  not  stumble  and  choke  over  because  he 
was  aware  of  having  on  another  occasion  expressed,  with  equal 
warmth,  another  phase  of  feeling,  equally  sincere,  though  appa- 
rently inconsistent.  That  he  should  have  been  content  with  the 
position  which  he  describes  in  such  glowing  colors  would  have 
been  simply  unnatural.  He  had  now  attained  the  age  when  it 
becomes  necessary  for  a  man  to  do  what  he  has  to  do  in  this 
world  for  himself,  and  not  for  another :  he  was  approaching  the 
completion  of  his  thirtieth  year.  Nature  herself  protested  that  he 
could  remain  no  longer  dependent  and  secondary,  and  that  it  was 
time  to  be  done  with  probationary  efforts.  His  thoughts,  which 
had  been  so  long  kept  silent  while  his  heart  burned,  and  so  long 
indifferently  listened  to  by  a  preoccupied  audience,  must  have 
full  course.  His  energy  must  have  scope  in  an  independent  field. 
To  stand  aside  longer,  with  all  his  conscious  powers  burning  within 
him,  was  gradually  becoming  impossible  to  Irving.  At  the  very 
moment  when  he  recognized  with  generous  enthusiasm  the  advan- 
tages of  his  position,  he  felt  its  limits  and  confinements  like  a 
chain  of  iron  round  his  neck.  The  bondage,  though  these  were 
the  most  desirable  of  bonds,  was  gradually  growing  intolerable. 
He  was  a  man  fully  equipped  and  prepared,  aware  of  a  longer 
probation,  a  sterner  prelude,  a  harder  training  than  most  men. 
"We  will  not  venture  to  say  that  the  natural  sweetness  of  his  heart 
could  have  been  embittered  even  by  the  continuance  of  this  un- 
encouraging  labor;  but,  at  all  events,  nature  took  alarm,  and  felt 
herself  in  danger.  He  received  an  invitation  to  go  to  Kingston, 
in  Jamaica,  to  a  Presbyterian  congregation  there,  and  is  said  to 
have  taken  it  into  serious  consideration,  and  only  to  have  been 
deterred  from  accepting  it  by  the  opposition  of  his  friends.  White 
men  or  black  men,  what  did  it  matter,  so  long  as  he  could  build, 
not  upon  another  man's  foundation,  but  do  his  own  work  as  God 
has  ordained  to  every  man?  And  failing  that,  his  ancient  mis- 
sionary thoughts  returned  to  his  mind ;  I  can  not  help  thinking 
that  there  is  something  wonderfully  pathetic  and  touching  in  this 
project,  which  he  carried  so  far  upon  the  way  of  life  with  him, 
and  to  which,  up  to  this  moment,  he  always  recurred  when  his 
path  became  dark  or  impracticable.  I  could  fancy  it  a  suggestion 
of  heaven  to  turn  aside  his  feet,  while  it  was  yet  possible,  from 
that  fiery  ordeal  and  passage  of  agony  through  which  his  course 


102     THE  CALEDONIAN  CHAPEL,  HATTON  GAKDEN. 

lay.  The  same  thoughts  which  once  filled  his  chamber  in  Bristo 
Street  came  back  in  the  winter  of  1821,  when,  after  two  years' 
labor  in  Glasgow,  he  saw  himself  no  farther  advanced  in  his  inde- 
pendant  way  than  when,  full  of  hopes,  he  had  come  there  to  open 
his  mouth  in  his  Master's  service.  Dr.  Chalmers  could  get  many 
-K  assistants,  but  Edward  Irving  could  get  but  one  life,  and  was  this 
all  it  was  destined  to  come  to  ?  Again  he  saw  himself  going  forth 
forlorn,  giving  up  all  things  for  his  Lord ;  carrying  the  Gospel 
afar,  over  distant  mountains,  distant  plains,  into  the  far  Eastern 
wastes.  It  was  an  enterprise  to  make  the  heart  beat  and  swell, 
but  it  was  death  to  all  human  hopes.  When  he  grasped  that 
cross  the  roses  and  laurels  would  fade  out  of  his  expectation  for- 
ever. Love  and  fame  must  both  be  left  behind.  It  was  in  him 
to  leave  them  behind  had  the  visible  moment  arrived  and  the 
guidance  of  Providence  appeared.  But  he  understood  while  he 
pondered  what  was  the  extent  of  the  sacrifice. 

Just  at  this  moment  the  clouds  opened — he  has  described  it  so 
well  in  his  own  words  that  it  would  be  worse  than  vanity  to  use 
any  other: 

"  The  Caledonian  Church  had  been  placed  under  the  pastoral  care 
of  two  worthy  ministers,  who  were  successively  called  to  parochial 
charges  in  the  Church  of  Scotland ;  and  by  their  removal,  and  for 
want  of  a  stated  ministry,  it  was  reduced  to  great  and  almost  hope- 
less straits.  But  faith  hopeth  against  hope,  and  when  it  does  so, 
never  faileth  to  be  rewarded.  This  was  proved  in  the  case  of  those 
two  men  whose  names  I  have  singled  out  from  your  number,  to  give 
them  that  honor  to  which  they  are  entitled  in  the  face  of  the  congre- 
gation. Having  heard  through  a  friend  of  theirs,  and  now  also  of 
mine,  but  at  that  time  unknown  to  2ue,  of  ray  unworthy  labors  in 
Glasgow  as  assistant  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Chalmers,  they  commissioned 
him  to  speak  to  me  concerning  their  vacant  church,  and  not  to  hide 
from  me  its  present  distress. 

"  Well  do  I  remember  the  morning  when,  as  I  sat  in  my  lonely 
apartment,  meditating  the  uncertainties  of  a  j^reacher's  calling,  and 
revolving  in  my  mind  purposes  of  missionary  work,  this  stranger 
stepped  in  upon  my  musing,  and  opened  to  me  the  commission  with 
which  he  had  been  charged.  The  answer  which  I  made  to  him,  with 
which  also  I  opened  my  correspondence  with  the  brethren,  whose 
names  are  mentioned  above,  was  to  this  effect :  '  If  the  times  permit- 
ted, and  your  necessities  required  that  I  should  not  only  preach  the 
•  Gospel  without  being  burdensome  to  you,  but  also  by  the  labor  of 
my  liands  minister  to  your  wants,  this  would  I  esteem  a  more  honor- 
able degree  than  to  l)e  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.'  And  such  as  the 
beginning  was,  was  also  the  continuance  aud  ending  of  this  negotia- 
tion  Being  in  such  a  spirit  toward  one  another,  the  prelimi- 
naries were  soon  arranged — indeed,  I  may  say,  needed  no  arrange- 


LETTER  OF  RECOMMENDATION.  103 

ment — and  I  came  up  on  the  day  before  the  Christmas  of  1821  to 
make  trial  and  proof  of  my  gifts  before  the  remnant  of  the  congrega- 
tion which  still  held  together."* 

Ere,  however,  going  to  London,  lie  seems  to  have  made  a  brief 
visit  to  Edinburgh,  where  he  obtained  from  the  Eev.  Dr.  Fleming, 
one  of  the  most  highly  esteemed  evangelical  ministers  there,  a  let- 
ter of  introduction  to  Dr.  Waugh,  of  London,  which  I  have  found 
among  other  papers  relating  to  his  removal  to  London.  These 
credentials  were  as  follows : 

"Edinburgh,  13th  December,  1821. 
"  Dear  Sir, — Allow  me  to  introduce  to  you  Mr.  Edward  Irving, 
preacher  of  the  Gospel,  who  goes  to  London  on  invitation  to  preach 
in  tlie  Caledonian  Chapel,  with  the  view  of  being  called  to  take  the 
pastoral  charge  of  the  congregation  assembling  in  that  place.  I  need 
not  tell  you  what  you  will  at  once  perceive,  that  he  is  a  large,  raw- 
boned  Scotchman,  and  that  his  outward  appearance  is  rather  uncouth; 
but  I  can  tell  you  that  his  mind  is,  in  proportion,  as  large  as  his  body; 
and  that  whatever  is  unprepossessing  in  his  apjDearance  wull  vanish  as 
soon  as  he  is  known ;  his  mind  is,  I  had  almost  said,  gigantic.  There 
is  scarcely  a  branch  of  human  science  which  he  does  not  grasp,  and 
in  some  degree  make  his  own.  As  a  scholar,  and  as  a  man  of  science, 
he  is  eminently  di-stinguished.  His  great  talents  he  has  ai^plied  suc- 
cessfully to  the  acquisition  of  professional  knowledge,  and  both  his 
talents  and  acquisitions  he  is,  I  believe,  sincerely  resolved  to  conse- 
crate to  the  service  of  his  great  Master.  His  views  of  Scripture 
truth,  while  they  are  comjDreheusive,  are,  in  my  judgment,  sound. 
His  exhibition  of  them,  indeed,  I  thought  at  one  time  exceptionable, 
as  too  refined  and  abstract  for  ordinary  hearers ;  but  that  was  Avhen 
he  contemplated  the  duties  of  a  preacher  as  a  spectator,  being  ordi- 
narily occupied  with  other  important  avocations.  For  some  time 
past,  however,  he  has  been  actively  emjDloyed  in  the  vineyard,  in  the 
character  of  assistant  to  Dr.  Chalmers,  of  Glasgow,  and  it  is  no  small 
commendation  that  the  doctor  is  in  the  highest  degree  pleased  with 
him  and  attracted  to  him.  His  connection  with  the  doctor  has  prob- 
ably accelerated  what  experience  would  have  in  time  produced  in  a 
man  of  his  mind  and  principles :  it  has  brought  him  down  to  the  level 
of  i:)lain,  sound  preaching.  This  effect  has  been  still  farther  j^romoted 
in  the  exercise  of  a  duty  which  he  has  had  to  perform,  visiting  the 
families  of  the  parish,  and  conversing  with  them  about  their  spiritual 
interests.  This  was  a  duty  in  which  he  engaged  with  great  zeal,  and 
he  is  considered  as  possessing  a  particular  faculty  for  performing  it. 
As  a  man,  he  is  honorable,  liberal,  independent  in  his  mind,  fearless  in 
the  discharge  of  his  duties,  and  exemplary  in  his  general  deportment. 
In  short,  taking  into  view  his  whole  character  and  qualifications,  his 

*  Dedication  of  the  Last  Days  to  W.  Dinwiddie,  Esq.,  Father  of  the  Session  of 
the  National  Scotch  Church ;  W.  Hamilton,  Esq.,  Secretary  of  the  Committee  for 
building  the  National  Scotch  Church ;  and  to  the  other  members  of  the  Session  and 
Committee. 


104  FAVORABLE  PROGNOSTICATIONS. 

talents,  bis  acquirements,  his  principles,  bis  zeal,  and  bis  capacity  of 
exevtion,  I  know  nobody  wbo  seems  better  fitted  for  discharging  the 
duties  of  a  Gospel  minister  in  the  metropolis  faithfully,  usefully,  and 
respectably  than  Mr.  Irving.  ...  If  you  can  be  of  any  service  to  Mr. 
Irving,  either  with  the  managers  of  the  chapel,  or  in  the  event  of  his 
remaining  in  London,  by  introducing  him  to  any  of  your  friends  in 
the  ministry,  I  shall  esteem  it  a  favor.  .  .  .  Mr.  Irving  has  come 
upon  me  unexpectedly,  and  I  have  barely  time  to  add  that  I  am, 
with  great  regard,  dear  sir,  yours  faithfully, 

"  Thomas  Fleming." 

The  kind  elaboration  of  this  old-fashioned  recommendatory  let- 
ter, written  in  days  when  people  thought  it  worth  while  to  fill 
their  paper,  secured  Irving  a  friend ;  and  many  of  its  carefully 
detailed  particulars  are  sadly  amusing  in  the  light  of  all  the  after- 
revelations,  as,  indeed,  the  calm  unconsciousness  with  which  an  or- 
dinary man  holds  up  his  light  to  show  forth  the  figure  of  an  im- 
mortal has  always  a  certain  ludicrous-pathetic  element  in  it.  Arm- 
ed with  this,  and  doubtless  with  various  others  which  have  not  es- 
caped oblivion,  the  "  large,  raw-boned  Scotchman"  set  out  for  Lon- 
don with  unconcealed  and  honest  eagerness.  "What  he  wanted 
was  not  a  benefice,  or  even  an  income,  for  hopeless  enough  in  that 
way  were  the  prospects  of  the  little  fainting  Scotch  Church,  bur- 
ied amid  the  crowded  lanes  about  Holborn,  which  successive  va- 
cancies and  discouragements  had  reduced  to  the  very  lowest  point 
at  which  it  could  venture  to  call  itself  a  congregation.  If  it  had 
been  practicable — if,  as  Irving  himself  says,  "  the  times  had  per- 
mitted," there  can  not  be  the  slightest  doubt  that  the  vehement 
young  man  would  have  been  content  to  conjoin  any  apostolic 
handicraft  with  his  spiritual  ofiice  rather  than  resign  that  longed- 
for  pulpit,  in  which  he  could  say  forth  unchecked  the  message  that 
was  in  him ;  and  he  does  not  attempt  with  any  affected  coyness 
to  conceal  his  own  eager  desire  for  this,  the  first  independent 
standing-ground  which  was  ever  placed  fairly  in  his  power.  From 
the  moment  that  he  heard  of  it,  the  idea  seems  to  have  taken  full 
possession  of  him.  Nowhere  else  could  he  do  such  good  service 
to  his  Master's  cause.  Nowhere  could  the  human  ambition  which, 
possessed  him  find  readier  satisfaction.  Nowhere  else  was  the  ut- 
terance with  which  he  was  overbrimming  so  deeply  needed.  He 
seems  to  have  felt  with  magical  suddenness  and  certainty  that  here 
was  his  sphere. 

His  own  appreciation  of  his  welcome  in  London,  and  the  hopes 
excited  in  his  mind  by  this  new  development  of  affairs,  may  be 


HIS  PLEASURE  IN  HIS  RECEPTION  THERE.  105 

learned  from  the  following  letter,  addressed  to  his  much  regarded 
pupil  and  friend,  Miss  Welsh. 

"Glasgow,  34  Kent  Street,  9th  February,  1822. 

"  My  dear  and  lovely  Pupil, — When  I  am  my  own  master,  de- 
livered from  the  necessity  of  attending  to  engagements,  ever  solicit- 
ing me  upon  the  spot  where  I  am,  and  exhausting  me  to  very  lassi- 
tude before  the  evening,  when  my  friendly  correspondence  should 
commence,  then,  and  not  till  then,  shall  I  be  able,  I  fear,  to  discharge 
ray  heart  of  the  obligations  which  it  feels  to  those  at  a  distance.  Do 
excuse  me,  I  pray  you,  by  the  memory  of  our  old  acquaintance,  and 
any  thing  else  which  it  is  pleasant  to  remember,  for  my  neglect  to 
you  in  London,  and  not  to  you  alone,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  but  to  every 
one  whom  I  was  not  officially  bound  to  write  to,  even  my  worthy  fa- 
ther. Forget  and  forgive  it ;  and  let  us  be  established  in  our  former 
correspondence  as  if  no  such  sin  against  it  had  ever  taken  place.  I 
could  say  some  things  on  my  own  behalf;  but,  till  you  go  to  London, 
which  I  hope  will  not  be  till  I  am  there  to  be  a  brother  to  you,  you 
could  not  at  all  sympathize  with  them. 

"And  know  now,  though  late,  that  my  head  is  almost  turned  with 
the  approbation  I  received — certainly  my  head  is  turned ;  for  from 
being  a  j^oor  desolate  creature,  melancholy  of  success,  yet  steel  against 
misfortune,  I  have  become  all  at  once  full  of  hope  and  activity.  My 
hours  of  study  have  doubled  themselves — my  intellect,  long  unused 
to  expand  itself,  is  now  awakening  again,  and  truth  is  revealing  itself 
to  my  mind ;  and  perhaps  the  dreams  and  longings  of  my  fair  corre- 
spondent* may  yet  be  realized.  I  have  been  solicited  to  publish  a 
discourse  which  I  delivered  before  his  Royal  Highness  the  Duke  of 
York,  but  have  refused  till  my  apprehensions  of  truth  be  larger,  and 
my  treatment  of  it  more  according  to  the  models  of  modern  and  an- 
cient times.  The  thanks  of  all  the  directors  I  have  received  formally 
— the  gift  of  all  the  congregation  of  the  Bible  used  by  his  Royal  High- 
ness. The  elders  paid  my  expenses  in  a  most  princely  style.  My 
countrymen  of  the  first  celebrity,  especially  in  art,  welcomed  me  to 
their  society,  and  the  first  artist  in  the  city  drew  a  most  admirable 
half-length  miniature  of  me  in  action.  An^  so,  you  see,  I  have  rea- 
son to  be  vain. 

"  But  these  things,  my  dear  Jane,  delight  me  not,  save  as  vouch- 
safements  of  my  Maker's  bounty,  the  greater  because  the  more  un- 
deserved. Were  I  established  in  the  love  and  obedience  of  Him,  I 
should  rise  toweringly  aloft  into  the  regions  of  a  very  noble  and  sub- 
lime character,  and  so  would  my  highly-gifted  pupil,  to  retain  whose 
friendship  shall  be  a  consolation  to  my  life ;  to  have  her  fellowship  in 
divine  ambitions  would  make  her  my  dear  comj^anion  through  eter- 
nity. 

"  To  your  afiectionate  mother,  whose  indulgence  gives  me  this 
pleasant  communication  with  her  daughter,!  have  to  exj^ress  my  at- 
tachment in  every  letter.  May  you  live  worthy  of  each  other,  mu- 
tual stays  through  life,  doubly  endeared,  because  alone  together,  and 
therefore  doubly  dutiful  to  Him  who  is  the  husband  of  the  widow 
and  the  Father  of  the  fatherless.  I  have  sent  this  imder  cover  to  my 
*  He  refers  to  bis  young  friend's  affectionate  prophecies  of  his  future  fame. 


106  OBSTACLES.— THE  CALEDONIAN  ASYLUM. 

friend  T.  C,  not  knowing  well  where  you  are  at  present.  If  in  Ed- 
inburgh, offer  my  benedictions  upon  your  uncle's  new  alliance.  I 
hope  to  be  in  Edinburgh  soon,  where  I  will  not  be  without  seeing 
you.     I  am,  my  dear  pupil,  your  affectionate  friend, 

"Edwaed  Irying." 

"Wherewith"  (namely,  with  the  trial  of  his  gifts)  "being  satis- 
fied," he  continues,  in  the  dedication  already  quoted,  "  I  took  my 
journey  homeward,  waiting  the  good  pleasure  of  the  great  Head 
of  the  Church.  Many  were  the  difficulties  and  obstacles  which 
Satan  threw  in  the  way,  and  which  threatened  hard  to  defeat  al- 
together our  desire  and  our  purpose  of  being  united  in  one. 
Among  others,  one,  which  would  have  deterred  many  men,  was 
my  inability  to  preach  in  the  Gaelic  tongue,  of  which  I  knew  not 
a  word."  This  absurd  stipulation  originated  in  the  connection  of 
the  Caledonian  Chapel  with  the  Caledonian  Asylum,  the  directors 
of  which  are  those  whom  he  records  as  having  thanked  him  for- 
mally— an  institution  originally  intended  for  the  orphan  children 
of  soldiers  and  sailors,  and  of  whose  office-bearers  the  Duke  of 
York,  the  commander-in-chief,  was  president.  This  institution  is 
still  in  existence,  and,  until  the  disruption  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, still  sent  its  detachments  of  children  into  the  galleries  of  the 
National  Scotch  Church,  built  to  replace  the  little  Caledonian 
Chapel.  But  at  that  period  it  was  its  connection  with  the  great 
charity  which  alone  gave  the  little  chapel  importance.  Other 
Scotch  churches,  more  flourishing  and  prosperous,  were  in  exist- 
ence, but  the  chapel  in  Hatton  Garden  had  a  trifling  Parliament- 
ary allowance,  in  direct  consideration  of  its  connection  with  the 
Asylum,  and  the  minister's  powers  of  preaching  Gaelic.  This  in- 
itial difficulty  called  forth  from  Irving  the  following  characteristic 
letter : 

"  To  ray  honored  friends,  Mr.  Dinwiddle,  Mr.  Simpson,  Mr.  Robert- 
son, Mi-.  Hamilton,  and  others  connected  with  the  Caledonian  Chap- 
el, to  whom  I  have  the  pleasure  of  being  known,  and  who  take  an 
interest  in  my  coming  to  London : 

"  Gentlemex, — My  friend  Mr.  Laurie  has  called  to  report  to  me 
the  result  of  the  last  meeting  of  Directors  of  the  Asylum  ;  and  as  Mr. 
Hamilton  requested  him  to  make  it  known  to  me,  I  feel  myself  called 
upon  to  do  my  endeavor  to  make  you  comfortai)le  under,  and  also, 
if  possible,  to  extricate  you  from,  the  embarrassment  in  which  you 
may  feel  yourselves. 

"  First.  Let  my  interest  be  as  nothing.  The  Lord  will  provide  for 
me;  and  since  I  left  you  His  providence  has  presented  me  with  the 
offer  of  a  chapel  of  ease  in  Dundee,  with  the  probable  reversion  of  the 
first  vacant  living  hi  the  place.     This,  of  course,  I  refused.     The  peo- 


THE  CALEDONIAN  ASYLUM.  1()7 

pie  of  New-York  are  inquiring  for  me  to  succeed  the  great  Mr.  Ma- 
son— at  least  are  Avriting  letters  to  that  effect.  This  I  do  not  think 
will  come  to  any  head,  because  I  am  not  worthy  of  the  honor.  But 
I  mention  both  to  show  you  in  what  good  hands  my  fortune  is,  when 
it  is  left  to  God  alone. 

"  Secondly.  But  if,  for  the  interests  of  your  own  souls,  and  religion 
in  general,  and  the  Scotch  Church  in  particular,  you  do  still  desire 
my  services  among  you,  then  I  am  ready  at  any  call,  and  almost  on 
any  conditions,  for  my  own  spirit  is  bent  to  preach  the  Gospel  in 
London.   . 

"Thirdly.  If  the  gentlemen  of  the  Asylum  would  not  mistake  for 
importunity  and  seeking  of  a  place  what  I  offer  from  a  desire  to  me- 
diate peace,  and  benefit  the  best  interests  of  my  countrymen,  I  pledge 
myself  to  study  Gaelic ;  and  if  I  can  not  write  it  and  preach  it  in  six 
months,  I  give  them  my  missive  to  be  burdensome  to  them  no  longer. 
There  was  a  time  when  the  consciousness  of  my  own  powers  would 
have  made  it  seem  as  meanness  so  to  condescend  ;  but  now  the  low- 
ness  of  condescension  for  Chi-ist's  sake  I  feel  to  be  the  height  of  honor. 

"  Fourthly.  But  if  not,  and  you  are  meditating,  as  Mr.  Hamilton 
says,  to  obtain  another  place  of  worship  to  which  to  call  me,  then  be 
assured  I  shall  not  be  difficult  to  persuade  to  come  among  you ;  and 
I  shall  not  distress  your  means ;  but  content  Avith  little,  minister,  in 
humble  dependence  upon  God,  the  free  grace  of  the  Gospel. 

"Finally,  gentlemen,  should  I  never  see  your  faces  any  more,  my 
heart  is  towai-d  you,  and  my  prayers  are  for  you,  and  the  blessing  of 
the  Lord  God  shall  be  upon  us  all  if  Ave  seek  his  face ;  and  we  shall 
dwell  together  in  that  New  Jerusalem  where  there  is  no  temple  and 
no  need  of  any  pastors ;  but  the  Lamb  doth  lead  them  and  feed  them 
by  rivers  of  living  Avaters,  and  Avipes  away  all  tears  from  their  eyes. 

"  Commend  me  to  your  families  in  love  and  brotherhood,  and  do 
all  regard  me  as  your  obliged  and  affectionate  friend, 

"Edavakd  Ikving. 

"Glasgow,  21st  February,  1822." 

The  Directors  of  the  Caledonian  Asylum  were  not,  however, 
"  so  far  left  to  themselves,"  as  we  say  in  Scotland,  as  to  insist  upon 
the  six  months  of  Gaelic  study  thus  heroically  volunteered.  The 
Duke  of  York  exerted  his  influence  to  set  aside  the  stipulation ; 
and  after  it  had  answered  its  purpose  in  stimulating  the  warmth 
of  both  parties,  and  adding  a  little  more  suspense  and  uncertainty 
to  Irving's  long  probation,  the  diflficultj  was  overcome.  Or  rather, 
to  use  his  own  words,  "God,  having  proved  our  willingness,  was 
pleased  to  remove  this  obstacle  out  of  the  way."  Upon  this  an- 
other difficulty  arose.  It  is  a  rule  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  not 
to  ordain  any  minister  over  a  congregation  until  they  are  first  cer- 
tified that  the  people  are  able  and  prepared  to  provide  him  with 
a  fit  income — "to  give  him  a  livelihood,"  as  Irving  says  simply. 
This  is  usually  done  in  the  form  of  a  bond,  submitted  to  the  Pres- 


108        BOND  KEQUIRED  BY  THE  PRESBYTERY. 

bytery  before  the  ordination,  by  whicli  the  stipend  is  fixed  at  a 
certain  rate,  which  the  office-bearers  pledge  themselves  to  main- 
tain. This  was  a  difficult  point  for  the  poor  little  handful  at  Hat- 
ton  Garden,  who  had  only  been  able  to  keep  themselves  together 
by  great  exertions,  and  to  whom  only  the  valuable  but  scanty 
nucleus  of  fifty  adherents  belonged.  The  Presbytery,  in  conse- 
quence, demurred  to  the  ordination,  and  once  more  the  matter 
came  to  a  temporary  standstill.  The  following  letter,  addressed 
to  Mr.  William  Hamilton,  one  of  the  principal  members  of  the 
Caledonian  Chapel,  will  show  how  Irving  regarded  this  new  ob- 
struction : 

"  My  dear  Sir, — ^Though  I  received  so  many  and  so  kind  atten- 
tions from  you  in  London,  the  great  diversity  of  my  occupations,  and 
my  frequent  visits  of  late  to  difterent  parts  of  the  country,  in  the  pros- 
pect of  removal,  have  hindered  me  from  ever  presenting  my  acknowl- 
edgments, not  the  less  felt,  be  assured,  on  that  account.  The  confi- 
dence and  frequency  of  our  intercourse  makes  me  assured,  when  I 
come  to  London,  that  we  shall  find  in  each  other  steady  friends ;  and 
it  is  delightful  in  the  prospect  opening  up  that  I  have  such  friends 
to  come  to.  The  bearer  is  my  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Warren  Carlyle,  a 
young  man  of  most  admirable  character,  both  moral  and  religious. 
He  is  in  London  on  business,  and  will  be  able  to  inform  you  in  all 
my  aftairs.  I  am  doing  my  utmost  to  get  the  Presbytery  to  consent 
to  my  ordination  without  a  bond,  and  I  hope  to  succeed.  But  if 
they  will  not,  I  come  in  June,  ordination  or  no  ordination ;  and  if 
they  are  not  content  with  the  security  I  am  content  with,  then  I  shall 
be  content  to  do  without  their  ordination,  and  seek  it  elsewhere,  or 

apply  for  it  after.     But  I  augur  better Mr.  Dinwiddle  must 

not  consider  me  wanting  in  affection  that  it  is  so  long  since  I  wrote 
to  him  personally.  Assure  him  and  all  his  fiimily,  I  pray,  of  my  grat- 
itude and  high  regards,  which  many  years,  I  trust,  will  enable  me  to 
testify May  all  good  be  with  you  and  my  other  acquaintan- 
ces ;  and  may  I  be  enabled,  when  I  come  among  you,  to  do  more  than 
fulfill  all  your  expectations — till  which  happy  junction  may  we  be 
preserved  in  the  grace  of  the  Lord. 

"  Yours  most  affectionately,  Edward  Irving. 

"Paisley,  24th  April,  1822." 

To  Paisley,  from  which  this  letter  is  dated,  Irving  was  in  the 
habit  of  walking  out  on  Saturday  afternoons,  to  snatch  a  little  do- 
mestic relaxation  at  the  tea-table  of  the  family  into  which  his  sis- 
ter had  married,  and  had  a  liberal  habit  of  inviting  chance  fellow- 
travelers  whom  he  encountered  by  the  way  to  accompany  him, 
occasionally  to  the  considerable  confusion  and  amazement  of  his 
kind  hosts.  On  one  of  these  occasions  he  introduced  a  stranger 
of  shy  and  somewhat  gruff  demeanor,  who  spoke  little,  whose 
name  nobody  heard  distinctly,  and  whom  the  good  people  set 


EEMOVAL  OF  OBSTACLES.  109 

down  as  some  chance  pedestrian,  a  little  out  of  his  ease  in  "good 
society,"  whom  Irving  had  picked  up  on  the  way.  They  were 
not  undeceived  until  years  after,  when  a  member  of  the  family, 
then  in  London,  had  one  of  the  greatest  of  living  authors,  Thomas 
Carlyle,  reverentially  pointed  out  to  her,  and  recognized,  with  hor- 
ror and  astonishment,  the  doubtful  stranger  whom  she  had  enter- 
tained and  smiled  at  in  her  father's  house. 

The  "  bond,"  however,  which  Irving,  generous  and  impetuous, 
would  have  been  well  content  to  dispense  with,  but  which  the 
prudent  Presbytery  insisted  upon,  was  at  length  procured.  "An- 
other obstacle  to  my  ordination  your  readiness,"  says  Irving  in 
the  dedication  already  quoted,  "  without  any  request  of  mine,  re- 
moved out  of  the  way.  To  those  brethren  who  came  forward  so 
voluntarily  and  so  liberally  on  that  occasion,  the  Church  and  the 
minister  of  the  church  are  much  beholden ;  and  all  of  us  are  be- 
holden to  God,  who  useth  us,  in  any  way,  however  humble,  for 
the  accomplishment  of  his  good  purposes." 

Every  thing  was  now  settled,  and  only  the  necessary  ecclesias- 
tical preliminaries  remained.  The  young  man  was  at  the  highest 
pitch  of  hope  and  anticipation.  As  he  had  not  concealed  his  ea- 
gerness to  go,  he  did  not  conceal  the  high  expectations  with  which 
he  entered  the  longed-for  field.  Expressions  of  his  hopes  and 
projects  burst  forth  wherever  he  went — misconstrued,  of  course, 
by  many ;  received  with  cold  wonder,  and  treated  as  boasts  and 
braggadocio;  but  understood  and  believed  by  some.  And  the 
only  evidence  of  other  sentiments  which  appears  in  his  corre- 
spondence— contained  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Martin,  evidently  written 
in  a  moment  of  depression — still  characteristically  exhibits  the 
high  pitch  of  his  anticipations:  "There  are  a  few  things  which 
bind  me  to  the  world,  and  but  a  very  few,"  writes  the  young  man 
in  this  effusion  of  momentary  weariness;  "one  is  to  make  a  dem- 
onstration for  a  higher  style  of  Christianity,  something  more  mag- 
nanimous, more  heroical  than  this  age  affects.  God  knows  with 
what  success."  These  wonderful  prophetic  words,  written  in 
some  moment  of  revulsion,  when  the  very  height  of  satisfaction 
and  triumph  had  brought  a  sudden  depth  of  temporary  depres- 
sion to  his  sensitive  soul,  are  the  only  visible  trace  of  those  clouds 
which  can  never  be  wholly  banished  from  the  brightest  firma- 
ment. During  the  last  week  of  his  residence  in  Glasgow  he  went 
to  Rosneath  to  visit  and  take  farewell  of  his  friend  Mr.  Story,  ac- 
companied by  another  clerical  friend,  who  went  with  him  in  won- 


110  KOSNEATH.— HAPPY  ANTICIPATIONS. 

der  and  dread,  often  inquiring  how  the  farewell  sermon,  whicli 
was  to  be  delivered  on  Sunday,  could  come  into  being.  This 
good  man  perceived  with  dismay  that  Irving  was  not  occupied 
about  his  farewell  sermon,  and  declared  with  friendly  vexation 
that  if  any  thing  worthy  of  a  leave-taking  with  the  people  of  St. 
John's  was  produced  by  the  departing  preacher  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, he  would  prove  himself  "  the  cleverest  man  in  Scot- 
land." Irving,  however,  was  not  dismayed.  He  went  joyfully 
over  loch  and  hill  in  that  sweet  holiday  of  hope.  The  world  was 
all  before  him,  and  every  thing  was  possible.  No  more  limits  ex- 
cept those  of  the  truth,  nor  obliteration  under  another  man's  shad- 
ow. All  this  time  he  had  been  but  painfully  fitting  and  putting 
his  armor  together;  now  he  was  already  close  to  the  lists,  and 
heard  the  trumpets  of  the  battle,  with  laughter  like  that  of  the 
war-horse ;  a  little  longer,  and  he  should  be  in  the  field. 

One  day  in  this  happy  period,  when  going  about  the  country 
with  his  friend,  Irvjng,  active,  as  of  old,  and  full  of  glee  and  en- 
ergy, leaped  a  gate  which  interposed  in  their  way.  This  feat 
took  the  minister  of  Eosneath  a  little  by  surprise,  as  was  natural. 
"Dear  me,  Irving,"  he  exclaimed,  "I  did  not  think  you  had  been 
so  agile."  Irving  turned  upon  him  immediately,  "Once  I  read 
you  an  essay  of  mine,"  said  the  preacher,  "and  you  said,  'Dear 
me,  Irving,  I  did  not  think  you  had  been  so  classical ;'  another 
time  you  heard  me  preach,  '  Dear  me,  Irving,  I  did  not  know  you 
had  so  much  imagination.'  Now  you  shall  see  what  great  things 
Twill  do  yet!" 

In  this  state  of  exulting  expectation,  he  was  not  more  patient 
than  usual  of  the  ordinary  orthodoxy  round  him.  While  himself 
the  sincerest  son  of  his  mother  Church,  and  loving  her  very  stand- 
ards with  a  love  which  never  died  out  of  him,  he  was  always  in- 
tolerant of  the  common  stock  of  dry  theology,  and  the  certified 
soundness  of  dull  men.  "  You  are  content  to  go  back  and  for- 
ward on  the  same  route,  like  this  boat,"  he  is  reported  to  have 
said,  as  the  party  struck  across  the  swelling  waters  of  the  Gair- 
loch;  "but  as  for  me,  I  hope  yet  to  go  deep  into  the  ocean  of 
truth."  Words  overbold  and  incautious,  like  most  of  his  words, 
yeft  wonderfully  characteristic  of  the  unconcealed  exaltation  of 
mind  and  hope  in  which  he  was. 

So  he  returned  to  Glasgow,  still  accompanied  by  the  alarmed 
and  anxious  friend,  who  could  get  no  satisfaction  about  his  fare- 
well sermon.     Such  an  occurrence  as  this  solemn  leave-taking,  to 


FAREWELL  SERMON.  HI 

■which  the  little  world  looked  forward,  was  an  event  in  the  history 
of  the  parish.  It  was  an  occasion  such  as  preachers  generally 
make  the  most  of,  and  in  which  natural  sentiment  permits  them 
a  little  freedom  and  deliverance  from  the  ordinary  restraints  of 
the  pulpit.  And  it  was,  perhaps,  the  first  opportunity  which  Ir- 
ving had  ever  had,  with  all  eyes  concentrated  on  himself,  to  com- 
municate his  thoughts  without  risk  of  the  inevitable  comparison, 
or  the  jealousy  equally  inevitable,  of  those  who  resented  the  idea 
of  the  assistant  attempting  to  rival  "the  doctor."  He  was  now 
no  longer  Dr.  Chalmers's  assistant,  but  a  London  minister  elect ; 
and  when  the  bonds  which  bound  him  were  imloosed,  all  the 
kindnesses  of  the  past  rushed  warm  upon  the  memory  of  the  im- 
pulsive young  man.  He  came  into  the  pulpit  glowing  with  a  ten- 
der flush  of  gratitude ;  his  discontent  and  weariness  had  dropped 
off  from  him,  and  existed  no  longer;  he  remembered  only  the 
love,  the  friendship,  the  good  offices,  the  access  he  had  obtained 
to  many  hearts.  In  that  sermon,  of  which  his  companion  de- 
spaired, the  materials  required  little  research  or  arrangement. 
The  preacher  had  but  to  go  back  upon  his  own  life  of  two  years, 
seen  in  the  warm  reviving  light  of  farewell  kindness.  He  stood 
up  in  that  pulpit,  the  last  time  he  was  to  occupy  it  by  right  of 
his  present  position,  and  calmly  told  the  astonished  hearers  of  his 
own  unpopularity,  of  their  forbearance  yet  not  applause,  of  the 
"imperfections  which  had  not  been  hid  from  their  eyes, '^ yet  of 
the  brotherly  kindness  which  they,  and  especially  the  poor  among 
them,  had  shown  him ;  and  proclaimed  the  praises  of  his  leader 
with  a  warmth  and  heartfelt  fullness  which  distressed  and  over- 
whelmed that  sober  Scotsman,  unaccustomed  to  and  disapproving 
of  such  demonstrations  of  attachment.  Even  upon  that  unenthu- 
siastic  and  preoccupied  audience  this  farewell  address  seems  to 
have  made  an  impression.  He  left  them  at  peace  with  all  men ; 
and  forgetting,  as  his  affectionate  temperament  had  a  faculty  for 
forgetting,  all  his  annoyances  and  discomforts  there.  This  fare- 
well took  away  every  possibility  of  bitterness.  They  were  all  his 
friends  whom  he  left  behind.  He  gave  a  wide,  but  warm,  uni- 
versal invitation  to  all.  His  house,  his  services,  all  that  he  could 
do,  were  freely  pledged  to  whosoever  of  those  parishioners  might 
come  to  London  and  stand  in  need  of  him.  He  meant  what  he 
said,  unguarded  and  imprudent  as  the  expression  was ;  and  the 
people  instinctively  understood  that  he  did  so.  It  was  thus  with 
the  warmest  effusion  of  good-will  that  he  left  Glasgow,  where,  as 


112  EETURNS  TO  ANNAN. 

in  every  other  place,  there  was  no  lack  of  people  who  smiled  at 
him,  were  doubtful  of  him,  and  patronized  him  with  amusing 
toleration,  but  where  nobody  now  or  then  had  an  unkind  word 
to  say. 

"When  the  farewell  was  over,  and  the  sermon  had  met  with  its 
award,  that  good,  puzzled  companion,  who  went  with  the  incom- 
prehensible preacher  to  Rosneath,  confided  all  his  doubts  and 
troubles  on  this  subject  to  the  private  ear  of  a  sympathizing 
friend.  "  Such  a  sermon  would  have  taken  me  a  week  to  write !" 
said  this  bewildered  worthy.  Possibly  a  lifetime  would  have 
been  too  short  for  such  a  feat,  had  the  good  man  but  kndwn. 

Immediately  after  this  leave-taking  Irving  proceeded  to  Annan, 
to  his  father's  house,  there  to  appear  once  more  before  the  Pres- 
bytery and  go  through  his  final  "  trials"  for  ordination.  He  chose 
to  have  this  great  solemnity  of  his  life  accomplished  in  the  same 
church  in  which  he  had  been  baptized,  and  in  which  a  third  sad 
act  awaited  him.  But  there  was  no  foreboding  in  the  air  of  that 
sweet  spring,  which  he  spent  in  a  kind  of  retreat  of  calm  and  re- 
tirement in  his  paternal  house.  The  breathing-time  which  he  had 
there,  as  well  as  the  hopes  and  interests  which  pleasantly  agitated 
it,  are  described  in  a  letter  addressed  to  his  friend  and  frequent 
correspondent,  Mr.  David  Hope. 

"  Annan,  28th  May,  1822. 

"  I  am  snugly  seated  iu  this  Temple  of  Indolence,  and  very  loth  to 
be  invaded  by  any  of  the  distractions  of  the  busy  city.  I  would  fain 
devote  myself  to  the  enjoyment  of  our  home  and  family,  and  to  medi- 
tate from  a  distance  the  busy  scene  I  have  left,  and  the  more  busy 
scene  to  which  I  am  bound.  My  mind  seems  formed  for  inactivity. 
I  can  saunter  the  whole  day  from  field  to  field,  riding  on  impressions 
and  the  transient  thoughts  they  awaken,  with  no  companion  of  books 
or  men,  saving,  perhaps,  a  little  nephew  or  niece  in  my  hand. 

"  You  may  from  this  conceive  how  little  disposed  I  am  to  take  any 
task  in  hand  of  any  kind ;  and  I  had  almost  resolved  to  refuse  flatly 
the  flattering  requests  of  my  friends  to  publish  that  poor  discourse ; 
but  yesterday  tliere  came  such  a  letter  from  Mr.  Collins,  full  of  argu- 
ment and  the  kindest  encouragement,  that  I  have  resolved  to  com- 
ply, and  shall  signify  my  resolution  to  him  by  this  j)ost. 

"  For  the  other  matter,  it  gives  me  the  most  exquisite  delight  to 
think  my  friends  remember  me  with  attachment.  That  they  are 
about  to  show  it  by  some  testimonial  I  should  perhaps  not  have 
kno;vn  till  I  received  it.  It  is  not  my  part  to  make  a  choice ;  but  if 
I  Avere  to  think  of  any  thing,  it  would  be  that  very  thing  which  you 
mention.     But  of  this  say  nothing  as  coming  from  me." 

The  matter  here  referred  to  was  a  present  which  some  mem- 
bers of  St,  John's  Church  were  desirous  of  makino;  him.     It  was 


THE  ANNANDALE  WATCHMAKER.— "PRUNING."     113 

decided  that  it  should  be  a  watch ;  and  I  have  been  told,  without, 
however,  being  able  to  vouch  for  the  entire  authenticity  of  the 
story,  that  when  the  matter  was  entirely  decided  upon,  and  the 
money  in  hand,  Irving  was  consulted  to  know  whether  he  had 
any  particular  fancy  or  liking  in  the  matter.  He  had  one,  and 
that  was  characteristic.  He  requested  that  it  should  be  provided 
by  a  certain  watchmaker,  whose  distinguishing  quality  was  not 
that  he  was  skillful  in  his  trade,  but  that  he  was  an  Annandale 
man.  The  good  donors  yielded  to  this  recommendation ;  and  Ir- 
ving had  the  double  delight  of  receiving  a  very  substantial  proof 
of  his  friends'  attachment,  and  of  throwing  a  valuable  piece  of 
work  in  the  way  of  his  countryman.  Whether  the  watch  itself 
was  the  better  for  the  arrangement  tradition  does  not  tell. 

While  the  prospect  of  this  tribute,  or  rather  of  the  affection 
which  it  displayed,  .gave  him,  as  he  says,  in  the  fullness  of  his 
heart,  "  exquisite  delight,"  the  publication  of  his  sermon  was  also 
going  on.  But  the  discourse,  in  which  Irving  had  poured  out  all 
the  generous  exuberance  of  his  feelings,  fell  into  dangerous  hands 
before  it  reached  the  public.  Mrs.  Chalmers  laid  hold  upon  the 
offending  manuscript,  and  without  either  the  consent  or  knowl- 
edge of  the  writer,  cut  down  its  panegyric  into  more  moderate  di- 
mensions— a  proceeding  which  the  luckless  author,  when  he  came 
to  know  of  it,  resented  deeply,  as  I  suspect  most  authors  would  be 
disposed  to  do.  "Eeturning  some  months  afterward  to  Glasgow," 
says  Dr.  Hanna,  iu  his  Life  of  Br.  Chalmers^  "his  printed  sermon 
was  handed  to  Mi*.  Irving,  who,  on  looking  over  it,  broke  out  into 
expressions  of  astonishment  and  indignation  at  the  liberties  which 
had  been  taken  with  his  production — expressions  which  would 
have  been  more  measured  had  he  known  who  the  culprit  was." 
Such  a  meddling  with  his  first  publication  was  enough  to  try  the 
temper  of  the  meekest  of  men. 

Immediately  after  his  ordination  he  returned  to  Glasgow,  and 
there  assisted  Dr.  Chalmers  in  the  solemn  and  austere  pomp — 
(pomp,  not  certainly  of  outward  accessories,  yet  it  is  the  only  word 
by  which  I  can  describe  the  importance  given  to  the  half-yearly 
occasion,  the  "  sacramental  season"  of  Scotch  piety,  separated  as  it 
is  by  long  array  of  devotional  services  from  the  ordinary  course 
of  the  year) — of  a  Scottish  communion.  Irving  himself  describes 
this  as  "  having  experienced  of  my  dear  friend  Dr.  Chalmers  the 
singular  honor  of  administering  the  sacrament  to  his  parish  flock, 
being  my  first  act  as  an  ordained  minister."     It  was  a  graceful 

H 


114.  GOES  TO  LONDON. 

conclusion  to  bis  residence  in  Glasgow.  From  thence  he  set  out, 
amid  honor  and  good  wishes,  with  the  highest  hopes  in  his  mind, 
and  charity  in  his  heart,  on  the  morning  of  the  8th  of  July,  1822, 
to  London.  The  future  seems  to  have  glowed  before  him  with 
all  the  indefinite  brightness  of  early  youth.  Certainly  that  little 
chapel  in  London,  in  those  dread  wastes  about  Holborn,  far  out 
of  hearing  of  the  great  world  as  might  have  been  supposed,  with 
fifty  undistinguished  members,  to  their  own  knowing  strenuous 
Scotch  churchmen,  but,  so  far  as  the  great  indifferent  community 
about  them  was  concerned,  lost  in  the  crowd  of  Dissenting  chap- 
els, nameless  and  unknown  places  of  worship,  had  little  in  itself  to 
lift  the  anticipations  of  its  minister  to  any  superlative  height;  nor 
did  he  carry  with  him  any  comforting  consciousness  of  success ; 
unflattered,  undeceived,  fully  aware  and  never  scrupling  to  con- 
fess that  his  preaching  had  hitherto,  except  in  individual  cases, 
been  little  more  than  tolerated,  it  might  have  been  supposed  a 
very  homely  and  sombre  perspective  which  opened  before  this 
young  man.  So  far  as  actual  realities  were  concerned,  it  was  so ; 
but  the  instinct  of  his  heart  contradicted  reality,  and  showed,  in 
wonderful  indefinite  vision,  some  great  thing  that  was  to  come. 
He  calls  himself  "a  man  unknown,  despised,  and  almost  outcast; 
a  man  spoken  against,  suspected,  and  avoided;"  yet,  withal,  pro- 
ceeds to  his  obscure  corner  of  that  great  wilderness  of  men,  in 
which  so  many  men,  greater  than  he  could  pretend  to  be,  had 
been  swallowed  up  and  lost,  with  a  certain  ineffable  exjjectation 
about  him  which  it  is  impossible  to  describe,  but  which  shines 
through  every  word  and  action.  He  did  not  foresee  how  it  was 
to  come ;  he  could  not  have  prophesied  that  all  London  would 
stir  to  the  echoes  of  his  voice.  All  that  memorable  tragic  life 
that  lay  solemnly  waiting  for  him  among  the  multitudinous  roofs 
was  hid  in  the  haze  of  an  illumination  which  never  takes  visible 
shape  or  form.  But  Nature,  prevoyant,  tingled  into  his  heart  an 
inarticulate  thrill  of  prophecy.  He  went  forth  joyfully,  wittingly, 
aware  of  all  the  hazards  of  that  battle,  into  the  deepest  of  the 
fight — amid  all  the  exaltation  of  his  hopes,  never  without  a  touch 
of  forlorn  dignity,  acknowledged  without  any  bitterness,  the  con- 
sciousness of  a  man  who,  however  he  might  triumph  hereafter, 
had  known  many  a  defeat  already.  Thus  Irving  went  out  of  his 
youth  and  obscurity,  out  of  trials  and  probation  not  often  exceed- 
ed, to  the  solemn  field  full  of  lights  and  shadows  greater  than  he 
dreamt  of,  where  his  course,  for  a  time,  was  to  be  that  of  a  con- 


BEGINS  HIS  LABORS  IN  LONDON.  II5 

queror,  and  wliere,  at  last,  like  other  kings  and  victors  before 
him,  he  was  to  fall,  dauntless  but  mortal,  with  the  loss  of  all  save 
honor. 


CHAPTER  YII. 

LONDON,  1822. 

First  Appearance. — Satisfaction  with  his  new  Sphere. — His  Thoughts  and  Hopes. — 
Outset  in  Life. — Chalmers  in  London. — Appeals  to  Iiwing's  Sympathy. — Progress 
in  Populai-ity. — "Our  Scottish  Youth." — Canning  and  Mackintosh. — Happy  Ob- 
scurity.— The  "  Happy  Warrior." — The  Desii-e  of  his  Heart. — His  first  Household. 

"  On  the  second  Sabbath  of  Julj,  1822,"  Irving  began  his  labors 
in  London.  The  fifty  people  who  had  signed  his  call,  with  such 
dependents  as  might  belong  to  them,  and  a  stray  sprinkling  of 
London  Scotsmen,  curious  to  hear  what  their  new  countryman 
might  have  to  say  for  himself,  formed  all  the  congregation  in  the 
little  chapel.  The  position  was  not  one  calculated  to  excite  the 
holder  of  it  into  any  flights  of  ambition,  so  far  as  its  own  qualities 
went.  It  was  far  from  the  fashionable  and  influential  quarter  of 
the  town — a  chapel  attached  to  a  charity,  and  a  congregation  re- 
duced to  the  very  lowest  ebb  in  point  of  numbers.  Nor  did  Ir- 
ving enter  upon  his  career  with  those  aids  of  private  friendship 
which  might  make  an  ordinary  man  sanguine  of  increasing  his  es- 
timation and  social  sphere.  Sir  David  Wilkie  records  his  belief 
that  the  new  preacher  had  introductions  only  to  himself  and  Sir 
Peter  Lawrie,  neither  of  them  likely  to  do  much  in  the  way  of 
opening  up  London,  great,  proud,  and  critical,  to  the  unknown 
Scotsman ;  and  though  this  statement  may  not  be  entirely  correct, 
yet  it  is  evident  that  he  went  with  few  recommendations,  save  to 
the  little  Scotch  community  amid  which,  as  people  supposed,  he 
was  to  live  and  labor,  ^liere  are  stories  extant  among  that  com- 
munity still  concerning  the  early  beginnings  of  his  fame,  which, 
after  all  that  has  passed  since,  are  sadly  amusing  and  strange, 
with  their  dim  recognition  of  some  popular  qualities  in  the  new 
minister,  and  mutual  congratulations  over  a  single  adherent  gain- 
ed. Attracted  by  the  enthusiastic  admiration  expressed  by  a 
painter  almost  unknown  to  fame,  of  the  noble  head  and  bearing 
of  the  new-comer,  another  painter  was  induced  to  enter  the  little 
chapel  where  the  stranger  preached  his  first  sermon.  "When  the 
devotional  services  were  over — beginning  with  the  Psalm,  read 


116  SATISFACTION  WITH  HIS  NEW  SPHERE. 

out  from  the  pulpit  in  a  voice  so  splendid  and  melodious  that  the 
harsh  metres  took  back  their  original  rhythm,  and  those  verses 
so  dear  to  Scotsmen  justified  their  influence  even  to  more  fastid- 
ious ears — the  preacher  stood  up,  and  read  as  the  text  of  his  ser- 
mon the  following  words :  "  Therefore  came  I  unto  you  without 
gainsaying  as  soon  as  I  was  sent  for.  I  ask  you,  therefore,  for 
what  intent  you  have  sent  for  me  ?"  The  sermon  has  not  been 
preserved,  so  far  as  I  am  aware ;  but  the  text — remembered  as  al- 
most all  Irving's  texts  are  remembered — conveys  all  the  pictu- 
resque reality  of  the  connection  thus  formed  between  the  preacher 
and  his  people,  as  well  as  the  solemn  importance  of  the  conjunc- 
tion. The  listening  stranger  was  of  course  fascinated,  and  became 
not  only  a  member  of  Mr.  Irving's  church,  but — more  faithful  to 
the  Church  than  to  the  man — a  supporter  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land after  she  had  expelled  him. 

By  gradual  degrees  the  little  chapel  began  to  fill.  So  far  as 
appears,  there  was  nobody  of  the  least  distinction  connected  with 
the  place,  and  it  is  hard  to  understand  how  the  great  world  came 
so  much  as  to  hear  of  the  existence  of  the  new  popularity.  This 
quiet  period,  full  of  deep  hopes  and  pleasant  progress,  but  as  yet 
with  none  of  the  high  excitement  of  after  days,  Irving  himself  de- 
scribes in  the  following  letter  to  his  friend,  Mr.  Graham,  of  Burns- 
wark: 

"London,  19  Gloucester  Street,  Queen  Square,  ) 
"  I31oomsbury,  5th  August,  1822.  ) 

"  My  vert  dear  Friestd, — I  have  not  forgotten  you,  and  if  I  wisli- 
ed  to  forget  you  I  could  not,  sealed  as  you  are  in  tbe  midst  of  my  af- 
fections, and  associated  with  so  many  recollections  of  worth  and  of 
enjoyment.  You  always  undervalued  yourself,  and  often  made  me 
angry  by  your  remarks  upon  tbe  nature  of  om*  friendshij),  counting 
me  to  gain  nothing ;  whereas  I  seemed  always  in  your  company  to 
be  delivered  into  those  happy  and  healthy  states  of  mind  which  are 
in  themselves  of  exquisite  reward.  To  say  nothing  of  your  bounty, 
which  shone  through  all  the  cloud  of  misfortune ;  to  say  nothing  of 
your  tender  interest  in  my  future,  my  friends,  my  thoughts,  and  your 
sleepless  endeavor  to  promote  and  serve  them,  I  hold  your  own  man- 
ly, benignant,  and  delicate  mind  to  be  a  sufficient  recommendation  of 
you  to  men  of  a  character  and  a  genius  I  have  no  pretensions  to.  So 
in  our  future  correspondence  be  it  known  to  you  that  we  feel  and  ex- 
press ourselves  as  equals,  and  bring  fortli  our  thoughts  Avith  the  same 
liberty  in  which  we  were  wont  to  express  them — which  is  the  soul 
of  all  pleasant  correspondence. 

"  You  can  not  conceive  how  happy  I  am  here  in  the  possession  of 
my  own  thoughts,  in  the  liberty  of  my  own  conduct,  and  in  the  favor 
of  the  Lord.  The  people  have  received  me  Avith  open  arms ;  tbe 
church  is  already  regularly  filled ;  my  preaching,  though  of  tbe  aver- 


HIS  THOUGHTS  AND  HOPES.  117 

age  of  an  hour  and  a  qnartei',  listened  to  with  thp  most  serious  at- 
tention ;  my  mind  plentifully  endowed  with  thought  and  feeling  ; 
my  life  ordered,  as  God  enables  me  after  His  holy  Word ;  my  store 
supplied  out  of  His  abundant  liberality :  these  are  the  elements  of 
my  happiness,  for  which  I  am  bound  to  render  unmeasured  thanks. 
Would  all  my  friends  were  as  mercifully  dealt  with,  and  mine  ene- 
mies too, 

"  You  have  much  reason  for  thankfulness  that  God,  in  the  time  of 
your  sore  trials,  sustained  your  honor  and  your  trust  in  Himself; 
nay,  rather  made  you  trust  in  Him  the  more  He  smote  you.  His 
time  of  delivery  will  come  at  length,  when  you  shall  taste  as  formerly 
His  goodness,  and  enjoy  it  with  a  chastened  joy,  which  you  had  not 
known  if  you  had  never  been  afflicted.  Persevere,  my  dear  friend, 
in  the  ways  of  godliness  and  of  duty,  until  the  grace  of  God,  which 
grows  in  you,  come  to  full  and  perfect  stature. 

"For  my  thoughts,  in  which  you  were  wont  to  take  such  interest, 
they  have  of  late  turned  almost  entirely  inward  upon  myself;  and  I 
am  beginning  dimly  to  discover  what  a  mighty  change  I  have  yet  to 
undergo  before  I  be  satisfied  with  myself.  I  see  how  much  of  my 
mind's  very  limited  powers  have  been  wasted  upon  thoughts  of  vanity 
and  jM-ide ;  how  little  devoted  to  the  study  of  truth  and  excellency 
upon  their  own  account.  As  I  advance  in  this  self  examination,  I  see 
farther,  until,  in  short,  this  life  seems  already  consumed  in  endeavors 
after  excellence,  and  nothing  attained ;  and  I  long  after  the  world 
where  we  shall  know  as  we  are  known,  and  be  free  to  follow  the 
course  we  approve  with  an  unimpeded  foot.  At  the  same  time  I  see 
a  life  full  of  usefulness,  and  from  my  fellow-creatures,  full  of  glory, 
which  I  regard  not ;  and  of  all  places  this  is  the  place  for  one  of  my 
spirit  to  dwell  in.  Here  there  are  no  limitations  to  my  mind's  high- 
est powers ;  here,  whatever  schemes  are  worthy  may  have  audience 
and  examination  ;  here,  self-denial  may  have  her  perfect  work  in  midst 
of  pleasures,  follies,  and  thriftless  employments  of  one's  time  and  en- 
ergies. Oh,  that  God  would  keep  me,  refine  me,  and  make  me  an  ex- 
ample to  this  generation  of  what  His  grace  can  produce  upon  one  of 
the  worst  of  His  children ! 

"  I  have  got  three  very  good,  rather  elegant  apartments — a  sitting- 
room,  a  bedroom,  and  dressing-room ;  and  when  George*  comes  up, 
I  have  one  of  the  attics  for  his  sleeping  apartment.  My  landlady,  as 
usual,  a  very  worthy  woman,  and  likely  to  be  well  content  with  her 
lodger.  George  comes  up  when  the  classes  sit  down,  and  in  the 
mean  time  is  busy  in  Dr.  Irving's  shop.  This  part  of  the  town  is 
very  airy  and  healthy,  close  to  Russell  Square,  and  not  far  from  the 
church,  and  in  the  midst  of  my  friends.  My  studies  begin  after 
breakfast,  and  continue  without  interruption  till  dinner ;  and  the  pro- 
duct, as  might  be  expected,  is  of  a  far  superior  order  to  what  you 
were  pleased  to  admire  in  St.  John's." 

This  letter,  after  salutations  as  particular  and  detailed  as  in  an 
apostolic  epistle,  ends  with  the  injunction  to  "tell  me  a  deal  about 

*  His  younger,  and  then  only  surviving  brother,  of  whom  and  of  whose  education 
he  seems  from  this  time  to  have  taken  the  entire  burden. 


;|^;J^g  CHALMERS  IN  LONDON. 

Annandale,  Sandy  Corne,  and  all  worthy  men."  His  correspond- 
ent, like  himself,  was  an  Annandale  man,  a  Glasgow  merchant, 
with  a  little  patrimony  upon  the  side  of  one  of  those  pastoral 
hills  which  overlook  from  a  distance  Irving's  native  town,  where 
George,  a  young  medical  student,  was  busy  among  the  drugs  in 
the  country  doctor's  shop ;  amid  all  the  exultation  of  his  hopes,  as 
well  as  in  the  fullest  tide  of  success,  his  heart  was  always  warm 
to  this  "  country-side." 

About  a  month  later,  Dr.  Chalmers,  then  making  one  of  his  rapid 
journeys  through  England,  collecting  the  statistics  of  pauperism, 
came  to  London  for  the  purpose  of  "introducing,"  according  to 
Presbyterian  uses  and  phraseology,  though  in  this  case  somewhat 
after  date,  the  young  minister  to  his  charge.  This  simple  cere- 
mony, which  is  entirely  one  of  custom  and  not  of  rule,  is  generally 
performed  by  the  most  prized  friend  of  the  new  preacher — who 
simply  officiates  for  him,  and  in  his  sermon  takes  the  opportunity 
of  recommending,  in  such  terms  as  his  friendship  suggests,  the 
young  pastor  to  the  love  and  esteem  of  his  people.  Nobody  could 
be  better  qualified  to  do  this  than  Irving's  master  in  their  com^ 
mon  profession ;  and  it  is  creditable  to  both  parties  to  note  how 
they  mutually  sought  each  other's  assistance  at  such  eventful  mo- 
ments of  their  life.  Dr.  Chalmers  writes  to  his  wife  on  arriving 
in  London  that  he  found  Irving  "in  good  taking  with  his  charge. 
He  speculates  as  much  as  before  on  the  modes  of  preaching ;  is 
quite  independent  with  his  own  people,  and  has  most  favorably 
impressed  such  men  as  Zachary  Macaulay  and  Mr.  Cunningham 
with  the  conception  of  his  talents.  He  is  happy  and  free,  and, 
withal,  making  his  way  to  good  acceptance  and  a  very  good  con- 
gregation." Such,  as  yet,  was  the  modest  extent  of  all  prognos- 
tications in  his  his  favor.  The  good  doctor  goes  on  to  relate  how 
he  was  delighted  to  find  that  Irving  had  been  asked  to  dine  with 
him  in  the  house  of  a  Bloomsbury  M.  P.,  evidently  rejoicing  in 
this  opening  of  good  society  to  his  friend  and  disciple.  The  two 
returned  together  to  Irving's  lodgings  after  this  dinner,  and  found 
there  a  hospitably-received,  but  apparently  not  too  congenial 

guest,  "  Mr. ,  the  singularity  of  whose  manners  you  were 

wont  to  remark,  who  is  his  guest  at  present  from  Glasgow. 
This,"  remarks  Dr.  Chalmers,  "  is  one  fruit  of  Mr.  Irving's  free 
and  universal  invitation ;  but  I  am  glad  to  find  that  he  is  quite 
determined  as  to  visits,  and  apparently  not  much  annoyed  with 
the  intrusion  of  callers."     This  is  not  the  only  evidence  of  the  im- 


PROGRESS  IN  POPULARITY.  X19 

prudent  liberality  of  Irving's  farewell  invitation  to  the  entire  con- 
gregation of  St.  John's.  About  the  same  time,  to  select  one  in- 
stance out  of  many,  a  poor  man  came  to  him  seeking  a  situation 
— "a  very  genteel,  respectable-looking  young  man,"  says  the  com- 
passionate preacher,  who  refers  him,  in  a  letter  full  of  beseeching 
sympathy,  to  his  universal  assistant  and  resource  in  all  troubles, 
the  good  William  Hamilton.  Such  petitioners  came  in  multitudes 
through  all  his  after-life,  receiving  sometimes  hospitality,  some- 
times advice — recommendations  to  other  people  more  likely  to 
help  them — kindness  always.  Such  troubles  come  readily  enough 
of  themselves  to  the  clergymen  of  a  popular  church  ;  but  the  im- 
prudence of  inviting  them  was  entirely  characteristic  of  a  man 
who  would  have  served  and  entertained  the  entire  world  if  he 
could. 

The  next  Sunday,  when  Dr.  Chalmers  preached,  the  little  Cross 
Street  church  was  of  course  crowded.  Wilkie,  the  most  tenacious 
of  Scotsmen,  had  been  already  led  to  attendance  upon  Irving's 
ministrations,  and  was  there,  accompanied  by  Sir  Thomas  Law- 
rence, to  hear  his  still  greater  countryman.  But  the  brilliant 
crowd  knew  nothing  yet  of  the  other  figure  in  that  pulpit,  and 
went  as  it  came,  a  passing  meteor.  After  this,  Dr.  Chalmers  con- 
cludes his  estimate  of  his  former  colleague's  condition  and  pros- 
pects in  the  following  words:  "Mr.  Irving  I  left  at  Homerton; 
and  as  you  are  interested  in  him,  I  may  say,  once  for  all,  that  he 
is  prospering  in  his  new  situation,  and  seems  to  feel  as  if  in  that 
very-  station  of  command  and  congeniality  whereunto  you  have 
long  known  him  to  aspire.  I  hope  that  he  will  not  hurt  his  use- 
fulness by  any  kind  of  eccentricity  or  imprudence."  In  these 
odd  and  characteristic  words  Dr.  Chalmers,  always  a  little  impa- 
tient and  puzzled  even  in  his  kindest  moments  about  a  man  so 
undeniably  eminent,  yet  so  entirely  unlike  himself,  dismisses  Ir- 
ving, and  proceeds  upon  his  statistical  inquiries. 

Meanwhile,  in  this  station  of  "command  and  congeniality,"  as 
Chalmers  so  oddly  terms  it,  Irving  made  swift  and  steady  way. 
Writing  at  a  later  period  to  his  congregation,  he  mentions  a  year 
as  having  passed  before  the  tide  of  popularity  swelled  upon  them 
beyond  measure ;  but  this  must  have  been  a  failure  of  memory, 
for  both  the  preacher  and  congregation  were  much  earlier  aware 
of  the  exceeding  commotion  and  interest  awakening  around  them. 
He  expresses  his  own  consciousness  of  this  very  simply  in  another 
letter  to  his  friend  David  Hope. 


120  "OUE  SCOTTISH  YOUTH." 

"  19  Gloucester  Street,  Queen  Square,  \ 
"5th  November,  1822.  j 

"  My  dear  Friend, — You  have  too  good  reason  to  complain  of  me, 
and  a  thousand  moi-e  of  ray  Scottish  friends ;  but  be  not  too  severe ; 
you  shall  yet  find  me  in  London  the  same  true-hearted  fellow  you 
knew  me  in  Glasgow But  I  had  another  reason  for  delay- 
ing ;  I  wished,  when  I  did  write,  to  be  able  to  recount  to  you  an 
exact  account  of  my  success.  Thank  God,  it  seems  now  beyond  a 
doubt.  The  church  overflows  every  day,  and  they  already  begin  to 
talk  of  a  right  good  Kirk,  worthy  of  our  mother  and  our  native  coun- 
try. But  into  these  vain  speculations  I  have  little  time  to  enter,  be- 
ing engrossed  with  things  strictly  professional.  You  are  not  more 
regular  at  the  counting-house,  nor,  I  am  sure,  sooner  {Anglice  ear- 
lier), neither  do  you  labor  more  industriously,  till  four  chaps  from  the 
Ram's  Horn  Kirk,*  than  I  sit  in  to  this  my  study,  and  occupy  my 
mind  for  tlie  benefit  of  ray  flock.  The  evening  brings  more  engage- 
ments with  it  than  I  can  overtake,  and  so  I  am  kept  incessantly  active. 
My  engagements  have  been  increased,  of  late,  by  looking  out  for  a 
house  to  dwell  in.  I  am  resolved  to  be  this  Ishmaelite  no  longer, 
and  to  have  a  station  of  my  own  upon  the  fixce  of  the  earth.  So  a 
new  year  will  see  me  fixed  in  my  own  habitation,  Avhere  there  will 
be  ever  welcome  entertainment  for  him  who  was  to  me  for  a  brother 
at  the  time  of  my  sojourning  in  Glasgow.  When  I  look  back  upon 
those  happy  years,  I  could  almost  wish  to  live  them  over  again,  in 
oi-der  to  have  anew  the  instances  I  then  received  of  true  brotherly 
kindness  from  you  and  so  many  of  your  townsmen. 

"You  would  be  overjoyed  to  hear  the  delight  of  our  Scottish 
youth,  which  they  exj^ress  to  me,  at  being  once  more  gathered  to- 
gether into  one,  and  the  glow  with  which  they  speak  of  their  recov- 
ered habits.  This  is  the  beginning,  I  trust,  of  good  among  them. 
So  may  the  Lord  grant  in  His  mercy  and  loving-kindness. 

"  Now  I  wish  to  know  about  yourself — how  all  your  affairs  prosj^er. 
....  I  could  speculate  much  uj^on  the  excellent  fruit  season,  and 
the  wretched  oil  season  ;  but  you  would  laugh  at  my  ignorance.  And 
there  is  something  more  valuable  to  be  speculated  ujDon.  I  do  hope 
you  prosper  in  the  one  thing  needful,  under  your  most  valuable  pas- 
tor ;  and  also  my  dear  friend  Graham,  Give  my  love  to  him,  and 
say  I  have  not  found  time  to  answer  his  letter;  but  if  this  thing  of 
settlement  Avere  off  ray  raind,  I  should  get  into  regular  Avays.  Do 
not  punish  me,  but  Avrite  me  Avith  all  our  news  ;  and  believe  me,  my 
dear  David,  your  most  aflectionate  friend,  Edavaed  Irving." 

The  immediate  origin  of  living's  popularity,  or  rather  of  the 
flood  of  noble  and  fashionable  hearers  who  poured  in  upon  the 
little  chapel  in  Hatton  Garden  all  at  once,  without  warning  or  pre- 
monition, is  said  to  have  been  a  speech  of  Canning's.  Sir  James 
Mackintosh  had  been  by  some  unexpected  circumstance  led  to 
hear  the  new  preacher,  and  heard  Irving  in  his  prayer  describe 
an  unknown  family  of  orphans  belonging  to  the  obscure  congre- 

*  One  of  our  Glasgow  churches,  popularly  so  called. 


CANNING  AND  MACKINTOSH.  121 

gation  as  now  "  thrown  upon  the  fatherhood  of  God."  The  words 
seized  upon  the  mind  of  the  philosopher,  and  he  repeated  them 
to  Canning,  who  "  started,"  as  Mackintosh  relates,  and,  expressing 
great  admiration,  made  an  instant  engagement  to  accompany  his 
friend  to  the  Scotch  Church  on  the  following  Sunday.  Shortly 
after,  a  discussion  took  place  in  the  House  of  Commons,  in  which 
the  revenues  of  the  Church  were  referred  to,  and  the  necessary 
mercantile  relation  between  high  talent  and  good  jpmj  insisted 
upon.  No  doubt  it  suited  the  statesman's  purpose  to  instance,  on 
the  other  side  of  the  question,  the  little  Caledonian  chapel  and  its 
new  preacher.  Canning  told  the  House  that,  so  far  from  universal 
was  this  rule,  that  he  himself  had  lately  heard  a  Scotch  minister, 
trained  in  one  of  the  most  poorly  endowed  of  churches,  and  estab- 
lished in  one  of  her  outlying  dependencies,  possessed  of  no  en- 
dowment at  all,  preach  the  most  eloquent  sermon  that  he  had 
ever  listened  to.  The  curiosity  awakened  by  this  speech  is  said 
to  have  been  the  first  beginning  of  that  invasion  of  "society" 
which  startled  Hatton  Garden  out  of  itself 

This  first  year,  however,  of  his  residence  in  London  was  so  far 
obscure  that  he  had  as  yet  opened  his  voice  only  in  the  pulpit, 
and  had  consequently  given  the  press  and  its  vassals  no  vantage 
ground  on  which  to  assail  him.  It  is  perhaps,  with  the  new  pub- 
licity which  his  first  publication  brought  upon  him  in  view,  that 
he  reminds  his  people  how  "for  one  year,  or  nearly  so,  beginning 
with  the  second  Sabbath  of  July,  1822,  our  union  went  on  cement- 
ing itself  by  mutual  acts  of  kindness,  in  the  shade  of  that  happy 
obscurity  which  we  then  enjoyed.  And  I  delight  to  remember 
that  season  of  our  early  love  and  confidence,  because  the  noisy 
tongues  of  men  and  their  envious  eyes  were  not  upon  us."  With 
the  best  will  in  the  world,  newspapers  can  take  but  little  notice 
of  a  popular  preacher,  and  periodicals  of  higher  rank  none  at  all, 
so  that  it  was  merely  private  criticism  which  commented  upon 
the  great  new  voice  rising  up  in  the  heart  of  London.  Besides 
the  vague  general  facts  of  the  rapidly  raised  enthusiasm,  of  appli- 
cations for  seats  in  the  little  Caledonian  chapel,  which  would  only 
accommodate  about  six  hundred  people,  rising  in  one  quarter  to 
fifteen  hundred,  and  Irving's  own  simple  and  gratified  intimation 
that "  the  church  overflows  every  day,"  there  is  very  little  certain 
information  to  be  obtained  of  that  first  year  of  his  progress  in 
London.  Thirty  Sermons,  taken  down  in  short-hand  by  W.  J.  Ox- 
ford, but  pubhshed  only  in  1835,  after  Irving's  death,  and  forming 


122  THE  "HAPPY  WAREIOE."  f 

the  second  volume  of  Irving' s  Life  and  Worhs — a  production  evi- 
dently got  up  to  catch  the  market  at  the  moment  of  his  death — 
contains  the  only  record  remaining  to  us  of  his  early  eloquence. 
Nobody  who  reads  these  sermons,  imperfect  as  they  must  be  from 
the  channel  through  which  they  come,  will  wonder  at  the  rising 
glow  of  excitement  which,  when  a  second  year  set  in,  brought  all 
London  struggling  for  places  to  the  little  Scotch  church,  already 
fully  occupied  by  its  own  largely  increased  congregation.  They 
have,  it  is  true,  no  factitious  attractions,  and  genius,  all  warm  and 
eloquent,  has  preached  before  without  such  results ;  but  the  read- 
er will  not  fail  to  see  the  great  charm  of  the  preacher's  life  and  la- 
bors already  growing  palpable  through  those  early  proclamations 
of  his  message.  Heart  and  soul,  body  and  spirit,  the  man  who 
speaks  comes  before  us  as  we  read ;  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  the 
first  thrill  of  that  charm  which  soon  moved  all  London,  and  the 
fascination  of  which  never  wholly  faded  from  Living's  impassion- 
ed lips,  lay  in  the  fact  that  it  was  not  mere  genius  or  eloquence, 
great  as  their  magic  is,  but  something  infinitely  greater — a  man, 
all  visible  in  those  hours  of  revelation,  striving  mightily  with 
every  man  he  met,  in  an  entire  personal  unity  which  is  possible 
to  very  few,  and  which  never  fails,  where  it  appears,  to  exercise 
an  influence  superior  to  any  merely  intellectual  endowment.  Nor 
is  it  possible  to  read  the  few  letters  of  this  period,  especially  those 
above  quoted,  without  feeling  the  deep  satisfaction  and  content 
which  at  last  possessed  him,  and  the  stimulus  given  to  all  his  fac- 
ulties by  this  profound  consciousness  of  having  attained  the  place 
suitable  for  him  and  the  work  which  he  could  do.  A  long  breath 
of  satisfaction  expands  the  breast  which  has  so  often  swelled  with 
the  wistful  sighs  of  longing  and  deferred  hope.  He  is  the  "hap- 
py warrior"  at  length  able  to  work  out  his  life  "upon  the  plan 
that  pleased  his  youthful  thought;"  and  his  descriptions  of  his 
studies  and  the  assiduity  with  which  he  set  to  work — his  very 
self-examinations  and  complaints  of  his  own  unworthiness,  are 
penetrated  with  this  sentiment.  He  stands  at  the  beginning  of 
his  career  in  an  attitude  almost  sublime  in  its  simplicity,  looking 
forward  with  all  the  deep  eagerness  of  an  ambition  which  sought 
not  its  own  advancement — a  man  to  whom  God  had  granted  the 
desire  of  his  heart.  Few  men  consciously  understand  and  ac- 
knowledge the  fullness  of  this  blessing,  which,  indeed,  is  not  often 
conferred.  Most  people,  indeed,  find  the  position  they  had  hoped 
and  longed  for  to  fall  far  short  of  their  hopes  when  it  is  attained. 


HIS  FIRST  HOUSEHOLD.  223 

Irving  was  an  exception  to  this  common  rule  of  humanity.  He 
had  reached  the  point  to  which  he  had  been  strugghng,  and  amid 
all  the  joyful  stir  of  his  faculties  to  fill  his  place  worthily,  he  nev- 
er hesitates  nor  grudges  to  make  full  acknowledgment  that  he  has 
got  his  desire.  Not  merely  obedience  and  loyalty  constrain  him 
to  the  work,  but  gratitude  to  that  Master  who  has  permitted  him 
to  reach  the  very  post  of  his  choice.  With  a  full  heart  and  un- 
hesitating words,  and  even  more  by  a  certain  swell  of  heroic  joy 
and  content  in  every  thing  he  does  and  says,  he  testifies  his  thank- 
fulness. It  is  no  longer  a  man  struggling,  as  most  men  do,  through 
ungenial  circumstances  and  adverse  conditions  whom  we  have  to 
contemplate,  but  a  man  consciously  and  confessedly  in  the  place 
which  his  imagination  and  wishes  have  long  pointed  out  to  him 
as  the  most  desirable,  the  most  suitable  in  the  world  for  himself. 

With  this  buoyant  and  joyful  satisfaction,  however,  no  mean 
motives  mingled.  Irving's  temper  was  eminently  social.  He 
could  not  live  without  having  people  round  him  to  love,  and  still 
more  to  admire  and  reverence,  and  even  to  follow ;  but  no  vain 
desire  of  "good  society"  seems  to  have  moved  the  young  Scotch- 
man. He  was  faithful  to  Bloomsbury,  which  his  congregation  fa- 
vored ;  and  when  he  set  up  his  first  household  in  London,  though 
moving  a  little  out  of  that  most  respectable  of  localities,  he  went 
farther  off  instead  of  nearer  the  world  of  fashion,  and  settled  in 
Myddelton  Terrace,  Pentonville.  Here  he  lived  in  modest  econ- 
omy for  some  years,  prodigal  in  nothing  but  charity.  The  society 
into  which  he  first  glided  was  still  Scotch,  even  when  out  of  the 
narrower  ecclesiastical  boundaries.  David  Wilkie  was  one  of  his 
earliest  friends,  and  Wilkie  brought  him  in  contact  with  Allan 
Cunningham,  a  still  closer  countryman  of  his  own.  Thus  he 
made  gradual  advances  into  the  friendship  and  knowledge  of  the 
people  about  him ;  and  with  his  young  brother  sharing  his  lodg- 
ing and  calling  out  his  affectionate  cares,  with  daily  studies  close 
and  persevering  as  those  he  has  himself  recorded ;  with  the  little 
church  Sunday  by  Sunday  overflowing  more  fully,  till  accidents 
began  to  happen  in  the  narrow  streets  about  Hatton  Garden,  and 
at  last  the  concourse  had  to  be  regulated  by  wiles,  and  the  de- 
lighted, but  embarrassed  managers  of  the  little  Caledonian  chapel 
found  an  amount  of  occupation  thrust  upon  their  hands  for  which 
they  were  totally  unprepared,  and  had  to  hold  the  doors  of  their 
little  building  like  so  many  besieged  posterns  against  the  assaults 
of  the  crowd ;  and  with  notable  faces  appearing  daily  more  fre- 


124  THE  ORATIONS. 

quent  in  the  throng  of  heads  all  turned  toward  the  preacher,  Ed- 
ward Irving  passed  the  first  year  of  his  life  in  London,  and  sprang 
out  of  obscurity  and  failure  with  a  sudden  unexampled  leap  to 
the  giddiest  height  of  popular  applause,  abuse,  and  idolatry,  bear- 
ing the  wonderful  revolution  with  a  steady  but  joyful  simplicity, 
recognizing  his  success  as  openly  as  he  had  recognized  the  want 
of  it,  under  which  he  suffered  for  so  many  silent  years. 


CHAPTER  yill. 
1823. 

The  Orations. — Irving's  much  Experience  in  Preaching. — Addresses  himself  to  Edu- 
cated Men. — Argument  for  Judgment  to  come. — Assailed  by  Critics. — Mock  Tri- 
al.— Indictment  before  the  Court  of  Common  Sense. — Acquittal. — Description  of 
the  Church  and  Preacher. — Influence  of  his  Personal  Appearance. — Inconvenien- 
ces of  Popularity. — Success  of  the  Book. — A  rural  Sunday. — His  Marriage. — 
His  Wife. — The  bridal  Holiday. — Reappearance  in  St.  John's. — Return  to  Lon- 
don.— Preface  to  the  Third  Edition  of  the  Orations. — His  Dedications  and  Pref- 
aces generally. — Mr.  Basil  Montagu. — Irving's  grateful  Acknowledgments. — His 
early  Dangers  in  Society. — Bedford  Square. — Coleridge. — His  Influence  on  the 
Views  of  Irving. — Social  Charities. — A  simple  Presbyter. 

The  second  year,  of  Irving's  residence  in  London  was  one  of 
the  deepest  importance  both  to  himself  personally  and  to  his 
reputation.  It  opened  with  the  publication  of  his  first  book,  the 
Orations  and  the  Argument  for  Judgment  to  come^  both  of  which 
had  been  partly  preached  in  the  form  of  sermons,  and  were  now 
in  an  altered  shape  presented,  not  to  any  special  religious  body, 
but  to  the  world  which  had  gathered  together  to  hear  them,  and 
to  those  who  lead  the  crowd,  the  higher  intellects  and  imagina- 
tions, whom  neither  religious  books  nor  discourses  usually  ad- 
dress. In  this  volume  it  is  perceptible  that  the  preacher's  mind 
had  swelled  and  risen  with  the  increase  of  his  audience.  Some- 
thing more,  it  was  apparent,  was  required  of  him  than  merely 
congregational  ministrations ;  and  he  rises  at  the  call  to  address 
those  classes  of  men  who  are  never  to  be  found  in  numbers  in 
any  congregation,  but  who  did  drift  into  his  audience  in  unprece- 
dented crowds.  In  the  preface  to  this  publication  he  explains  his 
own  object  with  noble  gravity,  claiming  for  himself,  with  the 
most  entire  justice,  though  in  such  a  way  as  naturally  to  call 
forth  against  him  the  jealous  criticism  of  all  self-satisfied  preach- 


IRVING'S  EXPERIMENT  IN  PREACHING.  125 

ers,  a  certain  originality  in  the  treatment  of  his  subject,  and  de- 
siring to  be  heard  not  in  the  ear  of  the  Church  only,  but  openly, 
before  the  greater  tribunal  of  the  world.  At  the  height  of  his 
early  triumph,  looking  back,  he  traces,  through  years  of  silence, 
his  own  steady  protest  against  the  ordinary  strain  of  pulpit  teach- 
ing; and  with  a  startling  earnestness — which  that  long  convic- 
tion, for  which  already  he  had  suffered  both  hardship  and  injus- 
tice, explains  and  justifies  better  than  any  thing  else  can  do — de- 
clares his  knowledge  of  the  great  religious  difficulty  of  the  time. 
"  It  hath  appeared  to  the  author  of  this  book,"  he  says,  going  at 
once  to  the  heart  of  the  subject,  and  with  characteristic  frankness 
putting  that  first  which  was  like  to  be  taken  most  exception  to, 
"from  more  than  ten  years'  meditation  upon  the  subject,  that  the 
chief  obstacle  to  the  progress  of  divine  truth  over  the  minds  of 
men  is  the  want  of  its  being  sufficiently  presented  to  them.  In 
this  Christian  country  there  are  perhaps  nine  tenths  of  every  class 
who  know  nothing  at  all  about  the  application  and  advantages 
of  the  single  truths  of  revelation,  or  of  revelation  taken  as  a  whole; 
and  what  they  do  not  know  they  can  not  be  expected  to  rever- 
ence or  obey.  This  ignorance,  in  both  the  higher  and  the  lower 
orders,  of  religion  as  a  discerner  of  the  thoughts  and  intentions 
of  the  heart,  is  not  so  much  due  to  the  want  of  inquisitiveness  on 
their  part  as  to  the  want  of  a  sedulous  and  skillful  ministry  on 
the  part  of  those  to  whom  it  is  intrusted." 

It  can  not  be  surprising  that  such  a  beginning  aroused  at  once 
all  the  antagonism  with  which  innovations  are  generally  regard- 
ed, and  provoked  those  accusations  of  self-importance,  self-exalt- 
ation, and  vanity  which  still  are  current  among  those  who  know 
nothing  of  the  person  they  stigmatize.  But  not  to  say  that  he 
proves  his  case,  which  most  unprejudiced  readers  will  allow,  nor 
that  the  grievance  has  gone  on  since  his  days,  growing  more  and 
more  intolerable,  and  calling  forth  many  reproofs  less  serious  but 
more  bitter  than  Irving's,  none  who  have  accompanied  us  so  far 
in  this  history,  and  perceived  the  exercises  of  patience  which  the 
preacher  himself  had  to  undergo,  and  the  warm  and  strong  con- 
viction arising  out  of  them  which  for  years  had  hindered  his  own 
advancement,  will  be  surprised  at  the  plain  speaking  with  which 
he  heralds  his  own  first  performance.  To  get  at  the  true  way  of 
addressing  men,  he  himself  had  been  for  years  a  wearied  listener 
and  discouraged  essayist  at  speech.  At  last  he  had  found  the  se- 
cret ;  and  the  whole  world  round  him  had  owned  with  an  instan- 


126  ADDRESSES  HIMSELF  TO  EDUCATED  MEN. 

taneous  thrill  the  power  that  was  in  it.  With  this  triumphant 
vindication  of  his  own  doubts  and  dissatisfaction  to  confirm  him 
in  his  views,  it  was  impossible  for  such  a  man  to  be  silent  on  the 
general  question.  At  this  dazzling  moment  he  had  access  to  the 
highest  intelligences  in  the  country — the  teachers,  the  governors, 
the  authorities  of  the  land,  had  sought  him  out  in  that  wilderness 
of  mediocre  London,  which  had  not  even  the  antiquity  of  the  city, 
nor  any  recommendation  whatever,  but  was  lost  in  the  smoke,  the 
dust,  the  ignoble  din  and  bustle.  And  why  was  such  an  audi- 
ence unusual  ?  How  was  it  that  they  were  not  oftener  attracted, 
seized  upon,  made  to  hear  God's  Word  and  will,  if  need  were,  in 
spite  of  themselves  ?  Thinking  it  over,  he  comes  to  the  conclu- 
sion, not  that  his  own  genius  was  the  cause,  but  that  his  brethren 
had  not  found  the  true  method,  had  not  learned  the  most  effect- 
ive way  of  discharging  their  duty.  "  They  prepare  for  teaching 
gipsies,  for  teaching  bargemen,  for  teaching  miners,  by  apprehend- 
ing their  way  of  conceiving  and  estimating  truth ;  and  why  not 
prepare,"  he  asks,  with  eloquent  wonder,  and  a  truth  which  no- 
body can  dispute,  "for  teaching  imaginative  men,  and  political 
men,  and  legal  men,  and  scientific  men,  who  bear  the  world  in 
hand?"  This  preparation,  judging  from  what  he  saw  around 
him  every  day,  Irving  was  well  justified  in  believing  he  himself 
had  attained;  and  he  did  not  hesitate,  while  throwing  himself 
boldly  forth  upon  the  world  in  a  book — a  farther  and  swifter  mes- 
senger than  any  voice  —  to  declare  it  plainly,  the  highest  reason 
and  excuse  for  the  publication,  in  which  he  now,  with  all  the  fer- 
vor and  eloquence  of  a  personal  communication,  addressed  all  who 
had  ears  to  hear. 

The  preface  to  the  Orations^  which  form  the  first  part  of  the 
volume,  is  so  characteristic  and  noble  an  expression  of  friendship, 
that  it  would  be  inexcusable  to  omit  it. 

"To  the  Rev.  Thomas  Chalmeks,  D.D.,  Minister  of  St.  John's 
Church,  Glasgow : 
"  My  honored  Friend, — I  thank  God,  who  directed  you  to  hear 
one  of  my  discourses,  when  I  had  made  up  my  mind  to  leave  my  na- 
tive land  for  solitary  travel  in  foreign  parts.  That  dispensation 
brought  me  acquainted  with  your  good  and  tender-hearted  nature, 
whose  splendid  accomplishments  I  knew  already ;  and  you  now  live 
in  the  memory  of  my  heart  more  than  in  my  admiration.  While  I 
labored  as  your  assistant,  my  labors  were  never  weary ;  they  were 
never  enough  to  express  my  thankfulness  to  God  for  having  associa- 
ted me  with  such  a  man,  and  my  affection  to  the  man  with  whom  I 
was  associated.     I  now  labor  in  another  field,  among  a  people  whom 


ARGUMENT  FOR  JUDGMENT  TO  COME.        127 

Hove,  and  over  whom  God  hath,  by  signs  unequivocal,  ah-eady  bless- 
ed ray  rainistry.  You  go  to  labor  likewise  in  another  vineyard, 
where  may  the  Lord  bless  your  retired  meditations  as  he  hath  bless- 
ed your  active  operations.  And  may  he  likcAvise  watch  over  the 
flock  of  our  mutual  solicitude,  now  about  to  fall  into  other  hands. 
The  Lord  be  with  you  and  your  household,  and  render  unto  you 
manifold  for  the  blessings  you  have  rendered  unto  me.  I  could  say 
much  about  these  Orations  which  I  dedicate  to  you,  but  I  will  not 
mingle  with  any  literary  or  theological  discussion  this  pure  tribute 
of  affection  and  gratitude  which  I  render  to  you  before  the  Avorld, 
as  I  have  already  done  into  your  private  ear.  I  am,  my  honored 
friend,  yours  in  the  bonds  of  the  Gospel,  Edwakd  Ieving. 

"■  Caledonian  Church,  Hatton  Garden,  July,  1823." 

The  Argument  for  Judgment  to  come,  a  longer  and  more  elabo- 
rate work,  which  occupies  the  larger  half  of  the  same-  volume, 
seems  to  have  been  specially  suggested  to  the  mind  of  the  writer 
by  the  two  Visions  of  Judgment  of  Southey  and  Byron.  The  pro- 
fane flattery  of  the  one,  most  humiliating  tribute  to  both  giver 
and  receiver  which  the  office  of  laureate  has,  in  recent  ages  at 
least,  extorted  from  any  poet,  and  the  disgusting  parody  of  the 
other,  excited  in  Irving  all  the  indignation  and  repugnance  whicb 
was  natural  to  a  right-thinking  and  pious  mind.  His  feeling  on 
the  subject  seems  warmer  than  those  miserable  productions  were 
worthy  of  exciting ;  but  it  is  natural  that  a  contemporary  should 
regard  such  degradations  of  literature  with,  a  livelier  indignation 
than  it  is  possible  to  feel  when  natural  oblivion  has  mercifully 
swallowed  them  up.  The  Argument  was  dedicated,  like  the  Ora- 
tions, to  one  of  his  earlier  friends,  the  Eev.  Eobert  (afterward  well 
known  as  Dr.)  Gordon  of  Edinburgh ;  this  highest  mark  of  regard 
or  gratitude,  which  it  is  in  an  author's  power  to  bestow,  being  in 
both  cases  characteristically  conferred  on  men  who  could  in  no 
way  advance  or  aid  him  in  his  career,  but  whom  he  distinguished 
from  pure  gratitude  and  friendship  only.  Inscribed  with  these 
names,  he  sent  bis  first  venture  into  the  yet  untried  world  of  lit- 
erature, exposing  himself  freely,  with  all  his  undeniable  peculiari- 
ties both  of  mind  and  diction,  to  a  flood  of  critics,  probably  never, 
before  or  since,  so  universally  excited  about  any  volume  of  relig- 
ious addresses  whicb  ever  came  from  the  press. 

The  consequence  was  an  onslaught  so  universal,  exciting,  and 
animated,  that  the  satire  of  the  day — the  age  of  pamphlets  being 
then  in  full  existence — took  hold  of  the  matter,  and  has  preserved, 
in  a  curious  and  amusing  form,  the  comments  and  ferment  of  the 
time.     Tlie  Trial  of  the  Rev.  Edivard  Irving,  M.A.,  a  Cento  of  Criti- 


128  ASSAILED  BY  CRITICS.— MOCK  TBIAL. 

cism,  had  reached  the  fifth  edition,  now  before  us,  in  the  same  year, 
1823,  which  was  half  over  before  Irving's  book  was  pubhshed. 
It  is  the  report  of  a  prosecution  carried  on  before  the  Court  of 
Common  Sense,  by  Jacob  Oldstyle,  Clerk,  against  the  new  preach- 
er, at  the  trial  of  which  all  the  editors  of  the  leading  papers  are 
examined,  cross-examined,  and  covered  with  comic  confusion. 
The  state  of  popular  interest  and  excitement  suggested  by  the 
very  possibility  of  such  a  production,  and  the  fact  of  its  having 
run  through  at  least  five  editions,  is  of  itself  almost  unbelievable, 
considering  the  short  period  of  Irving's  stay  in  London,  and  his 
character  as  a  preacher  of  an  obscure,  and,  so  far  as  the  ordinary 
knowledge  of  the  London  public  was  concerned,  almost  foreign 
church.  Such  a  jeu  d'' esprit  is  a  more  powerful  witness  of  the 
general  commotion  than  any  graver  testimony.  The  common 
public,  it  appears,  were  sufficiently  interested  to  enjoy  the  mock 
trial,  and  the  discomfiture  of  able  editors  consequent  upon  that 
examination,  and  knew  the  whole  matter  so  thoroughly,  that  they 
could  appreciate  the  fun  of  the  travestie.  The  editor  of  the  Times 
being  called,  and  having  in  the  course  of  his  examination  given 
the  court  the  benefit  of  hearing  his  own  article  on  the  subject, 
gives  also  the  following  account  of  the  aspect  of  affairs  at  the  Cal- 
edonian chapel : 

"  Did  you  find  that  your  exposure  of  the  defendant's  pretensions 
had  the  eiFect  of  putting  an  end  to  the  public  delusion  ?" 

"  Quite  the  reverse.  The  crowds  which  thronged  to  the  Caledo- 
nian chapel  instantly  doubled.  The  scene  which  Cross  Street,  Hat- 
ton  Garden,  presented  on  the  following  Sunday  beggared  all  descrip- 
tion. It  was  quite  a  Vanity  Fair.  Not  one  half  of  the  assembled 
multitude  could  force  their  way  into  the  sanctum  sanctorum.  Even 
we  ourselves  were  shut  out  among  the  vulgar  herd.  For  the  enter- 
tainment of  the  excluded,  however,  there  was  Mr.  Basil  Montagu 
preaching  peace  and  resignation  from  a  window;  and  the  once  cele- 
brated Romeo  vCoates  acting  the  part  of  trumpeter  from  the  steps  of 
the  church,  extolling  Mr.  Irving  as  the  prodigy  of  prodigies,  and 
abusing  the  Times  for  declaring  that  Mr.  Irving  was  not  the  god  of 
their  idolatry." 

The  other  witnesses  called  give  corroborative  testimony.  An 
overwhelming  popularity,  which  is  not  to  be  explained  by  com- 
mon rules,  is  the  one  thing  granted  alike  by  opponents  and  sup- 
porters ;  and  all  the  weapons  of  wit  are  brought  forth  against  a 
preacher  who  indeed  had  offered  battle.  Nor  were  the  newspa- 
pers the  only  critics ;  every  periodical  work  of  the  day  seems  to 
have  occupied  itself,  more  or  less,  with  the  extraordinary  preach- 


INDICTMENT  BEFORE  THE  COURT  OF  COMMON  SENSE.  129 

er ;  most  of  them  in  the  tone,  not  of  literary  commentators,  but  of 
personal  enemies  or  adherents.  The  Westminster  and  Quarterly 
Keviews  brought  up  the  rear ;  the  former  (in  its  first  number)  re- 
ferring its  readers  "  for  the  faults  of  Mr.  Irving  to  the  thousand 
and  one  publications  in  which  they  have  been  zealously  and  care- 
fully set  forth,"  and  complaining  that  it  is  "compelled  to  fall  on 
Mr.  Irving  when  every  critical  tooth  in  the  nation  has  been  flesh- 
ed upon  him  already."  None  of  these  criticisms  were  entirely 
favorable ;  almost  all  fell  heavily  upon  the  phraseology,  the  gram- 
mar, and  taste  of  the  orator ;  and  few  omitted  to  notice  the  imag- 
ined "arrogance"  of  his  pretensions.  But  from  the  solemn  deliv- 
erance of  the  Quarterlies,  down  to  the  song  of  Doctor  Squintum, 
with  which  the  truculent  gossip  of  John  Bull  edified  his  readers, 
every  body  was  eager  to  record  their  several  opinions  on  a  topic 
so  interesting.  Such  matters  were  certainly  discussed  in  those 
days  with  a  degree  of  personality  unknown  to  our  politer  fashion 
of  attack ;  but  we  can  not  remember  to  have  seen  or  heard  of 
any  thing  like  this  odd  turmoil  of  universal  curiosity  and  excite- 
ment. The  counts  of  the  indictment  laid  against  the  culprit  be- 
fore the  Court  of  Common  Sense  will  give  some  idea  of  the  char- 
acter of  the  assaults  made  upon  him.     They  were  as  follows : 

First.  For  being  ugly. 

Second.  For  being  a  Merry- Andrew. 

Third.  For  being  a  common  quack. 

Fourth.  For  being  a  common  brawler. 

Fifth.  For  being  a  common  swearer. 

Sixth.  For  being  of  very  common  understanding. 

And,  Seventh.  For  following  divisive  courses,  subversive  of  the 
discipline  of  the  order  to  which  he  belongs,  and  contrary  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  Christian  fellowship  and  charity. 

It  will  gratify  our  readers  to  know  that  Irving  was  not  found 
guilty  of  ugliness,  nor  of  any  of  the  charges  brought  against  him, 
except  the  last ;  and  that  one  of  his  principal  assailants,  the  Times 
itself,  the  Thunderer  of  the  day,  was  convicted  by  his  own  con- 
fession of  having  condemned  Sir  Walter  Scott  as  "  a  writer  of  no 
imagination,"  and  Lord  Byron  as  "  destitute  of  all  poetical  talent." 

Among  all  his  smaller  critics,  the  one  personal  peculiarity 
which  impaired  the  effect  of  Irving's  otherwise  fine  features  and 
magnificent  presence  seems  to  have  always  come  conveniently  to 
hand  to  prove  his  mountebankism  and  want  of  genius.  When 
his  eloquence  could  not  be  decried,  his  divided  sight  was  always 
open  to  criticism ;  and  when  all  harder  accusations  were  expend- 

I 


130  DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  CHURCH  AND  PREACHER. 

ed,  his  squint  made  a  climax  which  delighted  his  assailants. 
Cockney  wit,  not  much  qualified  for  criticising  any  thing  which 
had  to  do  with  the  Oracles  of  God,  sang,  not  with  ill  nature,  but 
merely  as  a  relief  to  the  feelings  which  were  incapable  of  more 
logical  expression,  the  lively  lay  oi Doctor  Squintum^which  indeed 
was  a  harmless  effusion  of  wit,  and  injured  nobody. 

It  was  not  only,  however,  in  the  legitimate  review  that  this  sin- 
gular book  was  assailed  or  recommended.  It  produced  a  little 
attendant  literature  of  its  own  in  the  shape  of  pamphlets,  one  of 
which  we  have  already  mentioned  and  quoted  from.  Another, 
entitled  An  Examination  and  Defense  of  the  Writings  and  Preaching 
of  the  Rev.  Edward  Irving^  A.M.^  gives  the  following  picture  of  the 
man  and  his  church : 

"  His  mere  appearanee  is  such  as  to  excite  a  high  opinion  of  his  in- 
tellectual powers.  He  is,  indeed,  one  of  whom  the  casual  observer 
would  say,  as  he  passed  him  in  the  street, '  There  goes  an  extraordi- 
nary man !'  He  is  in  height  not  less  than  six  feet,  and  is  proportion- 
ably  strongly  built.  His  every  feature  seems  to  be  impressed  with 
the  characters  of  unconquerable  courage  and  overpowering  intellect. 
He  has  a  head  cast  in  the  best  Scottish  mould,  and  ornamented  with 
a  profusion  of  long  black  curly  hair.  His  forehead  is  broad,  deep, 
and  expansive.  His  thick,  black,  projecting  eyebrows  overhang  a 
very  dark,  small,  and  rather  deep-set  penetrating  eye.  He  has  the 
nose  of  his  nation"  (whatever  that  may  happen  to  be,  the  essayist 
does  not  inform  us) ;  "  his  mouth  is  beautifully  formed,  and  exceed- 
ingly expressive  of  eloquence.  In  a  Avord,  his  countenance  is  exceed- 
ingly picturesque.  .  .  .  Having  cleared  the  way,  let  us  request 
such  of  our  readers  as  have  not  attended  the  Caledonian  church  to 
repair,  at  a  quarter  past  ten  o'clock  on  a  Sunday  morning,  to  Cross 
Street,  Hatton  Garden,  the  door  of  the  church  of  which,  if  he  be  a 
humble  pedestrian,  he  will  find  it  difficult  to  reach,  and  when  he  gets 
to  it  he  can  not  enter  without  a  ticket.  If  he  occupies  a  carriage,  he 
takes  his  turn  behind  other  carriages,  and  is  subject  to  the  same  rou- 
tine. Having  surmounted  these  difficulties,  should  his  ticket  be  num- 
bered he  enters  the  pew  so  numbered ;  if  not,  he  waits  till  after  the 
prayer,  or  possibly  all  the  time,  which  is,  however,  unavoidable.  All 
this  adjusted,  exactly  at  eleven  o'clock  he  beholds  a  tall  man,  appar- 
ently aged  about  thirty-seven  or  thirty-eight,  with  rather  handsome 
but  certainly  striking  features,  mount  the  pulpit  stairs.  The  service 
commences  with  a  psalm,  wliich  he  reads;  and  then  a  prayer  follows 
in  a  deep,  touching  voice.  His  prayer  is  impressive  and  eloquent. 
The  reading  of  a  portion  of  ScrijDture  follows,  in  advertence  to  which 
we  will  only  say  that  he  ca7i  read.  We  haste  to  the  oration,  for 
there  the  peculiar  powers  of  the  preacher  are  called  into  play.  Hav- 
ing pronounced  his  text,  he  commences  his  subject  in  a  Ioav  but  very 
audible  voice.  The  character  of  his  style  will  immediately  catch  the 
ear  of  all.  Until  warmed  by  his  subject,  we  shall  only  be  struck 
with  a  full  and  scriptural  phraseology,  in  which  much  modern  elision 


INFLUENCE  OF  HIS  PERSONAL  APPEARANCE.  131 

is  rejected,  some  additional  conjunction  introduced,  and  the  auxiliary- 
verbs  kept  in  most  active  service.  As  he  goes  on,  his  countenance, 
which  is  surrounded  by  a  dark  apostolic  head  of  hair  waving  toward 
his  shoulders,  becomes  strongly  exjjressivc  and  lighted  up,  and  his 
gesture  marked  and  vehement." 

It  is  characteristic  that  nobody  attempts  to  discuss  Irving,  even 
in  such  matters  as  his  books  or  his  sermons,  without  prefatory- 
personal  sketches  like  the  above.  Even  now,  when  he  has  been 
dead  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  his  most  casual  hearer 
of  old  times  acknowledges  the  unity  of  the  man  by  eagerly  inter- 
polating personal  description  into  every  discussion  concerning  the 
great  jDreacher.  His  person,  his  aspect,  his  height,  and  presence 
have  all  a  share  in  his  eloquence.  There  is  no  dividing  him  into 
sections,  or  making  an  abstract  creature  of  this  living  man. 

And  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  audience  admitted  after 
so  elaborate  a  fashion  were  not  the  common  rabble  who  surround 
and  follow  a  popular  preacher.  His  critics  made  it  a  strong  point 
against  the  bold  and  unhesitating  orator  that  it  was  not  the  poor, 
but  the  intelligent,  the  learned,  and  the  intellectual  whom  he  an- 
nounced himself  intent  upon  addressing.  Virtuous  Theodore 
Hook  and  other  edifying  evangelists  declared  the  entry  to  the 
Caledonian  chapel  to  be  ^closed  to  "the  pious  poor" — a  class  not 
much  accustomed  to  such  advocates  of  their  claims.  "His  chapel 
is  every  Sunday  a  gallery  of  beauty  and  fashion,"  says  another  of 
his  assailants;  and  persons  more  important  than  the  fair  and  fash- 
ionable sought  the  same  obscure  place  of  worship.  The  effect  of 
such  incessant  crowding,  however  agreeable  at  once  to  the  Chris- 
tian zeal  and  national  pride  of  the  congregation,  was  no  small  trial 
of  their  patience  and  good  temper.  A  year  later,  when  about  to 
lay  the  foundation  of  their  new  church,  Irving  comments  feelingly 
upon  all  the  inconvenience  and  discomfort  of  popularity.  "It  is 
not  a  small  matter,"  he  says  in  one  of  his  sermons,  "whether  we 
shall  in  our  new  quarters  be  pressed  on  by  every  hinderance  to 
rest  and  devotion,  or  shall  be  delivered  into  the  enjoyment  of 
Sabbath  quiet  and  church  tranquillity.  '  We  can  now  look  for- 
ward to  the  comfort  and  quiet  which  other  congregations  enjoy, 
to  that  simple  condition  of  things  which  the  simplicity  of  our 
Church  requireth.  We  have  had  a  most  difficult  and  tedious 
way  to  make,  through  every  misrepresentation  of  vanity  and  am- 
bition ;  we  have  stood  in  eminent  peril  from  the  visits  of  rank  and 
dignity  which  have  been  paid  to  us.    There  was  much  good  to 


132  SUCCESS  OF  THE  BOOK.— A  RURAL  SUNDAY. 

be  expected  from  it;  therefore  we  paid  willingly  the  price,  heing 
desiroiis  that  they  loho  heard  the  truth  hut  seldom  shoidd  hear  it  lohen 
they  were  disposed.  But  these,  you  know,  are  bad  conditions  to 
our  being  cemented  together  as  a  Church ;  they  withdraw  us  from 
ourselves  to  those  conspicuous  people  by  whom  we  were  visited ; 
from  which  I  have  not  ceased  to  warn  you,  and  against  which  I 
have  not  ceased  to  be  upon  my  own  guard." 

In  spite  of  the  universal  assaults  made  against  the  book,  the 
Orations  and  Argument  ran  into  a  third  edition  in  little  more  than 
as  many  months;  and  remain,  now  that  all  their  critics  are  for- 
gotten, among  the  most  notable  examples  of  religious  eloquence. 
But  it  is  not  our  business  to  criticise  these  works,  which  have 
been  long  before  the  public,  and  can  be  still  judged  on  their  sep- 
arate merits.  Their  author,  meanwhile,  was  approaching  a  crisis 
in  his  life  still  more  important  than  the  publication  of  his  first 
book.  Longer  than  the  patriarch  he  had  waited  for  his  Eachel ; 
and  now  an  engagement,  which  had  lasted,  I  believe,  eleven  years, 
and  had  survived  long  separation,  and  many  changes,  both  of  cir- 
cumstances and  sentiment,  was  at  length  to  be  fulfilled.  In  the 
end  of  September,  1823,  Irving  left  London,  and  traveled  by  sev- 
eral successive  stages  to  Kirkcaldy,  where  his  bride  awaited  him. 
He  dates  the  following  letter,  pleasantly  suggestive  of  the  condi- 
tion of  his  mind  in  these  new  prospects,  from  Bolton  Abbey.  It 
is  addressed  to  William  Hamilton : 

"  My  dear  and  valuable  Friend, — ^I  write  you  thus  early  by  my 
brother  merely  to  inform  you  of  my  health  and  happiness,  for  as  yet 
I  have  had  no  time  to  do  any  thing  but  walk  abroad  among  the  most 
beautiful  and  sequestered  scenes  with  which  I  am  surrounded,  and 
A\'hich  never  fail  to  produce  upon  my  spirit  the  most  pleasing  and 
profitable  efiects.  When  I  shall  have  rested  I  will  write  you  and  my 
other  personal  friends  at  length,  and  let  you  know  all  my  plans  and 
purposes  during  my  absence.  ...  I  shall  not  write  you  till  I  get  at 
my  journey's  end,  and  have,  perhaps,  completed  its  chief  object. 
But,  late  though  it  is,  I  can  not  help  telling  you  how  happy  I  am, 
and  how  tranquil  and  holy  a  Sabbath  I  spent  yesterday,  and  how 
every  day  I  engross  into  my  mind  new  thoughts,  and  ruminate  ujDon 
new  designs  connected  with  the  ministry  of  Christ  in  that  great  city 
where  I  labor.  The  Lord  strengthen  me,  and  raise  up  others  more 
holy  and  more  devoted  for  His  holy  service.  I  foresee  infinite  bat- 
tles and  contentions,  not  with  the  persons  of  men,  but  with  their 
opinions.  My  rock  of  defense  is  my  people.  They  are  also  my  rock 
of  refuge  and  consolation.  We  have  joined  hands  together,  and  I 
feel  that  we  will  make  common  cause.  I  hope  the  Lord  will  be 
pleased  to  give  me  their  souls  and  their  fervent  prayers,  and  then, 
indeed,  we  shall  be  mighty  against  all  oi^position. 


IRVING'S  MARRIAGE.  133 

"Will  you  be  so  good  as  to  give  my  brother  an  order  upon  my 
account  for  whatever  cash  he  may  need  to  enter  himself  to  the  hos- 
pitals with,  or,  if  it  is  more  orderly,  to  give  it  him  yourself,  and  con- 
sider this  as  your  voucher  should  any  thing  happen  to  me  before  we 
meet  ?  I  should  be  happy  to  hear  from  you  that  all  things  are  going 
on  well.  Yours  most  affectionately,  Edward  Ievixg. 

"29th  September,  1823." 

After  this  he  passed  on  his  way  by  his  father's  house  in- Annan; 
and  the  Sunday  before  his  marriage,  being  now  no  longer  a  pri- 
vate man,  with  his  time  at  his  own  disposal,  went  to  Haddington 
to  preach  among  his  early  friends.  There,  where  he  had  made 
his  youthful  beginning  in  life,  and  where,  when  a  probationer,  he 
had  preached  with  the  ordinary  result  of  half-contemptuous  tol- 
eration, his  coming  now  stirred  all  the  little  town  into  excite- 
ment. The  boys  who  had  been  his  pupils  were  now  men,  proud 
to  recall  themselves  to  his  notice ;  and  with  a  warmer  thrill  of 
local  pride,  in  recollection  of  his  temporary  connection  with  their 
burgh,  the  people  of  Haddington  welcomed  the  man  whom  great 
London  had  discovered  to  be  the  greatest  orator  of  his  day. 
Wherever  he  went,  indeed,  he  was  hailed  with  that  true  Scottish 
approbation  and  delight  which  always  hails  the  return  of  a  man 
who  has  done  bis  duty  by  Scotland,  and  made  himself  famous — 
a  satisfaction  no  way  lessened  by  the  recollection  that  Scotland 
herself  had  not  been  the  first  to  discover  his  great  qualities. 

"Irving  is  in  Scotland,"  writes  Dr.  Gordon  from  Edinburgh  to 
Irving's  friend,  Mr.  Story.  "I  have  seen  him  twice  for  a  little. 
The  same  noble  fellow — and,  in  spite  of  all  his  alleged  egotism,  a 
man  of  great  simplicity  and  straightforwardness.  He  is  to  be 
married  to-day,  I  believe,  to  Miss  Martin,  of  Kirkcaldy."  This 
was  on  the  13th  of  October.  The  long-engaged  couple  were  mar- 
ried in  that  Manse  of  Kirkcaldy  which  had  witnessed  so  many 
youthful  chapters  in  Irving's  life,  and  which  was  yet  more  to  be 
associated  with  his  deepest  and  most  tender  feelings.  They  were 
married  by  the  grandfather  of  the  bride,  a  venerable  old  man — 
brother,  as  I  believe  has  been  already  mentioned,  of  the  cele- 
brated Scotch  painter,  David  Martin,  whom  the  imagination  of 
Scotland  fondly  holds  as  a  second  Reynolds,  and  in  his  own  per- 
son a  man  much  venerated,  the  father  of  the  clergy  in  his  local- 
ity— in  the  presence  of  a  body  of  kindred  worthy  of  a  family  in 
which  three  generations  flourished  together.  I  will  not  linger 
upon  any  description  of  Irving's  wife.  The  character  of  a  woman 
who  has  never  voluntarily  brought  herself  before  the  public  is 


134  MRS.  lEVING.— THE  BRIDAL  HOLIDAY. 

sacred  to  lier  children  and  her  friends.  She  stood  by  her  hus- 
band bravely  through  every  after  vicissitude  of  his  life ;  was  so 
thorough  a  companion  to  him  that  he  confided  to  her,  in  detail, 
all  the  thoughts  which  occupied  him,  as  will  be  seen  in  after  let- 
ters ;  received  his  entire  trust  and  confidence,  piously  laid  him  in 
his  grave,  brought  up  his  children,  and  lived  for  half  of  her  life 
a  widow  indeed,  in  the  exercise  of  all  womanly  and  Christian 
virtues.  If  her  admiration  for  his  genius,  and  the  shortsighted- 
ness of  love,  led  her  rather  to  seek  the  society  of  those  who  held 
him  in  a  kind  of  idolatry  than  of  friends  more  likely  to  exert 
upon  him  the  beneficial  influence  of  equals,  and  so  contributed 
to  the  clouding  of  his  genius,  it  is  the  only  blame  that  has  been 
ever  attached  to  her.  She  came  of  a  family  who  were  all  distin- 
guished by  active  talent  and  considerable  character ;  and  with  all 
the  unnoted  valor  of  a  true  woman,  held  on  her  way  through  the 
manifold  agonies — in  her  case  most  sharp  and  often  repeated — 
of  life. 

After  this  event  a  period  of  wandering  followed,  to  refresh  the 
fatigue  of  the  preacher,  after  his  first  year-long  conflict  with  that 
life  of  London  which,  sooner  or  later,  kills  almost  all  its  comba- 
tants. The  bridal  pair  appear  in  glimpses  over  the  summer  coun- 
try. One  evening,  sitting  at  the  window  of  his  quiet  manse,  at 
the  mouth  of  one  of  the  loveliest  and  softest  lochs  of  Clyde,  the 
minister  of  Kosneath  saw  a  vast  figure  approaching  through  the 
twilight,  carrying — an  adjunct  which  seems  to  have  secured  im- 
mediate recognition — a  portmanteau  on  its  Herculean  shoulder. 
It  was  Irving,  followed  by  his  amused  and  admiring  wife,  who 
had  come  down  from  Glasgow  by  one  of  the  Clyde  steamers,  and 
had  walked  with  his  burden  from  the  other  side  of  the  little  pe- 
ninsula. "  And  do  you  mean  to  say  that  you  have  carried  that 
all  the  way?"  cried  the  astonished  host,  as  he  hastened  to  welcome 
his  unexpected  visitors.  "  And  I  would  like  to  know,"  answered 
the  bridegroom,  with  all  the  gleeful  consciousness  of  strength, 
stretching  out  the  mighty  arms  which  he  had  just  relieved, 
"which  of  your  caitiffs  could  have  carried  it  better!"  A  little 
later  the  pair  are  at  Annan,  awakening  in  the  hearts  of  young 
nephews  and  nieces  there  their  earliest  recollections  of  pleasure 
and  jubilee.  Irving  was  not  preaching,  so  far  as  there  is  any 
record;  he  was  idling  and  enjoying  himself;  and,  with  him,  these 
words  meant  making  others  enjoy  themselves,  and  leaving  echoes 
of  holiday  every  where.     So  late  as  the  beginning  of  November 


EEAPPEARANCE  IN  ST.  JOHN'S.  X85 

he  was  still  in  Scotland — in  Glasgow — where  Dr.  Chalmers,  at  the 
height  of  his  splendid  social  experiments,  and  in  full  possession  of 
his  unrivaled  influence,  a  kind  of  prince-bishop  in  that  great  and 
difficult  town,  had  felt  his  strength  fail,  and — yielding  to  a  natu- 
ral distaste  for  the  atmosphere  in  which,  not  following  his  own 
inclinations,  except  in  the  fashion  of  his  work,  he  had  labored  for 
years — had  resigned  his  great  jDosition  for  the  modest  tranquillity 
of  a  professor's  chair  in  St.  Andrew's,  and  was  just  taking  leave  of 
the  people  over  whom  he  had  held  so  wonderful  a  sway.  There 
Irving  went  to  listen  to  the  last  sermon  of  his  master  in  the  min- 
istry. The  situation  is  a  remarkable  one.  He  was  again  to  take 
part  in  the  services  in  that  place  where  he  had  filled,  loyally,  yet 
with  many  commotions  and  wistful  dissatisfaction  in  his  mind,  a 
secondary  place  so  short  a  time  before.  A  world  of  difference 
lay  in  the  year  of  time  which  had  passed  since  then.  Chalmers 
himself  had  not  turned  the  head  of  any  community,  as  his  former 
assistant  had  turned  the  multitudinous  heads  of  London.  The 
man  who  had  gone  away  from  them,  forlorn  and  brave,  upon  an 
expedition  more  like  that  of  a  forlorn  hope  than  an  enterprise 
justified  by  ordinary  wisdom,  had  come  back  with  all  the  laurels 
of  sudden  fame,  a  conqueror  and  hero.  Yet  here  again  he  stood, 
so  entirely  in  his  old  place  that  one  can  suppose  the  brilliant  in- 
terval must  have  looked  like  a  dream  to  Irving  as  he  gazed  upon 
the  crowd  of  familiitr  faces,  and  saw  himself  lost  and  forgotten,  as 
of  old,  in  the  absorbing  interest  with  which  every  body  turned  to 
the  great  leader  under  whom  they  had  lived  and  labored.  Had 
he  been  the  egotist  he  was  called,  or  had  he  come  in  any  vain- 
glorious hope  of  confounding  those  who  did  not  discover  his  great- 
ness, he  would  have  chosen  another  moment  to  visit  Glasgow. 
But  he  came  in  the  simplicity  of  his  heart  to  stand  by  his  friend 
at  a  solemn  moment,  as  his  friend  had  stood  by  him — to  hear  the 
last  sermon,  and  offer  the  last  good  wishes. 

This  momentary  conjunction  of  these  two  remarkable  men 
makes  a  picture  pleasant  to  dwell  on.  Both  had  now  separated 
their  names  from  that  busy  place ;  the  elder  and  greater  to  retire 
into  the  noiseless  seclusion,  or  rather  into  the  little  social  "circles" 
and  coteries  of  a  limited  society,  and  the  class-rooms  of  a  science 
that  was  not  even  theological;  the  younger,  the  secondary  and 
overlooked,  to  a  position  much  more  in  the  eye  of  the  world,  more 
dazzling,  giddy,  and  glorious  than  the  pulpit  of  St.  John's,  even 
while  Chalmers  occupied  it,  could  ever  have  been.     At  this  last 


136  EETURN  TO  LONDON. 

farewell  moment  tliey  stood  as  if  that  year,  so  wonderful  to  one 
of  them,  had  never  been ;  and  Irving,  like  a  true  man,  stepped 
back  out  of  his  elevation,  and  took  loyally  his  old  secondary  place. 
"  When  Dr.  Chalmers  left  the  pulpit,  after  preaching  his  farewell 
sermon,"  says  Dr.  Hanna,  his  biographer,  "it  was  entered  by  the 
Eev.  Edward  Irving,  who  invited  the  vast  congregation  to  accom- 
pany him,  as  with  solemn  pomp  and  impressive  unction  he  poured 
out  a  prayer  for  that  honored  minister  of  God  who  had  just  re- 
tired from  among  them."  This  momentary  appearance  in  that 
familiar  pulpit,  not  to  display  the  eloquence  which  had  made  him 
famous  since  he  last  stood  in  it,  but  simply  to  crown  with  prayers 
and  blessings  the  farewell  of  his  friend,  is  the  most  graceful  and 
touching  conclusion  which  could  have  been  given  to  Irving's  con- 
nection with  Glasgow ;  or  at  least — since  after  events  have  linked 
his  memory  forever  with  that  of  this  great  and  wealthy  town — 
with  the  congregation  of  St.  John's. 

The  newly-married  pair  traveled  to  London  by  the  paternal 
house  in  Annan.  Accompanied  by  some  of  their  relations  from 
thence,  they  posted  to  Carlisle,  the  modern  conveniences  of  travel 
being  then  undreamt  of  When  they  were  about  to  cross  the 
Sark,  the  little  stream  which  at  that  point  divides  Scotland  from 
England,  Irving,  with  a  pleasant  bridegroom  fancy,  made  his 
young  wife  alight  and  walk  over  the  bridge  into  the  new  country 
which  henceforward  was  to  be  her  home.  So  this  idyllic  journey 
comes  to  an  end.  After  the  bridge  of  Sark  and  its  moorland 
landscape,  we  see  no  more  of  the  travelers  till  they  reappear  in  the 
bustle  of  London,  where  idylls  have  no  existence. 

His  marriage  leisure  had  probably  been  prolonged  in  conse- 
quence of  his  health  having  suffered  a  little  from  the  great  labors 
and  excitement  of  the  past  year.  Just  before  starting  for  Scot- 
land, he  had  written  to  this  purport  to  his  friend  David  Hope, 
who  had  consulted  him  what  memorial  should  be  raised  to  their 
old  schoolmaster,  Adam  Hope,  the  master  of  Annan  Academy. 
He  writes : 

"  I  have  been  unwell,  and  living  in  the  country,  and  not  able  to  at- 
tend to  your  request ;  but  I  propose  that  we  should  erect  a  monu- 
ment, when  I  will  myself  compose  elegies  in  the  various  tongues  our 
dear  and  venerable  preceptor  taught,  all  which  I  shall  concoct  with 
you  when  I  come  to  Scotland.  Tell  Graham,  and  all  my  friends," 
he  adds,  "  if  they  knew  what  a  battle  I  am  fighting  for  the  cause, 
and  what  a  single-handed  contest  I  have  to  maintain,  they  would  for- 
give my  apparent  neglect.     Every  day  is  to  me  a  day  of  severe  oc- 


PREFACE  TO  THE  THIED  EDITION  OF  THE  ORATIONS.   137 

cupation — I  have  no  idleness.  All  my  leisure  is  refreshment  for  new 
labor.  Yet  am  I  happy,  and  now,  thank  God,  well;  and  this  mo- 
ment I  snatch  in  the  midst  of  study." 

His  marriage  and  its  attendant  travels  happily  interrupted  this 
over-occupation,  and  he  seems  to  have  returned  to  London  with 
new  fire,  ready  to  re-enter  the  lists,  and  show  no  mercy  upon  the 
assailants  who  had  now  made  him  for  several  months  a  mark  for 
all  their  arrows.  He  took  his  bride  to  the  home  which  had  been 
for  some  time  prepared  for  her,  and  which,  for  the  information  of 
the  curious,  was  No.  7  in  Myddelton  Terrace,  Pentonville. 

His  first  occupation — or  at  least  one  of  the  first  things  which 
occupied  him  after  his  return — must  have  been  the  third  edition 
of  his  Orations  and  Argument^  with  the  characteristic  preface  which 
he  prefixed  to  it.  The  critics  who  assailed  him  must  have  been 
pretty  well  aware  beforehand,  from  all  he  had  said  and  written, 
that  Irving  was  not  a  man  to  be  overawed  by  any  strictures  that 
could  be  made  upon  him.  When,  in  the  heat  and  haste  of  the 
moment,  one  edition  pursuing  another  through  the  press,  and  one 
blow  after  another  ringing  on  his  shield,  the  orator  seized  his 
flaming  pen  and  wrote  defiance  to  all  his  opponents,  it  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  imagine  the  kind  of  production  which  must  have  flashed 
from  that  pen  of  Irving.  Allowing  that  an  author's  reply  to  crit- 
icism is  always  a  mistaken  and  imprudent  proceeding,  and  that 
Irving's  contempt  and  defiance  are  not  written  in  perfect  taste 
(angry  as  the  expression  would  have  made  him)  or  charity,  yet 
we  should  have  been  sorry  not  to  have  had  the  daring  onslaught 
upon  these  troublesome  skirmishers  of  literature,  from  whose 
stings,  alas !  neither  greatness  nor  smallness  can  defend  the  unfor- 
tunate wayfarer ;  and  the  dignified  vindication  of  his  own  style 
and  diction,  which  is  as  noble  and  modest  a  profession  of  literary 
allegiance  as  can  be  found  any  where/''  I  have  been  accused  of 
affecting  the  antiquated  manner  of  ages  and  times  now  forgotten," 
he  says  in  his  defense.  "  The  writers  of  those  times  are  too  much 
forgotten,  I  lament,  and  their  style  of  writing  hath  fallen  out  of 
use ;  but  the  time  is  fast  approaching  when  this  stigma  shall  be 
wiped  away  from  our  prose,  as  it  is  fast  departing  from  our  poet- 
ry. I  fear  not  to  confess  that  Hook^  and  Taylor,  and  Baxter  in 
Theology ;  Bacon,  and  Newton,  and  Locke  in  Philosophy,  have 
been  my  companions,  as  Shakspeare,  and  Spenser,  and  Milton 
have  been  in  poetry.  I  can  not  learn  to  think  as  they  have  done, 
which  is  the  gift  of  God ;  but  I  can  teach  myself  to  think  as  dis 


138  MR.  BASIL  MONTAGU. 

interestedlj,  and  to  express  as  honestly,  what  I  think  and  feel, 
which  I  have,  in  the  strength  of  God,  endeavored  to  doX^  What 
he  said  of  his  critics  is  naturally  much  less  dignijQed ;  but  in  spite 
of  a  few  epithets,  which  were  much  more  current  in  those  days 
than  now,  the  whole  of  this  preface,  much  unlike  ordinary  pref- 
aces, which  authors  go  on  writing  with  an  amazing  innocent  faith 
in  the  attention  of  the  public,  and  which  few  people  ever  dream 
of  looking  at,  is  one  of  the  most  eloquent  and  characteristic  por- 
tions of  the  volume.  Indeed,  I  know  scarcely  any  volume  of  Ir- 
ving's  works  of  which  this  might  not  be  said.  In  his  dedications 
and  prefaces,  he  carries  on  a  kind  of  rapid  autobiography,  and 
takes  his  reader  into  his  heart  and  confidence,  in  those  singular 
addresses,  in  a  manner,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  quite  unprecedented 
in  literature. 

He  was  now  fully  launched  upon  the  exciting  and  raj^id  course 
of  London  life — a  life  which  permits  little  leisure  and  less  tran- 
quillity to  those  embarked  upon  it.  One  of  his  earliest  acquaint- 
ances was  Mr.  Basil  Montagu — the  gentleman  described  by  the 
Times  as  "preaching  peace  and  resignation  from  a  window"  to 
the  disappointed  multitude  who  could  find  no  entrance  into  the 
Caledonian  church.  In  Mr.  Montagu's  hospitable  house  Irving 
found  the  kindest  reception  and  the  most  congenial  society ;  and 
even  more  than  these,  found  consolation  and  guidance,  when  first 
excited  and  then  disgusted,  according  to  a  very  natural  and  oft- 
repeated  process,  with  the  blandishments  of  society,  and  the  cold- 
ness of  those  religious  circles  which  admit  nobody  who  does  not 
come  with  certificates  of  theological  soundness  and  propriety  in 
his  hand.  In  dedicating  a  volume  of  sermons  to  Mr.  Montagu 
and  his  wife  some  years  after,  he  thus  describes  his  state  and  cir- 
cumstances in  his  first  encounter  with  that  wonderful  Circe,  from 
whose  fascinations  few  men  escape  unharmed : 

"  When  the  Lord,  to  serve  his  own  ends,  advanced  nie,  from  the 
knowledge  of  my  own  flock  and  the  private  walks  of  pastoral  duty, 
to  become  a  preacher  of  righteousness  to  this  great  city,  and  I  may 
say  kingdom — to  the  princes,  and  the  nobles,  and  the  counselors  of 
this  great  empire,  whom  He  brought  to  hear  me — I  became  also  an 
object  of  attack  to  the  malice  and  artifice  of  Satan,  being  tempted  on 
the  one  hand  to  murmur  because  of  the  distance  at  which  I  was  held 
from  the  affections  of  my  evangelical  brethren,  whom  I  had  never 
persecuted  like  Saul  of  Tarsus,  but  too  much  loved,  even  to  idolatry; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  being  tempted  to  go  forth,  in  the  earnest  sim- 
plicity of  my  heart,  into  those  high  and  noble  circles  of  society  which 
were  then  oppn  to  me,  and  which  must  either  have  ingulfed  me  by 


IRVING'S  GRATEFUL  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.  139 

their  enormous  attractions,  or  else  repelled  my  simple  affections,  shat- 
tered and  befooled,  to  become  the  mockery  and  contempt  of  every 
envious  and  disappointed  railer.  At  such  a  perilous  moment  the 
Lord  in  you  found  for  me  a  Mentor  both  to  soothe  my  heart,  vexed 
with  cold  and  uncharitable  suspicions,  and  to  preserve  my  feet  from 

the  snares  that  were  around  my  path And  seeing  it  hath 

pleased  God  to  make  your  acquaintance  first,  and  then  your  unwea- 
ried and  disinterested  kindness,  and  now,  I  trust,  your  true  friend- 
ship, most  helpful  to  my  weakness,  as  well  in  leading  me  to  observe 
more  diligently  the  forms  and  aspects  of  human  life,  and  to  compre- 
hend more  Avidely  the  ways  of  God's  jirovidence  with  men,  as  in  sus- 
taining mo  with  your  good  counsel  and  sweet  fellowship  against  the 
cold  dislike  and  uncharitable  suspicion  of  the  religious,  and  preserv- 
ing me  from  the  snares  of  the  irreligious  world,  I  do  feel  it  incumbent 
ujDon  me  as  a  duty  to  God,  and  pleasant  to  me  as  a  testimony  of  grat- 
itude and  love  to  you,  to  prefix  your  honored  names  to  this  Discourse, 
which  chiefly  concerneth  the  intermediate  question  of  the  soil  on 
which  the  seed  of  truth  is  sown,  wherein  I  feel  that  your  intercourse 
has  been  esjjccially  profitable  to  my  mind  ;  for  while  I  must  ever 
confess  myself  to  be  more  beholden  to  our  sage  friend,  Mr.  Coleridge 
(whose  acquaintance  and  friendship  I  owe  likewise  to  you),  than  to 
all  men  besides,  for  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  itself  as  it  is  in  Jesus, 
I  freely  confess  myself  to  be  much  your  debtor  for  the  knowledge  of 
those  forms  of  the  natural  mind  and  of  the  actual  existing  world  with 
which  the  minister  of  truth  hath  in  the  first  instance  to  do,  and  into  . 
the  soil  of  which  the  seed  of  truth  is  to  be  cast.  Your  much  acquaint-  / 
ance,  worthy  sir,  and  your  much  conversation  of  the  sages  of  other ' 
days,  and  especially  the  fathers  of  the  English  Church  and  literature, 
and  your  endeavors  to  hold  them  up  imto  all  whom  you  honor  with 
your  confidence ;  your  exquisite  feeling,  dear  and  honored  madam,  of 
whatever  is  just  and  beautiful,  whether  in  the  idea  or  in  the  truth  of 
things,  and  your  faithfulness  in  holding  it  up  to  the  view  of  your 
friends,  together  with  the  delicate  skill  and  consummate  grace  with 
which  you  express  it  in  words  and  embody  it  in  acts — these  things, 
my  dear  and  honored  friends,  working  insensibly  during  several 
years'  continuance  of  a  very  intimate  friendship  and  very  confidential 
interchange  of  thought  and  feeling,  have,  I  perceive,  produced  in  me 
many  of  those  views  of  men  and  things  which  are  exjDressed  in  the 
following  Discourse,  concerning  that  question  of  the  several  soils  into 
which  the  seed  of  truth  is  cast — a  question  which  I  confess  that  I 
had  very  much  in  time  past  ovei'looked." 

I  make  this  long  and  interesting  extract  out  of  its  chronologic- 
al place  as  the  best  means  I  have  of  showing  at  once  the  temper 
of  Irving's  mind  and  the  circumstances  in  which  he  stood  at  his 
outset  in  London :  on  one  side,  religious  people,  shy  of  him  at 
first,  as  of  a  man  who  used  a  freedom  in  speech  and  in  thought 
unknown  to  ordinary  preachers  or  authors  of  published  sermons, 
and  afterward  affronted  and  angry  at  his  bold,  simple-minded 
declaration  that  they  had  lost  or  forgotten  the  way  to  proclaim 


140  HIS  EAELY  DANGERS  IN  SOCIETY. 

the  truth,  they  held,  and,  on  the  other,  society  of  a  more  dazzhng 
kind,  and  with  profounder  attractions  than  any  he  had  yet  met 
with — society  such  that  men  of  genius  continually  lose  their  head, 
and  sometimes  break  their  heart  in  seeking  it.  The  position  in 
which  he  thus  found  himself  was,  indeed,  enough  to  confuse  a 
man  always  eager  for  love  and  friendship,  and  ready  to  trust  all 
the  world.  Irving,  fresh  from  the  simpler  circumstances  of  life 
in  Scotland,  charmed  with  that  subtle  atmosphere  of  refinement 
and  high  breeding  which  seems  at  the  first  breath  to  the  unin- 
structed  genius  the  very  embodiment  of  his  dreams,  stood  upon 
that  dangerous  point  between,  repelled  from  one  side,  attracted 
to  the  other,  understanding  neither  thoroughly — wavering  and 
doubtful  at  the  edge  of  the  precipice.  That  he  had  a  friend  qual- 
ified to  point  out  to  him  the  danger  on  both  sides,  and  that  he 
was  wise  enough  to  accept  that  teaching,  was  a  matter  for  which 
he  might  well  be  grateful.  Mr.  Montagu  drew  him  to  his  own 
house,  brought  him  into  a  circle  above  fashion,  yet  without  its 
dangerous  seductions,  introduced  him  to  Coleridge  and  many 
lother  notable  men.  And  Irving,  brought  into  the  warm  and  af- 
fectionate intercourse  of  such  a  household,  and  assisted,  moreover, 
by  that  glamour  which  always  remained  in  his  own  eyes  and  ele- 
vated every  thing  he  saw,  learned  to  gain  that  acquaintance  with 
men — men  of  the  highest  type — men  of  a  class  with  which  hith- 
erto he  had  been  unfamiliar,  in  which  the  hereditary  culture  of 
generations  had  culminated,  and  which,  full  of  thought  and  ripen- 
ed knowledge,  was  not  to  be  moved  by  generalities — which  he 
could  not  have  learned  either  in  his  secondary  rank  of  scholarship 
in  Edinburgh,  nor  among  the  merchants  of  Glasgow.  He  saw, 
but  in  the  best  and  most  advantageous  way,  what  every  thought- 
ful mind  which  lives  long  enough  is  brought  to  see  something  of 
— how  deeply  nature  has  to  do  with  all  the  revolutions  of  the 
soul ;  how  men  are  of  an  individuality  all  unthought  of;  and  how 
mighty  an  agent,  beyond  all  mights  of  education  or  training,  is 
constitutional  character.  In  Mr.  Montagu's  house  he  saw  "  the 
soil"  in  many  a  rich  and  fruitful  variation,  and  came  to  know 
how,  by  the  most  diverse  and  different  paths,  the  same  end  may 
be  attained.  If  his  natural  impatience  of  every  thing  contracted, 
mean,  and  narrow-minded  gained  force  in  this  society,  it  is  not  a 
surprising  result.  But  he  had  always  been  sufficiently  ready  to 
contemn  and  scorn  commonplace  boundaries.  His  friends  in  Bed- 
ford Square,  and  their  friends,  taught  him  to  appreciate  more  thor- 
oughly the  unities  and  diversities  of  man.  ' 


COLERIDGE'S  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  VIEWS  OF  IRVING.     141 


Scarcely  any  record  remains  of  the  intercourse  ■whicli  existed 
between  Irving  and  Coleridge,  an  intercourse  which  was  begun 
as  has  just  been  seen,  by  Mr.  Montagu.  It  lasted  for  years,  and 
was  full  of  kindness  on  the  part  of  the  philosopher,  and  reveren- 
tial respect  on  that  of  Irving,  who,  following  the  natural  instinct 
of  his  own  ingenuous  nature,  changed  in  an  instant,  in  such  a 
presence,  from  the  orator  who,  speaking  in  God's  name,  assumed  a 
certain  austere  pomp  of  position — more  like  an  authoritative  priest 
than  a  simple  presbyter — into  the  simple  and  candid  listener,  more 
ready  to  learn  than  he  was  to  teach,  and  to  consider  the  thoughts 
of  another  than  to  propound  his  own.  Nothing,  indeed,  can  be 
more  remarkable,  more  unlike  the  opinion  many  people  have 
formed  of  him,  or  more  true  to  his  real  character,  than  the  fact, 
very  clearly  revealed  by  all  the  dedicatory  addresses  to  which  we 
have  referred,  that  in  his  own  consciousness  he  was  always  learn- 
ing ;  and  not  only  so,  but  with  the  utmost  simplicity  and  frank- 
ness acknowledging  what  he  had  learned.  If  imagination  had 
any  thing  to  do  with  this  serious  and  sad  history,  it  would  not  be 
difl&cult  to  picture  those  two  figures,  so  wonderfully  different,  look- 
ing down  from  the  soft  Highgate  slopes  upon  that  uneasy  world 
beneath,  which,  to  one  of  them,  was  but  a  great  field  of  study, 
proving,  as  never  any  collection  of  human  creatures  proved  be- 
fore, alljthe  grievous  but  great  conclusions  of  philosophy,  while 
to  the  other  it  raged  with  all  the  incessant  conflict  of  a  field  of 
battle,  dread  agony  of  life  and  death,  through  which  his  own  cry 
"to  the  rescue!"  was  continually  ringing,  and  his  own  hand 
snatching  forth  from  under  trampling  feet  the  wounded  and  the 
fallen.  Here  Irving  changed  the  common  superficial  idea  of  the 
world's  conversion — that  belief  calmly  held  or  earnestly  insisted 
on  in  the  face  of  acknowledged  disappointment  in  many  mission- 
ary efforts,  and  the  slowness  and  lingering  issues  of  even  the  most 
successful,  which  is  common  to  most  churches — "  That  error,"  as\ 
he  himself  says,  "under  which  almost  the  whole  of  the  Church  is 
lying,  that  the  present  world  is  to  be  converted  unto  the  Lord,/ 
and  so  slide  by  a  natural  inclination  into  the  Church — the  present/ 
reign  of  Satan  hastening,  of  its  own  accord,  into  the  millennial] 
reign  of  Christ."  For  this  doctrine  he  learned  to  substitute  the} 
idea  of  a  dispensation  drawing  toward  its  close,  and — its  natural! 
consequence  in  a  mind  so  full  of  love  to  God  and  man — of  an  al-1 
together  glorious  and  overwhelming  revolution  yet  to  come,  in| 
which  all  the  dead  society,  churches,  kingdoms,  fashions  of  this 


W 


142  SOCIAL  CHARITIES. 

world,  galvanicallj  kept  in  motion  until  tlie  end,  should  be  finally 
burned  up  and  destroyed.  Whether  this  development  of  wistful 
and  anxious  faith,  and  the  "deliverance"  conveyed  by  it,  or  wheth- 
er that  more  subtle  view  of  the  ancient  and  much-assailed  Calvin- 
istic  doctrine  of  election,  which  sets  forth  God's  message  and  mes- 
sengers as  specially  addressed  to  "the  worthy,"  and  universally 
received  by  them  wherever  the  message  is  heard,  was  the  sub- 
stance of  what  the  preacher  learned  from  the  poet-philosopher, 
there  is  no  information.  The  prodigal  thanks  with  which  the 
teaching  was  received,  given  out  of  the  fullness  of  a  heart  always 
ready  to  exaggerate  the  benefits  conferred  upon  it,  is  almost  the 
only  distinct  record  of  what  passed  between  them. 

Such  was  his  society  and  occupations  when  he  returned  with 
the  companion  of  his  life  from  Scotland.  He  brought  his  wife 
into  a  house  in  which  the  tumult  of  London  was  perpetually 
heard ;  not  into  a  quiet  ecclesiastical  society,  like  that  which  gen- 
erally falls  to  the  lot  of  the  wives  of  Scotch  ministers,  but  to  a 
much  -  disturbed  dwelling-place,  constantly  assailed  by  visitors, 
and  invaded  by  agitations  of  the  world.  Among  all  the  other  ex- 
citements of  popularity,  there  came  also  the  pleasant  excitemelit 
of  a  new  church  about  to  be  built,  of  size  proportioned  to  the  ne- 
cessities of  the  case.  The  same  crowds  and  commotion  still  sur- 
rounded the  Caledonian  chapel,  but  they  became  more  bearable 
in  the  prospect  of  more  roomy  quarters.  An  unfailing  succession 
of  private  as  well  as  public  calls  upon  the  kindness,  help,  and 
hospitality  of  a  man  whom  every  body  believed  in,  and  who 
proffered  kindness  to  all,  helped  to  increase  the  incessant  motion 
and  activity  of  that  full  and  unresisting  life.  Thus,  within  eight- 
een months  after  his  arrival  in  London,  had  the  Scotch  preacher 
won  the  friendship  of  many,  not  specially  open  to  members  of  his 
profession  and  church,  and  made  himself  a  centre  of  personal  be- 
neficences not  to  be  counted.  If  ever  pride  can  be  j  ustified,  Edward 
Irving  might  have  been  justified  in  a  passing  thrill  of  that  exult- 
ation when  he  brought  his  wife  from  the  quiet  manse  which  all 
along  had  looked  on  and  watched  his  career,  not  sure  how  far  its 
daughter's  future  was  safe  in  the  hands  of  a  man  so  often  foiled, 
yet  so  unsubduable,  to  place  her  in  a  position  and  society  which 
few  clergymen  of  his  church  have  ever  attained,  and,  indeed, 
which  few  men  in  any  church,  however  titled  or  dignified,  could 
equal.  The  peculiarity  of  his  position  lay  in  the  fact  that  this 
singular  elevation  belon2:ed  to  himself  and  not  to  his  rank,  which 


PHYSICAL  STRENGTH  OF  IRVING.  143 

was  not  susceptible  of  change ;  that  his  influence  was  extended  a 
thousand-fold,  with  little  addition  to  his  means  and  none  to  his 
station,  and  that,  while  he  moved  among  men  of  the  highest  intel- 
lect and  position,  neither  his  transcendent  popularity  nor  his  ac- 
knowledged genius  ever  changed  that  primitive  standing-ground 
of  priest  and  pastor  which  he  always  held  with  primitive  tenacity. 
The  charm  of  that  conjunction  is  one  which  the  most  worldly 
mind  of  man  can  not  refuse  to  appreciate ;  and  perhaps  it  is  only 
on  the  members  of  a  church  which  owns  no  possibility  of  promo- 
tion that  such  a  delicate  and  visionary,  though  real  rank,  could  by 
common  verdict  be  bestowed. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

1824. 

Failure  of  Health. — Determination  to  do  his  Work  thoroughly. — Proposes  to  write 
a  Missionary  Sermon. — For  Missionaries  after  the  Apostolical  School. — The  wan- 
dering Apostle. — Consternation  of  the  Audience. — Wrath  of  the  religious  World. 
— A  Martyr  Missionary. — Publication  of  the  Oration. — An  Exeter  Hall  Meeting. 
— Protest  against  the  Machinery  of  Evangelism. — Dedication  to  Coleridge. — Lavish 
Acknowledgments. — Coldness  and  Estrangement. — The  Presbyterian  Eldership. 
— Its  Duties  and  Privileges. — Irving  forms  his  Kirk-session. — Birth  of  little  Ed- 
ward.— Personal  Charities. — A  lost  Life. — Hospitality. — Commencement  of  the 
new  Church. — Evangelical  Journey. — Birmingham. — Home  Society. — "In  God 
he  lived  and  moved." 

The  year  1824  began  with  no  diminution  of  those  incessant  la- 
bors. It  is  wonderful  how  a  man  of  so  great  a  frame,  and  of  out- 
of-door  tendencies  so  strong  and  long  cherished,  should  have  been 
able  to  bear,  as  Irving  did,  confinement  in  one  of  the  most  town- 
like and  closely-inhabited  regions  of  London.  In  Pentonville,  in- 
deed, faint  breaths  of  country  air  might  at  that  period  be  supposed 
to  breathe  along  the  tidy,  genteel  streets;  but  in  Bloomsbury, 
where  many  of  Irving's  friends  resided,  or  in  the  dusty  ranges  of 
Holborn,  where  his  church  was,  no  such  refreshment  can  have 
been  practicable.  Nor  had  the  Presbyterian  minister  any  relief 
from  curates,  or  assistance  of  any  kind.  His  entire  pulpit  services 
— and,  according  to  his  own  confession,  his  sermons  averaged  an 
hour  and  a  quarter  in  length — his  prayers,  as  much  exercises  of 
the  intellect  as  of  the  heart,  came  from  his  own  lips  and  mind,  un- 
aided by  the  intervention  of  any  other  man ;  and  besides,  his  lit- 
erary labors,  and  the  incessant  demands  which  his  great  reputa- 


144  FAILURE  OF  HEALTH. 

tion  brouglit  upon  him,  lie  had  all  the  pastoral  cares  of  his  own 
large  congregation  to  attend  to,  and  was  ready  at  the  call  of  the 
sick,  the  friendless,  and  the  stranger  whensoever  they  addressed 
him.  That  this  overwhelming  amount  of  work,  combined  as  it 
was  with  all  the  excitement  inseparable  from  the  position  of  a 
popular  preacher — a  preacher  so  popular  as  to  have  his  church 
besieged  every  day  it  was  opened — should  tell  upon  his  strength, 
was  to  be  expected ;  and  accordingly  we  find  him  writing  in  the 
following  terms  to  Mr.  Collins,  of  Glasgow,  the  publisher,  who 
had  taken  a  large  share  in  Dr.  Chalmers's  parochial  work  in  St. 
John's,  and  was  one  of  Irving's  steady  friends.  Some  time  before 
he  had  undertaken  to  write  a  preface  to  a  new  edition  of  the  works 
of  Bernard  Gilpin,  which  is  the  matter  referred  to : 

"7  Myddelton  Terrace,  24th  February,  1824. 

"  My  dear  Mr.  Collins, — I  pray  you  not  for  a  moment  to  imag- 
ine that  I  have  any  other  intention,  so  long  as  God  gives  me  strength, 
than  to  fulfill  my  promise  faithfully.  I  am  at  present  worked  beyond 
my  strength,  and  you  know  that  is  not  inconsiderable.  My  head ! 
my  head !  I  may  say  with  the  Shunamite's  child.  If  I  care  not  for 
it,  the  world  will  soon  cease  to  care  for  me  and  I  for  the  world.  K 
you  saw  me  many  a  night  miable  to  pray  with  my  wife,  and  forced 
to  have  recourse  to  forms  of  prayer,  you  would  at  once  discover  jvhat 
hath  caused  my  delay.  I  have  no  resource  if  I  throw  myself  up,  and 
a  thousand  enemies  wait  for  my  stumbling  and  fall. 

"  I  am  now  better,  and  this  week  had  set  to  rise  at  six  o'clock  and 
finish  it,  but  I  have  not  been  able.  Next  week  I  shall  make  the  at- 
tempt again  and  again  till  I  succeed ;  for  upon  no  account,  and  for 
no  sake,  will  I  touch  or  undertake  aught  mitil  I  have  fulfilled  my 
promise  in  respect  to  Gilpin.  But  one  thing  I  will  say,  that  I  must 
not  be  content  with  the  preface  of  a  sermon  or  patches  of  a  sermon. 
The  subject  is  too  important — too  many  eyes  are  upon  me — and  the 
interests  of  religion  are  too  much  inwarped  in  certain  places  with  my 
character  and  Avriting  that  I  should  not  do  my  best. 

"  The  Lord  bless  you  and  all  his  true  servants. 

"  Your  faithful  friend,  Edward  Irving." 

This  conscientious  determination  to  do  nothing  imperfectly  is, 
amid  all  the  exaltation  and  excitement  of  Irving's  position,  no 
small  testimony  to  his  steadiness  and  devout  modesty.  Adula- 
tion had  not  been  able  to  convince  him  that  his  name  was  sufii- 
cient  to  give  credit  to  careless  writing,  nor  had  the  vehement  and 
glowing  genius,  now  fully  enfranchised  and  acknowledged,  learn- 
ed to  consider  itself  indejDcndent  of  industry  and  painstaking  la- 
bors. He  had  learned  what  criticism  awaited  every  thing  he 
wrote;   and  even  while  he  retaliated  manfully,  was  doubtless 


SOLICITED  TO  DELIVER  A  MISSIONARY  SERMON.  I45 

warned  in  minor  matters  by  the  storm  just  then  passing  over, 
which  had  been  raised  by  his  former  publication. 

His  next  point  of  contact  with  the  astonished  and  critical  world, 
which  watched  for  a  false  step  on  his  part,  and  was  ready  to  pounce 
upon  any  thing,  from  an  imperfect  or  complicated  metaphor  to  an 
unsound  doctrine,  occurred  in  the  May  of  this  year,  when  he  had 
been  selected  to  preach  one  of  the  anniversary  sermons  of  the 
London  Missionary  Society.  The  invitation  to  do  this  was  pre- 
sumed to  be  a  compliment  to  Irving,  and  voucher  of  his  popular- 
ity, as  well  as  a  prudent  enlistment  of  the  "highest  talent"  to 
give  attraction  to  the  yearly  solemnity  of  the  society.  Had  the 
London  committee  been  wise,  they  would  scarcely  have  chosen  so 
daring  and  original  an  orator  to  celebrate  their  anniversary,  since 
Irving  was  exactly  the  man  whose  opinions  or  sentiments  on  such 
a  topic  were  not  to  be  rashly  predicated.  The  preliminaries  of 
this  discourse,  as  afterward  described  by  himself,  were  not  such  as 
generally  usher  in  a  missionary  sermon.  Instead  of  reading  up 
the  records  of  the  society,  and  making  careful  note  of  the  causes 
for  congratulation  and  humility,  as  it  would  have  been  correct  to 
have  done — instead  of  laying  up  materials  for  a  glowing  account 
of  its  progress  and  panegyric  upon  its  missionaries,  Irving's  prep- 
arations ran  in  the  following  extraordinary  channel : 

"  Having  been  requested  by  the  London  Missionary  Society,"  he 
writes,  "  to  preach  upon  the  occasion  of  their  last  anniversary,  I  wil- 
lingly complied,  without  much  thought  of  what  I  was  undertaking ; 
but  when  I  came  to  reflect  upon  the  sacredness  and  importance  of 
the  cause  given  into  my  hands,  and  the  dignity  of  the  audience  before 
which  I  had  to  discourse,  it  seemed  to  my  conscience  that  I  had  un- 
dertaken a  duty  full  of  peril  and  responsibility,  for  which  I  ought  to 
prepare  myself  with  every  preparation  of  the  mind  and  of  the  spirit. 
To  this  end,  retiring  into  the  quiet  and  peaceful  country,  among  a 
society  of  men  devoted  to  every  good  and  charitable  work,  I  searched 
the  Scriptures  in  secret,  and  in  their  pious  companies  conversed  of 
the  convictions  which  were  secretly  brought  to  my  mind  concerning 
the  missionary  work.  And  thus,  not  without  much  prayer  to  God 
and  self-devotion,  I  meditated  those  things  which  I  delivered  in  pub- 
lic before  the  reverend  and  pious  men  who  had  honored  me  with  so 
great  a  trust." 

,  It  may  easily  be  supposed  that  a  discourse,  thus  premeditated 
and  composed  by  a  man  whose  youth  was  full  of  missionary  proj- 
ects, such  as  no  practical  nineteenth  century  judgment  could  des- 
ignate otherwise  than  as  the  wildest  romance,  was  not  likely  to 
come  to  such  a  sermon  as  should  content  the  London  or  any  other 
Missionary  Society.     It  was  not  an  exposition  of  the  character 

K 


146  A  LONG  SERMON.— THE  WANDERING  APOSTLE. 

of  a  missionary,  as  appreliended  by  an  heroic  mind,  capable  of  the 
labors  it  described,  which  had  been  either  wished  or  requested. 
But  the  directors  of  the  society,  having  rashly  tackled  with  a  man 
occupied,  not  with  their  most  laudable  pursuits  and  interests,  but 
with  the  abstract  truth,  had  to  pay  the  inevitable  penalty.  The 
day  came.  In  preparation  for  a  great  audience,  the  chapel  in 
Tottenham  Court  Eoad,  once  known  as  the  Tabernacle,  and  built 
for  Whitfield,  was  selected.  The  day  was  wet  and  dreary,  but  the 
immense  building  was  crowded  long  before  the  hour  of  meeting, 
many  finding  it  impossible  to  get  admittance.  So  early  was  the 
congregation  assembled,  that  to  keep  so  vast  a  throng  occupied, 
the  officials  considered  it  wise  to  begin  the  preliminary  services  a 
full  hour  before  the  time  appointed.  When  the  preacher  appeared 
at  last,  his  discourse  was  so  long  that  he  had  to  pause,  according 
to  the  primitive  custom  of  Scotland,  twice  during  its  course,  the 
congregation  in  the  intervals  singing  some  verses  of  a  hymn.  One 
of  the  hearers  on  that  occasion  tells  that,  for  three  hours  and  a 
half,  he,  only  a  youth,  and,  though  a  fervent  admirer  of  the  orator, 
still  susceptible  to  fatigue,  sat  jammed  in  and  helpless  near  the 
pulpit,  unable  to  extricate  himself.  All  this  might  have  but  add- 
ed to  the  triumph ;  and  even  so  early  in  his  career  it  seems  to 
have  been  understood  of  Irving  that  the  necessity  of  coming  to  an 
end  did  not  occur  to  him,  and  that  not  the  hour,  but  the  subject, 
timed  his  addresses,  so  that  his  audience  were  partly  warned  of 
what  they  had  to  look  for.  But  the  oration  which  burst  upon 
their  astonished  ears  was  quite  a  different  matter.  It  had  no  con- 
nection with  the  London  Missionary  Society.  It  was  the  ideal  mis- 
sionary— the  apostle  lost  behind  the  veil  of  centuries — the  evan- 
gelist commissioned  of  God,  who  had  risen  out  of  Scripture  and 
the  primeval  ages  upon  the  gaze  of  the  preacher.  He  discoursed 
to  the  startled  throng  met  there  to  be  asked  for  subscriptions — 
to  have  their  interest  stimulated  in  the  regulations  of  the  com- 
mittee, and  their  eyes  directed  toward  its  worthy  and  respectable 
representatives,  each  drawing  a  little  congregation  about  him  in 
some  corner  of  the  earth — of  a  man  without  staff  or  scrip,  without 
banker  or  provision,  abiding  with  whomsoever  would  receive  him, 
speaking  in  haste  of  his  burning  message,  pressing  on  without 
pause  or  rest  through  the  world  that  lay  in  wickedness — an  apos- 
tle responsible  to  no  man — a  messenger  of  the  Cross.  The  intense 
reality  natural  to  one  who  had  all  but  embraced  the  austere  mar- 
tyr vocation  in  his  own  person  gave  force  to  the  picture  he  drew. 


THE  SOCIETY  DISAPPOINTED.  147 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  it  was  foolishness  to  most  of  his 
hearers,  and  that,  after  the  fascination  of  his  eloquence  was  over, 
nine  tenths  of  them  would  recollect,  with  utter  wonder,  or  even 
with  possible  contempt,  that  wildest  visionary  conception.  But 
that  it  was  true  for  him,  nobody,  I  think,  who  has  followed  his 
course  thus  far  will  be  disposed  either  to  doubt  or  to  deny. 

The  wildest  hubbub  rose,  as  was  natural,  after  this  extraordi- 
nary utterance.  It  would  not  have  been  wonderful  if  the  irritated 
London  Society,  balked  at  once  of  its  triumph  and  the  advantage 
to  be  derived  from  a  wise  advocacy  of  its  cause,  had  set  down  this 
imlooked-for  address  as  a  direct  piece  of  antagonism  and  premed- 
itated injury.  I  am  not  aware  that  any  body  ever  did  so,  but  I 
allow  that  it  might  have  been  alleged  with  some  show  of  justice. 
To  judge  of  Irving's  course  on  this  occasion  by  mere  ordinary 
laws  of  human  action,  it  would  not  be  very  difficult  to  make  out 
that  somehow,  piqued  or  affronted  by  the  society,  or  at  least  dis- 
approving of  it  while  pretending  to  serve  it,  he  had  taken  oppor- 
tunity of  the  occasion,  and  clone  his  best  to  place  it  in  a  false  po- 
sition before  its  friends  and  supporters.  The  fact  was  as  different 
as  can  well  be  conceived.  Eesolute  to  give  them  of  his  best,  as 
he  himself  describes,  and  judging  the  "  reverend  and  pious  men" 
whom  he  was  about  to  address  as  free  to  follow  out  the  truth  as 
himself,  the  conscientious,  simple-minded  preacher  went  down  to 
the  depths  of  his  subject,  and,  all  forgetful  of  committees  and  rules 
of  "practical  usefulness,"  set  before  them  the  impossible  missiona- 
ry— the  man  not  trained  in  any  college  or  by  any  method  yet  in- 
vented— the  man  the  speaker  himself  could  and  would  have  been 
but  for  what  he  considered  the  interposition  of  Providence.  The 
amazed  and  doubtful  silence,  the  unwilling  fascination  with  which 
they  must  have  listened  through  these  inevitable  hours  to  that 
visionary  in  his  visionary  description,  watching  in  impatience  and 
helpless  indignation  while  the  wild  but  sublime  picture  of  a  man 
who  certainly  could  not  be  identified  among  their  own  excellent 
but  unsublime  messengers  rose  before  the  multitudinous  audience 
in  which,  a  little  while  before,  official  eyes  must  have  rejoiced 
over  a  host  of  new  subscribers,  all,  alas !  melting  away  under  the 
eloquence  of  this  splendid  Malaprop,  mo^j  be  easily  imagined. 
One  can  fancy  what  a  relief  the  end  of  this  discourse  must  have 
been  to  the  pent-up  wrath  and  dismay  of  the  missionary  commit- 
tee ;  and,  indeed,  it  is  impossible  not  to  sympathize  with  them  in 
their  unlooked-for  discomfiture. 


148  WRATH  OF  THE  RELIGIOUS  WORLD. 

In  the  mean  time,  preoccupied  and  lost  in  the  contemplation  of 
that  most  true,  yet  most  impossible  servant  of  God,  whom  he  had 
evoked  from  the  past  and  the  future  to  which  all  things  are  pos- 
sible, Irving,  all  unaware  of  the  commotion  he  had  caused,  went 
on  his  way,  not  dreaming  that  any  body  could  suppose  the  pres- 
ent machinery  and  economics  of  commonplace  missionary  work 
injured  by  that  high  vision  of  the  perfection  of  a  character  which 
has  been,  and  which  may  yet  be  again.  He  says  he  "  was  pre- 
pared to  resist  any  application  which  might  possibly  be  made  to 
me"  to  publish  his  sermon ;  an  entirely  unnecessary  precaution, 
since  the  complacency  of  the  London  Society  evidently  did  not 
carry  them  the  length  of  paying  the  preacher  of  so  unwelcome  an 
address  the  customary  compliment.  But  in  the  commotion  that 
followed — in  the  vexation  and  wrath  of  "the  religious  world," 
and  the  astonished  outcry  of  every  body  connected  with  missions, 
the  preacher,  not  less  astonished  than  themselves,  discovered  that 
his  doctrine  was  new,  and  unwelcome  to  the  reverend  and  pious 
men  for  whose  hearing  he  had  so  carefully  prepared  it.  When 
he  heard  his  high  conception  of  the  missionary  character  de- 
nounced as  an  ill-timed  rhetorical  display,  and  that  which  he  had 
devoutly  drawn  from  the  only  inspired  picture  of  such  messen- 
gers characterized  as  not  only  visionary  and  wild,  but  an  implied 
libel  upon  their  present  representatives,  his  sincere  heart  was 
roused  and  startled.  He  went  back  to  his  New  Testament,  the 
only  store  of  information  he  knew  of.  He  drew  forth  Paul  and 
Barnabas,  Peter  and  John,  first  missionaries,  apostles  sent  of  God. 
The  longer  he  pondered  over  them  the  more  his  picture  rose  and 
expanded.  "Was  not  the  errand  the  same,  the  promise  of  God  the 
same  ?  and  why  should  the  character  of  the  individual  be  so  dif- 
ferent ?  The  natural  result  followed :  confirmed  by  farther  ex- 
amination, and  strengthened  by  opposition,  the  sermon  enlarged, 
and  grew  into  an  appeal  to  the  world.  Pity,  always  one  of  the 
strongest  principles  in  his  soul,  came  in  to  quicken  his  action.  A 
missionary  in  Demerara,  who  had  apostolically  occupied  himself 
in  the  instruction  of  slaves,  had  been  arrested  by  an  arbitrary 
planter-legislation,  upon  some  outbreak  of  the  negroes,  on  the  false 
and  cruel  charge  of  having  incited  them  to  insurrection,  and  had 
been  actually,  by  Englishmen,  found  guilty,  and  sentenced  to 
death  in  consequence.  The  sentence  was  not  carried  out,  fortu- 
nately for  those  who  pronounced  it ;  but  the  unfortunate  mission- 
ary, already  ill,  and  savagely  incarcerated,  died  a  martyr  to  the 


PUBLICATION  OF  THE  DISCOUKSE.  I49 

cruelty  -whicli  had  not  yet  dared  to  bring  him  to  the  scaffold. 
The  case,  an  ugly  precedent  to  other  cases  in  another  countrj^, 
■\;vhich  we  find  ourselves  now  at  full  liberty  to  stigmatize  as  they 
deserve,  awoke  the  horror  and  compassion  of  England ;  and  when 
the  forlorn  widow  returned  home,  Irving,  eager  to  show  his  sym- 
pathy and  compassion,  and  finding  the  name  of  a  missionary  mar- 
tyr most  fit  to  be  connected  with  his  picture  of  the  missionary 
character,  came  once  more  before  the  world  with  the  obnoxious 
discourse,  which  his  first  hearers  had  not  asked  him  to  print. 

"  Being  unable  in  any  other  way,"  he  says,  "  to  testify  my  sense  of 
his  injuries,  and  my  feeling  of  the  duty  of  the  Christian  Church  to 
support  his  widow,  I  resolved  that  I  would  do  so  by  devoting  to  her 
use  this  fruit  of  my  heart  and  sjDirit.  Thus  moved,  I  gave  notice  that 
I  would  publish  the  discourse,  and  give  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  into 
her  hands.  When  again  I  came  to  meditate  upon  this  second  en- 
gagement which  I  had  come  under,  and  took  into  consideration  the 
novelty  of  the  doctrine  which  I  was  about  to  promulgate,  I  set  my- 
self to  examine  the  whole  subject  anew,  and  opened  my  ear  to  every 
objection  which  I  could  hear  from  any  quarter,  nothing  repelled  by 
the  uncharitable  constructions  and  ridiculous  account  which  was  oft- 
en rendered  of  my  views,  the  effect  of  which  was  to  convince  me  that 
the  doctrine  which  I  had  advanced  was  true,  but  of  so  novel  and  un- 
palatable a  character  that,  if  it  Avas  to  do  any  good,  or  even  to  live, 
it  must  be  brought  before  the  public  with  a  more  minute  investiga- 
tion of  the  Scriptures  and  fuller  development  of  reason  than  could  be 
contained  within  the  compass  of  a  single  discourse.  To  give  it  this 
more  convincing  and  more  living  form  was  the  occupation  of  my  lit- 
tle leisure  from  pastoral  and  ministerial  duties,  rendered  still  less  dur- 
ing the  summer  months  by  the  indifference  of  my  bodily  health  ;  and 
it  was  not  until  the  few  weeks  of  rest  and  recreation  which  I  enjoy- 
ed in  the  autumn  that  I  was  able  to  perceive  the  true  form  and  full 
extent  of  the  argument  which  is  necessary  to  make  good  my  jDosi- 
tion." 

As  this  is  the  first  point  upon  which  Irving  fairly  parted  com- 
pany with  his  evangelical  brethren,  and  exasperated  that  large, 
active,  and  influential  community  which,  as  he  somewhere  says, 
not  without  a  little  bitterness,  "  calls  itself  the  religious  world," 
and  as  it  discloses  with  singular  force  the  temper  and  constitution 
of  his  mind,  I  may  be  permitted  to  enter  into  it  more  fully  than 
one  of  his  shortest  and  least  complete  publications  might  seem 
to  deser\^.  He  himself  explains,  in  a  very  noble  and  elevated 
strain,  the  manner  in  which  he  was  led  to  consider  the  character 
of  the  Grospel  missionary.  He  was  present  at  one  of  the  great 
missionary  meetings  in  the  metropolis — those  meetings  with  which 
all  the  British  public  have  more  or  less  acquaintance,  and  which 


150  AN  EXETER  HALL  MEETING. 

collect  audiences  as  wealthy,  as  devout,  and  as  estimable  as  can  be 
found  any  where,  yet  which  are,  as  every  body  must  allow,  and 
as  many  uneasily  feel,  as  unlike  apostolical  conferences  as  can  well 
be  imagined.  In  such  an  assembly,  "  where  the  heads  and  lead- 
ers of  the  religious  world  were  present,"  a  speaker,  whose  name 
Irving  does  not  mention,  expressed  himself  amid  great  applause 
in  the  following  manner:  "If  I  were  asked  what  was  the  first 
qualification  for  a  missionary,  I  would  say.  Prudence ;  and  what 
the  second  ?  Prudence ;  and  what  the  third  ?  still  I  would  answer. 
Prudence."  The  effect  which  such  a  statement  was  like  to  have 
upon  one  listener,  at  least,  in  the  assembly,  may  well  be  imagined. 
Startled  and  disgusted,  he  went  away,  not  to  examine  into  the 
memoirs  of  missionaries  or  the  balance-sheets  of  societies,  but  into 
the  primitive  mission  and  its  regulations.  He  finds  that  faith,  and 
not  prudence,  is  the  apostolic  rule.  He  finds  that  religious  faith 
alone  has  the  prerogative  of  withstanding  "  this  evil  bent  of  pru- 
dence to  become  the  death  of  all  ideal  and  invisible  things,  wheth- 
er poetry,  sentiment,  heroism,  disinterestedness,  or  faith."  He 
finds  that  the  visionary  soul  of  good,  which  in  other  matters  is  op- 
posed to  and  conquered  by  the  real,  is  in  faith  alone  unconquer- 
able, the  essence  of  its  nature.  He  then  touches  upon  the  only 
particular  in  which  the  early  mission  differs  from  the  mission  in 
all  ages,  the  power  of  working  miracles,  and  asks  whether  the  lack 
of  this  faculty  makes  an  entire  change  of  method  and  procedure 
necessary  ?  With  lofty  indignation,  he  adds  the  conclusion  which 
has  been  arrived  at  by  the  religious  world : 

"  The  consistency  of  the  Christian  doctrine  with  everlasting  truth 
is  nothing ;  the  more  than  clnvalrous,  the  divine  intrepidity  and  dis- 
interestedness of  its  teachers  is  nothing ;  the  response  of  every  con- 
science to  the  word  of  the  preacher  is  nothing;  the  promise  of  God's 
Spirit  is  nothing;  it  is  all  to  be  resolved  by  the  visible  work,  the  out- 
ward show  of  a  miracle.  .  .  .  The  Gospel  owed  its  success  in 
the  first  ages  wholly  to  this, or  to  this  almost  wholly;  but  for  us,  we 
must  accommodate  ourselves  to  the  absence  of  these  supernatural 
means,  and  go  about  the  work  in  a  reasonable,  prudent  way,  if  we 
would  succeed  in  it;  calculate  it  as  the  merchant  does  an  adventure; 
set  it  forth  as  the  statesman  does  a  colony;  raise  the  Avays  and  means 
within  the  year,  and  expend  them  within  the  year ;  and  so  go  on  as 
long  as  we  can  get  our  accounts  to  balance." 

This  conclusion  the  preacher  then  sets  himself  to  overthrow  by 
propounding  the  character  of  the  "  missionary  after  the  apostolic 
school,"  which,  although  prefaced  by  due  acknowledgment  of 
"  the  high  and  seated  dignity  which  this  society  hath  attained  in 


DEDICATION  TO  COLERIDGE.  I5I 

tlie  judgment  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  the  weighty  and  well- 
earned  reputation  which'  it  hath  obtained,  not  in  Christendom 
alone,  but  over  the  widest  bounds  of  the  habitable  earth,"  was  in- 
disputably contrary  to  the  very  idea  of  missions,  as  held  and  car- 
ried on  by  such  societies.  Only  the  first  part  of  a  work,  intended 
to  be  completed  in  four  parts,  was  given  to  the  world,  the  mind 
of  the  preacher  being  more  deeply  engrossed  from  day  to  day  in 
that  laAv  of  God  which  was  his  meditation  day  and  night,  and  di- 
rected ever  to  new  unfolding  of  doctrine  and  instruction.  This 
publication  was  dedicated  to  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge  in  the  re- 
markable letter  which  follows : 

"My  deae  and  honored  Friend, — ^Unknown  as  you  are  in  the 
true  character  of  your  mind  or  your  heart  to  the  greater  part  of  your 
countrymen,  and  misrepresented  as  your  Avorks  have  been  by  those 
who  have  the  ear  of  the  vulgar,  it  Avill  seem  wonderful  to  many  that 
I  should  make  choice  of  you  from  the  circle  of  my  friends  to  dedicate 
to  you  these  beginnings  of  my  thoughts  upon  the  most  important 
subject  of  these  or  any  times ;  and  when  I  state  the  reason  to  be  that 
you  have  been  more  jirofitable  to  my  faith  in  orthodox  doctrine,  to 
my  spiritual  understanding  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  to  my  right 
conception  of  the  Christian  Church  than  any  or  all  the  men  with 
whom  I  have  entertained  friendship  or  conversation,  it  will,  perhaps, 
still  more  astonish  the  mind,  and  stagger  the  belief  of  those  who  have 
adopted,  as  once  I  did  myself,  the  misrepresentations  which  are  pur- 
chased for  a  hire  and  vended  for  a  price  concerning  your  character 
and  works.  ...  I  have  partaken  so  much  high  intellectual  en- 
joyment from  being  admitted  into  the  close  and  familiar  intercourse 
with  which  you  have  honored  me,  and  your  many  conversations  con- 
cerning the  revelations  of  the  Christian  faith  have  been  so  j^rotitable 
to  me  in  every  sense,  as  a  student  and  j^reacher  of  the  Gospel — as  a 
spiritual  man  and  a  Christian  pastor,  and  your  high  intelligence  and 
great  learning  have  at  all  times  so  kindly  stooped  to  my  ignorance 
and  inexperience,  that  not  merely  with  the  aifection  of  friend  to 
friend,  and  the  honor  due  from  youth  to  experienced  age,  but  with 
the  gratitude  of  a  disciple  to  a  wise  and  generous  teacher,  of  an  anx- 
ious inquirer  to  the  good  man  who  hath  helped  him  in  the  way  of 
truth,  I  do  presume  to  offer  you  the  first-fruits  of  my  mind  since  it 
received  a  new  impulse  toward  truth,  and  a  new  insight  into  its 
depths  from  listening  to  your  discourse.  Accept  them  in  good  part; 
and  be  assured  that,  however  insignificant  in  themselves,  they  are  the 
offering  of  a  heart  which  loves  your  heart,  and  of  a  mind  which  looks 
up  with  reverence  to  your  mind.  Edward  Irving." 

These  lavish  thanks,  bestowed  with  a  rash  prodigality,  which 
men  of  less  generous  and  effusive  temperament  could  never  be 
brought  to  understand,  were,  according  to  all  ordinary  rules  of 
reason,  profoundly  imprudent.     To  put  such  a  name  as  that  of 


152  EXPOSTULATORY  LETTER. 

Coleridge,*  under  any  circumstances,  on  a  work  whicli  its  author 
was  already  assured  would  be  examined  with  the  most  eager  and 
angry  jealousy,  and  in  which  a  great  many  of  his  religious  con- 
temporaries would  but  too  gladly  find  some  suspicious  tendency, 
was  of  itself  imprudent.  But  so,  I  fear,  was  the  man  to  whom  giv- 
ing of  thanks  and  rendering  of  acknowledgments  was  always  con- 
genial. It  was  not  in  his  nature  either  to  guard  himself  from  the 
suspicion  of  having  received  more  than  he  really  had  received,  or 
to  provide  against  the  danger  of  con/uecting  himself  openly  with 
all  whom  he  loved  or  honored. 

This  publication  was  received  with  shouts  of  angry  criticism 
from  all  sides,  and  called  forth  an  Expostulatory  Letter  from  Mr. 
"W.  Orme,  the  secretary  of  the  outraged  Missionary  Society.  This 
letter  is  exactly  such  a  letter  as  the  secretary  of  a  Missionary  So- 
ciety, suddenly  put  upon  its  defense,  would  be  likely  to  write, 
full  of  summary  applications  of  the  arrjumenium  ad  hominem,  and 
much  pious  indignation.  Between  the  preacher  and  his  assailant 
it  would  be  altogether  impossible  to  decide ;  they  were  concerned 
with  questions  in  reality  quite  distinct,  though  in  name  the  same ; 
the  one  regarding  the  matter  as  an  individual  man,  capable  of  all 
the  labor  and  self-denial  he  described,  might  reasonably  regard 
it;  the  other  looking  upon  it  with  the  troubled  eyes  of  a  society, 
whose  business  it  was  to  acquire,  and  train,  and  send  forth  such 
men,  and  which  had  neither  leisure  nor  inclination  to  consider 
any  thing  which  was  not  'practicable.  It  is  entirely  a  drawn  battle 
between  them;  nor  could  it  have  been  otherwise  had  a  champion 
equal  to  the  assailant  taken  the  field. 

But  the  religious  world  was  too  timid  to  perceive  the  matter 
in  this  light.  To  attack  its  methods  was  nothing  less  than  to  at- 
tack its  object ;  nor  would  it  permit  itself  to  see  differently ;  and 
a  man  who  acknowledged,  with  even  unnecessary  warmth  and 
frankness,  the  instruction  he  had  received  from  one  who  certainly 
was  not  an  authorized  guide  in  religious  matters,  and  who  prof- 

*  In  Leifch  Hunt's  correspondence,  published  since  the  above  was  ^\Tittcn,  occurs 
the  following  notice  of  this  dedication  in  a  letter  from  Charles  Lamb:  "  I  have  got 
acquainted  with  Mr.  Irving,  the  Scotch  preacher,  whose  fame  must  have  reached 
you.  Judge  how  his  own  sectarists  must  stare  when  I  tell  you  he  has  dedicated  a 
book  to  S.  T.  C,  acknowledging  to  have  learned  more  from  him  than  from  all  the 
men  he  ever  conversed  with.  He  is  a  most  amiable,  sincere,  modest  man  in  a  room, 
this  Boanerges  in  the  temple.  Mrs.  Montagu  told  him  the  dedication  would  do  him 
no  fjood:  'That  shall  be  a  reason  for  doing  it,'  was  his  answer."  The  kind  Elia 
adds,  "Judge,  now,  wliether  this  man  be  a  quack." 


THE  PKESBYTERIAN  ELDERSHIP.  I53 

fered  to  them  a  splendid  antique  ideal  instead  of  the  practicable 
modern  missionary,  became  a  man  suspect  and  dangerous ;  and 
the  coldness,  of  which  he  again  and  again  complains,  rose  an  in- 
visible barrier  between  the  fervent  preacher  and  the  reverend 
and  pious  men  to  whom,  in  all  simplicity  and  honest  endeavor  to 
lay  his  best  before  them,  he  had  offered  only  the  unusual  and 
startling  truths  which  they  could  not  receive. 

While  all  this  was  going  on  Irviug's  life  proceeded  in  the  same 
full  stream  of  undiminished  pojDularity  and  personal  labor.  Be- 
sides the  passing  crowds  which  honored  and  embarrassed  the 
chapel  in  Cross  Street,  its  congregation  had  legitimately  increased 
into  dimensions  which  the  pastor,  single-handed,  could  not  dream 
of  retaining  the  full  superintendence  of;  neither,  if  he  could  have 
done  it,  would  such  a  state  of  things  have  been  consistent  with 
Presbyterian  order.  He  seems  to  have  had  but  one  elder  to  yield 
him  the  aid  and  countenance  with  which  Presbyterianism  accom- 
panies its  ministers.  Accordingly,  from  the  summer  retirement 
at  Sydenham,  which  he  alludes  to  in  the  preface  to  his  mission- 
ary oration,  he  sent  the  following  letter,  an  exposition  of  the  ofl&ce 
to  which  he  invited  his  friend,  to  William  Hamilton : 

"  Sydenham,  22d  June,  1824. 
"Deae  Sir, — It  has  for  a  long  time  been  the  anxious  desire  and 
prayer,  and  the  subject  of  frequent  conversation  to  Mr.  Dinwiddle 
and  myself,  that  the  Lord  would  direct  us  in  the  selection  of  men 
from  among  the  congregation  to  fill  the  office  of  elders  among  us. 
....  And  now,  my  dear  brother,  I  write  to  lay  this  matter  before 
you,  that  you  may  cast  it  in  your  mind,  and  make  it  the  subject  of 
devout  meditation  and  prayer.  That  you  may  be  rightly  informed 
of  the  nature  of  this  office,  I  refer  you  to  Titus,  i.,  6 ;  1  Timothy,  v., 
1 7  ;  Acts,  XX,,  1 7  ;  and  that  you  may  farther  know  the  powers  with 
which  the  founders  of  our  Church  have  invested  this  office,  I  extract 
the  following  passage  from  the  second  book  of  Discipline,  drawn  up 
and  adopted  by  the  General  Assembly  for  the  regulation  of  the 
Church  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1590.     Book  2d,  chapter  vi.* 

*  The  quotation  is  as  follows:  ""V^Hiat  manner  of  persons  they  ought  to  be,  we 
refer  it  to  the  express  word,  and  mainly  to  the  canons  written  by  the  Apostle  Paul. 

"Their  office  is,  both  severally  and  conjointly,  to  watch  over  the  flock  committed 
to  their  care,  both  publicly  and  privately,  that  no  corruption  of  religion  or  manners 
enter  therein. 

"As  the  pastors  and  doctors  should  be  diligent  in  teaching  and  sowing  the  seed 
of  the  Word,  so  the  elders  should  be  careful  in  seeking  after  the  fruit  of  the  same  in 
the  people. 

"  It  appertains  to  them  to  assist  the  pastor  in  the  examination  of  them  that  come 
to  the  Lord's  table.     Item,  in  visiting  the  sick. 

"They  should  cause  the  Acts  of  the  Assemblies,  as  well  particular  as  general,  to 
be  put  in  execution  carefully. 


154  DUTIES  AND  PRIVILEGES  OF  A  PRESBYTER. 

"  And  now  we  pray  of  you,  our  clear  and  Avortby  brother,  to  join 
"with  us  and  help  us  in  the  duty  for  which  we  are  ourselves  unequal, 
of  administering  rightly  the  spiritual  aifairs  of  the  congregation. 
No  one  feels  himself  to  be  able  for  the  duties  of  a  Christian,  much 
less  of  the  overseer  of  Christians  ;  and  you  may  feel  unwilling  to  en- 
gage in  that  for  which  you  may  think  yourself  unworthy.  But  we 
pray  you  to  trust  in  the  Lord,  who  gi\'eth  grace  according  to  our 
desire  of  it,  and  perfects  his  strength  in  our  weakness.  If  you  re- 
fuse, we  know  not  which  way  to  look ;  for,  as  the  Lord  knoweth,  we 
have  fixed  ujjon  you  and  the  other  four  brethren  because  you  seem- 
ed to  us  the  most  worthy.  I,  as  your  pastor,  will  do  my  utmost  en- 
deavor to  instruct  you  in  the  duties  of  the  eldership.  I  shall  be 
ready  at  every  spiritual  call  to  go  and  minister  along  with  you ;  and, 
by  the  grace  of  God,  having  no  private  ends  known  to  me  but  the 
single  end  of  God's  glory  and  the  edification  of  the  people,  we  who 
are  at  present  of  the  session  will  join  with  you  hand  in  hand  in  ev- 
ery good  and  gracious  work 

"  If  you  feel  a  good  Avill  to  the  work — a  wish  to  j^rofit  and  make 
progress  in  your  holy  calling — and  a  desire  after  the  edification  of 
the  Church,  the  gifts  will  be  given  you,  and  the  graces  will  not  be 
withheld.  Therefore,  if  it  can  be  consistently  with  your  conscience 
and  judgment,  we  pray  you  and  entreat  you  to  accept  of  our  solicit- 
ation, and  to  allow  yourself  to  be  constrained  by  the  need  and  im- 
portunity of  the  Church  to  be  named  for  this  holy  office. 

"  On  Friday,  next  week,  I  shall  come  and  spend  the  evening  at 
your  house,  and  converse  with  you  on  this  matter;  meanwhile  ac- 
cept of  my  heartfelt  wishes  for  your  spiritual  welfare,  and  let  iis  re- 
joice together  in  the  work  Avhicli  the  Lord  is  working  in  the  midst 
of  us.  I  know  that  you  will  not  take  it  amiss  that  I  .have  used  the 
hand  of  my  wife  in  copying  off  this  letter — [up  to  this  point  the  let- 
ter had  been  in  Mrs.  Irving's  angular  feminine  handwriting,  but  here 
her  husband's  bolder  characters  strike  in] — who  is  well  worthy  of 
the  trust,  although  I  can  not  bring  her  to  think  or  write  so. 

"  I  am,  ray  dear  brother,  your  most  affectionate  pastor  and  friend, 

"  Edward  Irving." 

This  apostolical  rescript,  warmed  with  the  quaint  touch  of  do- 
mestic affection  at  the  end,  accomplished  its  purpose,  and  the  ex- 
cellent man  who  had  all  along  been  Irving's  referee  and  assistant 
in  every  thing  personal  to  himself,  his  friends,  and  charities,  be- 

"They  shonld  be  diligent  in  admonishing  all  men  of  their  duty  according  to  the 
rule  of  the  Evangel. 

"Things  that  they  can  not  correct  by  private  admonition  they  must  bring  to  the 
eldership. 

"  Their  principal  office  is  to  hold  assemblies  with  the  pastors  and  doctors  who  are 
also  of  their  number,  for  establishing  of  good  order  and  execution  of  discipline,  unto 
the  which  assemblies  all  persons  are  subject  that  remain  within  their  bounds." 

This  latter  is  the  formidable  institution  of  the  Kirk  Session,  which  bears  so  large 
a  part  in  Scottish  domestic  annals,  and  has  been  subject,  in  later  days,  to  so  much 
ignorant  invective. 


BIRTH  OF  LITTLE  EDWARD.  I55 

came  one  of  the  rulers  and  recognized  overseers  of  the  Church, 
which  henceforward  had,  like  other  Presbyterian  congregations, 
its  orthodox  session,  in  which  for  years  the  preacher  found  noth- 
ing but  fervent  sympathy,  appreciation,  and  assistance, 

A  little  farther  on  we  are  introduced  into  the  bosom  of  the 
modest  home  in  Pentonville,  where  domestic  life  and  its  events 
had  now  begun  to  expand  the  history  of  the  man.  The  swell  of 
personal  joy  with  which  the  following  letter  breaks  into  the  rec- 
ord of  outside  events  and  interests  will  charm  most  people  who 
haA^e  had  occasion  to  send  similar  announcements.  It  is  address- 
ed to  Dr.  Martin : 

"Pentonville,  22dJuly,  182-i. 

"  My  dear  Father, — Isabella  Avas  safely  delivered  of  a  boy  (whom 
may  the  Lord  bless)  at  half  past  eleven  this  forenoon,  and  is,  with  her 
child,  doing  well ;  and  the  grandmother,  aunt,  and  father  newly  con- 
stituted, with  the  mother,  arc  rejoicing  in  the  grace  and  goodness  of 
God. 

"Mrs.  Martin  and  Margaret  are  both  well,  and  salute  you  grand- 
father, wishing  with  all  our  hearts  that  you  may  never  lay  down  the 
name,  but  enjoy  it  while  you  live. 

"  I  am  Avell,  and  I  think  the  pleasure  of  the  Lord  is  prosjDering  in 
ray  hand.  A  wide  door  and  eft'ectual  is  ojDened  to  me,  and  the  Lord 
is  opening  my  own  eyes  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth.  Your  arrival 
and  our  great-grandfather's  (whom,  with  all  the  grand-aunts,  salute 
iu  our  name — I  know  not  what  they  owe  us  for  such  accumulated 
honors)  is  expected  with  much  anxiety.  I  feel  I  shall  be  much 
strengthened  by  your  presence. 

"  Your  dutiful  son,  Edavard  Irvixg." 

"This  child — child  of  a  love,  and  hope,  and  sorrow  not  to  be 
described ;  celebrated,  afterward,  as  j)oet's  child  has  rarely  been, 
by  such  sublimated  grief  and  pathetic  resignation  as  have  wept 
over  few  graves  so  infantine — was  afterward  baptized,  by  the  great- 
grandfather above  referred  to,  in  the  presence  of  the  two  interme- 
diate generations  of  his  blood.  The  child  was  called  Edward,  and 
was  to  his  father,  with  emphatic  and  touching  verity,  "  his  excel- 
lency and  the  beginning  of  his  strength."  The  little  tale  of  his 
existence  sent  echoes  through  all  the  strong  man's  life — echoes  so 
tender  and  full  of  such  heart-breaking  pathos  as  I  think  no  human 
sorrow  ever  surpassed.  In  the  mean  time,  however,  all  was  thank- 
fulness in  the  increased  household;  and  the  patriarchal  assemblage 
of  kindred,  father,  and  father's  father,  could  have  prophesied  noth- 
ing but  life  and  length  of  days  to  the  child  of  such  a  vigorous 
race. 

Along  with  all  the  public  and  domestic  occurrences  which  filled 


156  PERSONAL  CHARITIES. 

this  busy  life,  there  are  connected  such  links  of  charity  and  pri- 
vate beneficence  as  put  richer  and  idler  men  to  shame.  living's 
charity  was  not  alms,  but  that  primitive  kindness  of  the  open 
house  and  shared  meal  which  is  of  all  modes  of  charity  the  most 
difficult  and  the  most  delicate — a  kind  almost  unknown  to  our 
age  and  conventional  life.  To  illustrate  this,  we  may  quote  one 
tragical  episode,  unfortunately  more  common  among  Scotch  fami- 
lies, and,  indeed,  among  families  of  all  nations,  than  it  is  comforta- 
ble to  know  of:  A  young  man,  a  probationer  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  who  had  been  unsuccessful  in  getting  a  church,  or,  appar- 
ently, in  getting  any  employment,  had  turned  such  thoughts  as 
he  had  in  the  way  of  literature,  and  had  written  and  published, 
apparently  by  subscription,  a  Treatise  on  the  Sabbath,  Having  ex- 
hausted Edinburgh,  he  came  to  London  with  the  vain  hopes  that 
bring  all  adventurers  there.  He  seems  to  have  had  no  particular 
talent  or  quality  commending  him  to  the  hearts  of  men.  Into 
London  he  dropped  obscurely,  nobody  there  finding  any  thing  to 
respect  in  his  half-clerical  pretensions  or  unremarkable  book. 
He  went  to  see  Irving  occasionally,  and  was  observed  to  fall  into 
that  dismal  shabbiness  which  marks  the  failure  of  heart  and  hope 
in  men  born  to  better  things.  Irving  had  bought  his  book 
largely,  and  stimulated  others  to  do  the  same,  and  now  watched 
with  anxiety  the  failure  and  disappointment  which  he  could  not 
avert.  One  evening  a  man  appeared  at  his  house  with  a  note, 
which  he  insisted  upon  delivering  into  Irving's  own  hand.  The 
note  was  from  the  unfortunate  individual  whom  we  have  just 
described.  It  was  written  in  utter  despair  and  shame.  "The 
messenger  was  the  landlord  of  a  '  low  public  house,'  "  says  a  lady, 
a  relative  of  Irving's,  then  resident  in  his  house,  and  acquainted 

with  the  whole  melancholy  story,  "where  M had  been  for 

three  days  and  nights,  and  had  run  up  a  bill  which  he  had  no 
means  of  paying.  It  appeared  that  he  had  boasted  of  his  intima- 
cy with  Mr.  Irving,  and  the  man  had  offered  to  carry  a  note  from 
him  to  '  his  great  friend,'  who,  M declared,  would  at  once  re- 
lease him  from  such  a  trifling  embarrassment.  Edward  was  puz- 
zled what  to  do,  but  at  last  resolved  to  go  to  the  house,  pay  the 
bill,  and  bring  the  unfortunate  man  home.     He  went  accordingly, 

desiring  me  to  get  a  room  ready.     M was  very  glad  to  get 

his  bill  paid,  but  would  scarcely  leave  the  house  till  Edward  told 
him  he  would  free  him  only  on  condition  that  he  came  with  him 
at  once.     None  of  us  saw  him  for  a  day  or  two,  as  he  was,  or  pre- 


HOSPITALITY.  157 

tended  to  be,  so  overcome  ■with  shame  that  he  could  not  look  us  in 
the  face.  But  he  soon  got  over  this,  and  joined  the  family  party. 
Decent  clothes  were  obtained  for  him,  and  we  hoped  he  was  really 
striving  to  give  up  his  bad  habits."  This  continued  for  some 
time,  when,  "one  day,  he  went  out  after  dinner  and  did  not  re- 
turn. Two  or  three  days  passed,  and  no  account  could  we  obtain 
of  him.  At  last  another  note  was  brought,  written  in  the  same 
self-condemnatory  strain,  begging  for  forgiveness  and  assistance." 
There  is  little  need  for  following  out  the  sickening  story.  Every 
where  there  are  families  who  have  received  the  same  letters,  made 
the  same  searches,  heard  the  same  humiliating  confessions  and 
entreaties,  but  only  for  those  who  belong  to  them,  whom  nature 
makes  dear  amid  all  wretchedness,  to  whom  the  hearts  of  mothers 
and  sisters  cling,  and  in  whose  behalf  love  still  hopes  against 
hope,  are  such  cases  usually  undertaken.  To  do  it  all  for  a 
stranger — to  bring  the  half-conscious  wretch  into  a  virtuous  home, 
to  while  him  with  domestic  society  and  comfort,  to  seek  him  out 
again  and  again,  pay  debts  for  him,  find  emploj'^ments  for  him,  re- 
ceive his  melancholy  penitences,  and  encourage  what  superficial 
attempts  after  good  there  may  be  in  him,  is  a  charity  beyond  the 
powers  of  most  men.  In  rural  places,  here  and  there,  such  good 
Samaritans  may  be  found ;  but  what  man  in  London  ventures  to 
take  upon  himself  such  a  responsibility?  This  doleful  story 
throws  a  light  upon  the  private  economics  of  the  Pentonville 
house  which  I  should  be  sorry  to  lose. 

Those  who  were  in  more  innocent  need  were  received  with  still 
more  cordial  welcomes.  Friends  pondering  where  to  cast  their 
lot — people  meditating  a  change  of  residence,  and  desirous  of  see- 
ing how  the  land  lay,  found  a  little  mount  of  vision  in  the  house 
of  the  great  preacher  from  which  to  investigate  and  decide.  A 
stream  of  society  thus  flowed  by  him,  fluctuating  as  one  went  and 
another  came.  If  any  man  among  his  friends  was  seized  with 
the  thought  that  London  might  be  a  sphere  more  desirable  than 
Edinburgh  or  than  Annan,  such  a  person  bethought  him,  natural- 
ly, of  Edward  Irving  and  his  hospitable  house.  The  great  people 
who  sought  the  great  preacher  never  interfered  with  the  smaller 
people  who  sought  his  assistance  and  his  friendship ;  and  those 
who  had  no  possible  claim  upon  his  hospitality  got  at  least  his 
good  offices  and  kind  words. 

In  the  middle  of  the  summer,  just  two  years,  as  he  himself  tells 
us,  from  the  time  of  his  coming,  the  foundation  stone  of  his  new 


158  EVANGELICAL  JOURNEY. 

cliurch  was  laid.  It  was  planned  of  a  size  conformable  to  tlie 
reputation  of  tlie  preacher.  This  event  was  celebrated  by  Irving 
in  three  sermons — one  preached  before,  another  after,  and  the 
third  on  occasion  of  the  ceremony — in  which  last  he  takes  pains 
to  describe  the  discipline  and  practice  of  that  Church  of  Scotland 
which  stood  alwaj^s  highest  in  his  affections;  but,  at  the  same 
time,  speaks  of  the  building  about  to  be  erected  in  terms  more 
like  those  that  might  be  used  by  a  Jew  in  reference  to  his  temple, 
or  by  a  Catholic  of  his  holy  shrine,  than  by  Presbyterian  lips, 
which  acknowledge  no  consecration  of  place.  Doubtless  the  sub- 
limation which  every  thing  encountered  in  his  mind,  the  faculty 
he  had  of  raising  all  emotions  into  the  highest  regions,  and  of  cov- 
ering even  the  common  with  an  ideal  aspect  unknown  to  itself, 
may  have  raised  the  expressions  of  a  simple  sentiment  of  rever- 
ence into  this  consecrating  halo  w^hich  his  words  threw  around 
the  unbuilt  church ;  but  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  from  his 
very  outset  a  certain  priestly  instinct  was  in  the  man  who  bade 
"  Peace  be  to  this  house"  in  every  dwelling  he  entered,  and  who 
gave  his  benediction,  as  well  as  his  prayers,  like  a  primitive  pope 
or  bishop,  as  indeed  he  felt  himself  to  be. 

For  rest  and  recreation,  the  little  family,  leaving  London  in 
September,  paid  a  short  visit  to  the  paternal  houses  in  Scotland, 
and  then  returned  to  Dover,  where  they  remained  for  some  weeks, 
and  where  Irving,  never  idle,  entered  fully,  as  he  himself  relates, 
into  the  missionary  oration  of  which  we  have  already  spoken. 
At  a  later  period,  after  having  again  entered  into  harness,  in  the 
November  of  the  same  year,  he  visited  Birmingham,  Manchester, 
and  Liverpool  by  invitation,  in  order  to  stir  up  his  countrymen 
there  to  the  support  and  revival  of  the  Church  of  their  fathers, 
for  want  of  which  many  of  them  had  sunk  into  indifference,  or 
worse.  From  Birmingham,  where  he  opened  a  new  church  and 
preached  the  discourse  on  the  "  Curse  as  to  Bodily  Labor,"  which 
was  jDublished  some  time  afterward,  he  writes  to  his  wife : 

"Birmingham,  29th  or  rather  30th  November,  1824. 

"  My  dearest  Wife, — I  am   arrived  safe,  notwithstauding  your 

evil  auguries,  or  rather  suggestions,  of  doubt  and  unbelief,  which  the 

faith  of  God's  providence  can  alone  dissipate,  and  the  assurance  that 

I  am  about  our  Father's  business ;  and  I  have  found  a  liome  here  at 

the  house  of  Dr.  J ,  my  father's  adjoining  neighbor,  and  my  very 

warm  friend,  into  whose  heart  I  pray  the  Lord  I  may  sow  some  spir- 
itual seed  in  return  for  his  temporal  benefits,  for  as  yet  he  is  in  the 
darkness  of  Unitarianism.  Nevertheless,  they  have  family  prayers, 
at  which  I  this  night  presided ;  and  while  I  sought,  I  could  not  find 


LIVERPOOL.  X59 

to  avoid  in  my  prayers  the  matter  iu  dispute  between  ns,  but  was 
constrained,  as  it  were,  by  siiperior  poAver,  to  make  cordial  testimony 
to  our  risen  and  reigning  Lord,  our  Savior  and  our  God. 

"  I  have  seen  the  committee,  and  find  all  things  looking  prosper- 
ously. ....  Mr.  L has  had  so  much  distress  in  his  family  that  he 

was  content  I  should  come  here  and  not  to  him ;  but  I  go  to-morrow 

afternoon  to  weep  with  him  and  his  motherless  children.   Mrs.  L 

loved  you  to  the  end  with  a  strange  and  strong  love,  and  it  was  her 
greatest  earthly  desire  to  have  seen  you.  There  is  something  so  un- 
common in  this  that  it  seems  to  me  to  point  the  way  that  you  should 
love  her  children,  and  do  for  their  sakes  what  she  longed  to  do  for 
your  mother's   claild.    Therefore,  my  dear  Isabella,  do  write  Miss 

L ,  and  strengthen  her,  and  invite  her,  when  she  can  be  spared,  to 

come  and  spend  some  time  with  us Be  careful  of  yourself  and 

the  little  boy — the  dear,  dear  little  boy,  my  greatest  earthly  hope  and 
joy — for  you  are  not  another,  but  myself — my  better  and  dearer  half. 
I  pray  the  Lord  to  bless  you,  and  be  instead  of  a  friend,  and  husband, 
and  father  to  you  in  my  absence.  Let  not  your  backwardness  hinder 
you  from  family  prayers  night  and  morning. 

"  I  hope  I  shall  find  time  to  write  to  Margaret,  our  beloved  sister, 
to  whom  I  liave  much  that  is  affectionate  to  communicate,  and  some- 
thing that  may  be  instructive Forget  me  not  to  Mary,*  over 

whom  I  take  more  than  a  master's  authority,  feeling  for  her  all  the 
guardian.ship  of  a  parent,  which  she  may  be  pleased  to  permit  me  in. 

....  My  brotherly  and  j^astoral  love  to  the  elders  of  the  flock 

Say  to  Thomas,  the  moralist,  that  I  love  him  at  a  distance  as  much 
as  at  hand — I  think  sometimes  full  better,  as  they  say  in  Annandale. 
To  my  Isabella  I  say  all  in  one  word,  that  I  desire  and  seek  to  love 
her  as  Christ  loved  the  Church. 

"  Your  most  affectionate  husband,  Edward  Irving." 

Another  brief  letter  follows  from  Liverpool,  where  he  also 
preached  for  the  encouragement  and  strengthening  of  the  Scotch 
Church  already  in  existence  there.  It  is  naturally  to  his  wife  that 
his  letters  are  now  chiefly  addressed,  and  the  result  is,  as  will  be 
shortly  shown,  as  wonderful  a  revelation  of  heart  and  thoughts  as 
one  human  creature  ever  made  to  another.  By  this  time  the  nat- 
ural course  of  events  seems  to  have  withdrawn  him  in  a  great  de- 
gree from  regular  correspondence  with,  his  friends  in  Scotland — a 
change  which  his  marriage,  and  all  the  revolutions  whicli  had 
taken  place  in  his  life,  as  well  as  the  full  occupation  of  his  time, 
and  the  perpetually  increasing  calls  made  upon  it,  rendered  inev- 
itable. His  affections  were  unchanged,  but  it  was  no  longer  pos- 
sible to  keep  up  the  expression  of  them.  The  new  friends  who 
multiplied  around  him  were  of  a  kind  to  make  a  deep  impression 
upon  a  mind  whicli  was  influenced  more  or  less  by  all  whom  it 
held  in  high  regard.     "We  have  already  quoted  his  warm  expres- 

*  One  of  his  servants. 


160  "IN  GOD  HE  LIVED  AND  MOVED." 

sions  of  esteem  and  affection  for  Mr.  Basil  Montagu  and  his  wife. 
To  Coleridge  lie  had  also  owned  his  still  higher  obligations,  An- 
other friend,  whom  his  friends  consider  to  have  had  no  small  in- 
fluence on  Irving,  was  the  Rev.  W.  Yaughan,  of  Leicester,  an  Eng- 
lish clergyman,  who  is  supposed,  I  can  not  say  with  what  truth, 
to  have  been  mainly  instrumental  in  leading  him  to  some  views 
which  he  afterward  expressed.  His  distinguished  countryman, 
Carlyle,  referred  to  with  playful  affection  in  the  letter  we  have 
just  quoted,  not  then  resident  in  London,  was  his  occasional  guest 
and  close  friend.  Good  David  Wilkie,  and  his  biographer,  Allan 
Cunningham,^wer6  of  the  less  elevated  home  society,  which  again 
connected  itself  with  the  lowest  homely  levels  by  visitors  and  pe- 
titioners from  Glasgow  and  Annandale.  In  this  wide  circle  the 
preacher  moved  with  all  the  joyousness  of  his  nature,  never,  how- 
ever, leaving  it  possible  for  any  man  to  forget  that  his  special 
character  was  that  of  a  servant  of  God.  The  light  talk  then  in- 
dulged in  by  magazines  breaks  involuntarily  into  pathos  and  se- 
riousness in  the  allusions  made  in  Frazer''s  Magazine^  years  after, 
to  this  early  summer  of  his  career.  The  laughing  philosophers, 
over  their  wine,  grow  suddenly  grave  as  they  speak  of  the  one 
among  them  who  was  not  as  other  men:  "In  God  he  lived,  and 
moved,  and  had  his  being,"  says  this  witness,  impressed  from 
among  the  lighter  regions  of  life  and  literature  to  bear  testimony; 
"no  act  was  done  but  in  prayer;  every  blessing  was  received 
with  thanksgiving  to  God ;  every  friend  was  dismissed  with  a 
parting  benediction."  The  man  who  could  thus  make  his  char- 
acter apparent  to  the  wits  of  his  day  must  have  lived  a  life  une- 
quivocal and  not  to  be  mistaken. 

It  was  while  living  in  the  full  exercise  of  all  those  charities, 
happy  in  the  new  household  and  the  first-born  child,  that  he 
worked  at  the  missionary  oration,  the  history  of  which  I  have  al- 
ready told.  Apart  from  the  ordinary  comments  upon  and  won- 
derings  over  the  stream  of  fashion  which  still  flowed  toward  Hat- 
ton  Garden,  this  oration  was,  for  that  year,  the  only  visible  dis- 
turbing element  in  his  life. 


SOLICITED  TO  PliEACH  FOR  THE  CONTINENTAL  SOCIETY.    1(}1 


CHAPTER  X. 

1825. 

Irving's  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Prophecy. — The  Fascination  of  that  Study. — 
His  Conscientiousness  in  treating  his  Subjects. — Habits  of  Thought. — Sermon  to 
the  Continental  Society. — Babylon  and  Infidelity  Foredoomed. — Sermons  on  pub- 
lic Occasions. — Hibernian  Bible  Society. — An  Afternoon  among  the  Poor. — 
Irving's  "Way." — Invitation  to  remove  to  Edinburgh. — His  Answer. — His  Man- 
ner of  Life. — The  Paddington  Coach. — His  Letter  of  Welcome  to  his  Wife. — Ilis 
Feelings  in  respect  to  his  Call  to  Edinburgh. — Reasons  for  remaining  in  London. 
— Sermons  on  the  Trinity. — Opinions  in  respect  to  Miracles. — Sacrament  of  Bap- 
tism.— Original  Standards. — Baptismal  Regeneration. — Little  Edward's  Illness 
and  Death. — Sorrow  and  Consolation. — Irving's  Announcement  of  his  Child's 
Death. — Little  Edward's  Memory. — "A  glorious  Bud  of  Being." — Irving  visits 
the  sorrowful  in  Kirkcaldy. 

In  tlie  beginning  of  the  year  1825  —  a  year  forever  to  be  re-i 
membered  in  Edward  Irving's  life,  and  "wliicb,  indeed,  so  touch-t 
ing,  and  solemn,  and  pathetic  are  all  the  records  of  its  later  part  J 
I  could  almost  wish  contained  no  common  events,  but  only  the 
apotheosis  of  love  and  grief  accomplished  in  it — he  was,  notwith- 
standing the  sad  fiailure  and  discomfiture  of  the  London  Mission- 
ary Society  in  its  employment  of  his  services,  requested  to  preach 
for  the  Continental  Society  on  a  similar  occasion.     This  society 
was  held  up  and  maintained  from  its  commencement  by  the  nerv-> 
ous  strength  of  Henry  Drummond,  a  man  already  known  to  thel 
preacher,  over  whose  later  course  he  was  to  exercise  so  great  an 
influence.     Irving,  remembering  the  past,  was  slow  to  undertake 
this  new  commission,  becoming  aware,  I  do  not  doubt,  that  his 
thoughts  often  ran  in  channels  so  distinct  from  those  of  other 
men,  that  it  was  dangerous  to  be  chosen  as  the  mouthpiece  of  a 
large  and  varied  body.     He  consented  at  last,  however ;  and,  true 
to  his  unfailing  conscientious  desire  to  bring  out  of  the  depths  of 
Scripture  all  the  light  which  he  could  perceive  it  to  throw  upon 
the   subject  in  hand,  his  discourse  naturally  came  to  be  upon 
prophecy.     I  say  naturally,  because,  in  the  evangelization  of  the 
Continent,  all  the  mystic  impersonations  of  the  Apocalypse — the 
scarlet  woman  on  her  seven  hills,  the  ten-horned  beast,  all  the  pro- 
phetic personages  of  that  dread  undeveloped  drama  —  are  neces- 
sarily involved.     The  manner  in  which  Irving's  attention  had 

L 


162  IKVING'S  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  STUDY  OF  PROPHECY. 

been,  some  short  time  before,  specially  directed  to  tlie  study  of 
prophecy,  is,  however,  too  interesting  and  characteristic  to  be  pass- 
ed without  more  particular  notice.  Several  years  before,  Mr.  Hat- 
ley  Frere,  one  of  the  most  sedulous  of  those  prophetical  students 
who  were  beginning  to  make  themselves  known  here  and  there 
over  the  country,  had  propounded  a  new  scheme  of  interpretation, 
for  which,  up  to  this  time,  he  had  been  unable  to  secure  the  ear  of 
the  religious  public.  Not  less  confident  in  the  truth  of  his  scheme 
that  nobody  shared  his  belief  in  it,  Mr.  Frere  cherished  the  con- 
viction that  if  he  could  but  meet  some  man  of  candid  and  open 
mind,  of  popularity  sufiicient  to  gain  a  hearing,  to  whom  he  could 
privately  explain  and  open  up  his  system,  its  success  was  certain. 
When  Irving,  all  ingenuous  and  ready  to  be  taught,  was  sudden- 
ly brought  in  contact  with  him,  the  student  of  prophecy  identified 
him  by  an  instant  intuition.  "  Here  is  the  man !"  he  exclaimed 
to  himself;  and  with  all  the  eagerness  of  a  discoverer,  who  seeks 
a  voice  by  which  to  utter  what  he  has  found  out,  he  addressed 
himself  to  the  task  of  convincing  the  candid  and  generous  soul 
which  could  condemn  nothing  unheard.  He  disclosed  to  his  pa- 
tient hearer  all  those  details  to  which  the  public  ear  declined  to 
listen ;  and  the  result  was  that  Mr.  Frere  gained  a  disciple  and  ex- 
positor ;  and  that  an  influence  fatal  to  his  future  leisure,  and  of 
the  most  momentous  importance  to  his  future  destiny — which,  in- 
deed, it  is  impossible  now  to  disjoin  from  the  man,  or  to  consider 
his  life  or  character  apart  from  —  took  possession  of  Irving's 
thoughts.  This  new  subject  naturally  connected  itself  with  that 
conviction  of  an  approaching  crisis  in  the  fate  of  the  world,  not 
mild  conversion,  but  tragic  and  solemn  winding  up  and  settle- 
ment, which  he  is  said  to  have  derived  from  Coleridge.  Hence- 
forward the  gorgeous  and  cloudy  vistas  of  the  Apocalypse  became 
a  legible  chart  of  the  future  to  his  fervent  eyes. 

The  fascination  of  that  study,  always  so  engrossing  and  attract- 
ive, seized  upon  him  fully ;  and  when  it  came  to  be  his  business 
to  consider  the  truths  best  adapted  for  the  instruction  and  encour- 
agement of  a  body  of  Christian  men  laboring  on  behalf  of  that 
old  Koman  world  which  has  long  been  the  heart  and  centre  of 
the  earth,  his  mind  passed  at  once  into  those  solemn  and  myste- 
rious adumbrations  of  Providence  in  which  he  and  many  other 
Christian  men  have  believed  themselves  able  to  trace  the  very 
spot,  between  what  was  fulfilled  and  what  was  unfulfilled,  in 
which  they  themselves  stood.     Could  such  a  standing-ground  be 


HIS  CONSCIENTIOUSNESS  IN  TREATING  HIS  SUBJECTS.     Igg 

certainly  obtained,  who  can  doubt  that  here  is  indeed  the  guid- 
ance of  all  others  for  any  effort  of  evangelization  ?  Irving  had 
no  doubt  upon  the  subject.  To  him  the  record  was  distinct,  the 
past  apparent,  the  future  to  be  reverently  but  clearly  understood. 
Superficial  pious  addresses  were  impossible  to  a  man  who  went 
into  every  thing  with  his  whole  heart  and  soul.  His  Bible  was 
not  to  him  the  foundation  from  which  theology  was  to  be  proved, 
but  a  Divine  word,  instinct  with  meaning  never  to  be  exhausted, 
and  from  which  light  and  guidance — not  vague,  but  particular — 
could  be  brought  for  every  need.  And  the  weight  of  his  "  call- 
ing" to  instruct  was  never  absent  from  his  mind.  To  the  mission- 
aries, accordingly,  he  brought  forth  the  picture  of  an  apostle,  and 
opened  before  the  eyes  of  those  who  aimed  at  a  re-evangelization 
of  old  Christendom  a  cloudy  but  splendid  panorama  of  the  fate 
which  was  about  to  overtake  the  sphere  of  their  operations,  and 
all  the  mysterious  agencies,  half  discerned  in  actual  presence,  and 
clearly  indicated  in  Scripture,  which  were  before  them  in  that  dif- 
ficult and  momentous  field.  In  a  man  distinguished  as  an  orator, 
this  tendency  to  avoid  the  superficial,  and  go  to  "the  very  heart, 
as  he  understood  it,  of  his  subject,  was  neither  expected  nor  rec- 
ognized by  the  ordinary  crowd.  In  this  same  spring  of  1825,  in 
which  he  preached  his  prophetical  discourse  for  the  instruction 
of  a  society  engaged  upon  the  Continent — on  the  very  ground 
where  prophecy,, according  to  his  interpretation,  was  to  be  fulfill- 
ed— he  also  preached  for  the  Highland  School  Society ;  a  subject 
which  might  have  been  supposed  very  congenial  to  his  heart,  and 
in  which  I  have  no  doubt  his  audience  looked  for  such  glowing 
pictures  of  Highland  glens  and  mountains,  of  primitive  faith  and 
picturesque  godliness,  the  romance  of  religion,  as  pious  orators, 
glad  of  so  fluent  a  topic  of  declamation,  have  made  customary  on 
such  occasions.  The  orator  took  no  such  easy  and  beaten  track. 
He  entered  into  the  subject  of  education  with  all  the  conscien- 
tiousness of  his  nature,  setting  it  forth  fully  in  a  manner  which, 
whatever  may  be  the  inevitable  expediencies  to  which  modern 
civilization  is  driven,  must  command  the  respect  and  admiration 
of  every  body  who  has  ever  thought  upon  the  subject.  I  am 
anxious  to  point  out  this  peculiarity,  because  I  do  not  think  it  is 
one  for  which  Irving,  all  oratorical  and  declamatory  as  he  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been,  gets  the  honor  he  deserves.  It  is  not  my 
part  to  decide  upon  the  right  or  wrong  of  his  views,  especially  on 
such  a  subject  as  that  of  prophecy ;  I  am  only  anxious  to  indicate 


164  SERMON  TO  THE  CONTINENTAL  SOCIETY. 

fully  a  habit  of  his  mind,  which  the  correspondence  shortly  to  be 
given  will  illustrate  more  fully  than  any  thing  else  can  do.  When 
any  subject  was  presented  to  him,  his  mind  immediately  carried 
it  away  out  of  the  every  day  atmosphere  into  a  world  of  thought 
and  ideal  truth,  where  practicabilities,  much  more  expediencies, 
did  not  enter ;  interrogated  it  closely  to  get  at  its  heart ;  expound- 
ed it  so  from  the  depths,  from  the  heights,  from  the  unseen  soul 
of  the  matter,  that  people,  accustomed  to  look  at  it  only  from  the 
outside,  stood  by  aghast,  and  did  not  know  the  familiar  doctrine 
which  they  themselves  had  put  into  his  hands.  This  will  be 
found  the  case  in  almost  every  thing  he  touches.  No  sooner  does 
he  apply  himself  to  the  special  consideration  of  any  point  than  all 
its  hidden,  spiritual  meanings  come  gleaming  upon  his  mind.  He 
goes  about  his  daily  business  always  attended  by  this  radiant 
track  of  meditation,  pondering  in  his  heart  through  the  streets 
and  squares,  among  the  fields,  by  the  way.  By  close,  secret 
dwelling  upon  it,  the  ideal  soul  contained  in  any  intellectual  truth 
gradually  warms  and  glows  into  regions  ineffable  before  his  eyes. 
Men  enough  there  are  in  all  times — in  our  time,  perhaps,  too  -manj 
— who  can  expound  the  practicable.  Irving's  vocation  was  of  a 
totally  different  nature:  it  was  his  to  restore  to  the  enterprises 
and  doctrines  of  universal  Christianity — without  consideration  of 
what  was  practicable  or  how  it  could  be  realized — the  Divine 
soul,  which  use  and  familiarity  perpetually  obscure. 

His  discourse  to  the  Continental  Society,  though  it  did  not 
raise  such  a  commotion  as  the  missionary  oration,  was  still  far 
from  palatable  to  some  of*his  hearers.  "  Several  of  the  leading 
members  of  the  committee,"  we  are  told,  "had  neither  Christian 
patience  nor  decorum  enough  to  hear  the  preacher  out,  but  ab- 
ruptly left  the  place;"  and,  from  the  comments  that  followed,  Ir- 
ving was  soon  brought  to  understand  that  he  had  been  misappre- 
hended, and  that  political  meanings,  of  which  he  was  innocent,  had 
been  suspected  in  his  sermon.  Catholic  Emancipation  was  then 
one  of  the  questions  of  the  day ;  and  the  advocates  of  both  sides 
suspected  him,  oddly  enough,  of  having  supported  their  several 
views  of  the  matter.  At  the  same  time,  his  heart  had  gone  into 
the  task;  he  had  found  in  prophetical  interpretation  a  study 
which  charmed  him  deeply,  and  had  found  himself  drawn,  as  was 
natural,  into  a  closer,  exclusive  fellowship  with  those  who  pur- 
sued the  same  study  and  adopted  the  same  views.  Urged  by  his 
brother-students  of  prophecy,  and  inclined  of  himself  to  give  forth 


BABYLON  AND  INFIDELITY  FOREDOOMED.  IQ^ 

those  investigations  in  wliich  he  had  himself  been  comforted  to 
the  world,  he  devoted  his  leisure  during  the  year  to  amplifying 
and  filling  out  the  germ  which  had  been  in  his  discourse.  "  Thus 
it  came  to  pass,"  he  says  in  the  preface,  "  that  to  clear  myself  from 
being  a  political  partisan  in  a  ministerial  garb,  and  to  gratify  the 
desires  of  these  servants  of  Christ,  I  set  forth  this  publication,  on 
which  I  pray  the  blessing  of  God  to  rest." 

He  entitled  the  book  Babylon  and  Infidelity  Foredoomed^  and 
dedicated  it,  with  his  usual  magnanimous  acknowledgment  of  in- 
debtedness, to  the  gentleman  who  had  first  directed  his  thoughts 
to  the  subject. 

"  To  my  beloved  friend  and  brother  in  Christ,  Hatley  Fkeee, 
Esq. : 
"  When  I  first  met  you,  worthy  sir,  in  a  company  of  friends,  and 
moved,  I  know  not  by  Avhat,  asked  you  to  Avalk  forth  into  the  fields 
that  we  might  commune  together,  while  the  rest  enjoyed  their  social 
converse,  you  seemed  to  me  as  one  who  dreamed,  while  you  opened 
in  ray  ear  your  views  of  the  present  time,  as  foretold  in  the  Book  of 
Daniel  and  the  Apocalypse.  But,  being  ashamed  of  my  own  igno- 
rance, and  having  been  blessed  from  my  youth  with  the  desire  of  in- 
struction, I  dared  not  scoff"  at  Avhat  I  heard,  but  resolved  to  consider 
the  matter.  More  than  a  year  passed  before  it  pleased  Providence 
to  bring  us  together  again,  at  the  house  of  the  same  dear  friend  and 
brother  in  the  Lord,  when  you  answered  so  sweetly  and  temperately 
the  objections  made  to  your  views,  that  I  was  more  and  more  struck 
with  the  outward  tokens  of  a  believer  in  truth ;  and  I  was  again 
ashanaed  at  my  own  ignorance,  and  again  resolved  to  consider  the 
matter ;  after  which  I  had  no  rest  in  my  spirit  until  I  waited  upon 
you  and  offered  myself  as  your  pupil,  to  be  instructed  in  prophecy 
according  to  your  ideas  thereof;  and  for  the  ready  good-will  with 
which  you  undertook,  and  the  patience  with  which  you  performed 
this  kind  office,  I  am  forever  beholden  to  you,  most  dear  and  worthy 
friend.  .  .  .  For  I  am  not  willing  that  any  one  should  account  of  me 
as  if  I  were  worthy  to  have  had  revealed  to  me  the  imjDortant  truths 
contained  in  this  discourse,  which  may  all  be  found  written  in  your 
'  Treatise  on  the  Prophecies  of  Daniel ;'  only  the  Lord  accounted  me 
worthy  to  receive  the  faith  of  these  things  which  He  first  made 
known  to  you,  His  more  Avorthy  servant.  And  if  He  make  me  the 
instrument  of  conveying  that  faith  to  any  of  His  Church,  that  they 
may  make  themselves  ready  for  His  coming,  or  to  any  of  the  world, 
that  they  may  take  refuge  in  the  ark  of  His  salvation  from  the  deluge 
of  Avrath  which  abideth  the  impenitent,  to  His  name  shall  all  the 
praise  and  glory  be  ascribed  by  me,  His  unworthy  servant,  who, 
through  mercy,  dareth  to  subscribe  himself  your  brother  in  the  bond 
of  the  Spirit,  and  the  desire  of  the  Lord's  coming, 

"Edward  Irving." 

This  opening  season  of  '25  seems  to  have  brought  a  large  share 


166  SERMONS  ON  PUBLIC  OCCASIONS. 

of  public  occupation  to  the  preaclier,  whose  unbounded  popularity 
attracted  a  crowded  audience  around  him  at  his  every  appearance. 
Another  careful  and  weighty  discourse  upon  the  condition  of  Ire- 
land— not,  perhaps,  specially  adapted  to  a  moment  when  much  of 
the  generous  feeling  of  the  country  had  been  roused,  in  the  dis- 
cussions upon  Catholic  Emancipation,  to  take  the  part  of  that  por- 
tion of  our  countrymen  who  lay  under  disabilities  so  grievous, 
but  full  of  truth,  which  experience  has  proved — was  preached  at 
the  instance  of  the  Hibernian  Society.  He  is  also  recorded  to 
have  made  a  striking  and  very  characteristic  appearance  at  a  meet- 
ing of  the  same  society  not  long  before.  The  power  of  agitation 
in  that  period,  so  much  more  strongly  political  than  this,  was  at  its 
height ;  and  that  wonderful  and  crafty  leader,  who  won  the  Cath- 
olic battle  almost  single-handed,  and  ruled  his  island  for  a  life- 
time with  autocratic  sway,  already  threw  his  shadow  even  upon 
such  an  institution  as  the  Irish  Bible  Society.  Stanch  Orange- 
men on  their  native  soil  would  undoubtedly  have  defied  such  an 
influence  with  double  pertinacity  and  zeal,  but  metropolitan  meek- 
ness counseled  otherwise.  An  English  clergyman  of  high  stand- 
ing and  well-known  character  called  for  Irving  to  drive  him  to 
the  meeting  which  was  to  be  held  under  these  circumstances,  and 
made  a  cautious  attempt  to  tutor  the  uncompromising  orator. 
"  Take  us  to  one  of  your  Highland  glens,"  said  the  well-meaning 
peacemaker,  "  and  give  us  a  picture  of  the  simplicity  and  holiness 
of  life  there  produced  by  the  study  of  the  Word."  Irving,  who 
had  not  adopted  that  natural  and  easy,  superficial  way  of  pleading 
the  cause  of  his  own  countrymen,  asked  with  some  astonishment 
why  his  subject  was  to  be  thus  prescribed  to  him.  The  answer 
was  one  of  all  others  least  likely  to  tame  the  habitual  fervor  and 
openness  of  the  Scotch  preacher.  Some  of  O'Connell's  followers 
were  to  be  present  at  the  meeting,  as  a  check  upon  overbold  crit- 
icism, and  it  had  been  decided  that  nothing  was  to  be  said  which 
could  provoke  the  interference  of  these  self-appointed  moderators. 
It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that  Irving  altogether  repudiated  this  ar- 
rangement, and  came  under  no  engagement  to  make  the  innocent 
pastoral  address,  meaning  nothing,  which  was  suggested  to  him. 
The  meeting  was  very  noisy  and  much  disturbed,  as  had  been  ex- 
pected. One  of  the  speakers,  a  Mr.  Pope,  who  had  come  from  Ire- 
land warmly  indignant  at  the  petty  priestly  artifices  by  which  the 
circulation  of  the  Bible  was  hindered,  was  so  often  interrupted 
that  at  length  the  chairman,  giving  way  to  the  violence  of  the  un- 


AN  AFTERNOON  AMONG  THE  POOR.  167 

welcome  visitors,  added  his  authority  to  the  outcries,  and  requested 
the  speaker  to  sit  down.  This  silenced  witness  was  followed  by 
other  speakers  more  complacent,  who  amused  the  audience  with 
sentiment  and  mild  description,  such  as  had  been  vainly  solicited 
from  Irving.  When  hia  time  came,  as  one  of  his  auditors  relates, 
he  advanced,  in  all  the  strength  of  his  imposing  height  and  de- 
meanor, to  the  front  of  the  platform,  and  "  lifting  up  a  heavy  stick 
which  he  carried,  struck  it  on  the  floor  to  give  additional  empha- 
sis to  his  words.  *  I  have  been  put  to  shame  this  day,'  said  the 
indignant  orator ;  '  I  have  had  to  sit  still  and  see  a  servant  of  God 
put  down  in  a  so-called  Christian  assembly  for  speaking  the  sim- 
ple truth.  Ichabod  !  Ichabod  !  the  glory  is  departed  !'  "  The 
speech  that  followed  this  bold  beginning  was  not  interrupted  ; 
and,  when  the  meeting  was  over,  the  orator  was  surrounded  by  a 
crowd  of  excited  and  applauding  hearers,  showering  thanks  and 
congratulations  upon  him. 

From  this  scene  another  witness  leads  us  to  one  very  different 
and  more  congenial  to  the  most  human-hearted  of  men.  An  ac- 
count of  "an  afternoon  spent  in  his  society  among  the  poor  of 
London,"  which  appeared  some  years  since  in  the  j)ages  of  the 
Free  Church  Magazine^  gives  a  quaint  picture  at  once  of  the  disa- 
bilities and  mistakes  of  ordinary  visitors  of  the  poor,  and  of  Ir- 
ving's  entire  capacity  for  that  noble'  and  difficult  ofifi.ce.  Some 
ladies  in  the  city  had  established  an  infant  school  in  the  district 
of  Billingsgate,  and  finding  themselves  quite  unsuccessful  in  per- 
suading the  people  to  send  their  children  to  it,  applied  to  Irving 
to  help  them.  He,  at  the  height  of  his  splendid  reputation,  whom 
critics  had  assailed  with  accusations  of  indifference  to  the  poor, 
immediately  consented  to  give  his  aid  in  this  humble  mission. 
He  went  with  them,  accordingly,  through  the  district.  In  the 
first  house  he  left  the  explanation  of  their  errand  to  his  female  cli- 
ents, and  speedily  discovered  the  mistake  these  good  people  made. 
The  scene  is  full  of  comic  elements,  and  one  can  scarcely  refrain 
from  imagining  the  appearance  that  such  a  group  must  have  pre- 
sented: the  city  ladies,  important  in  their  mission,  impressing  upon 
the  hesitating,  half-affronted  mother,  into  whose  room  they  had 
made  their  way,  all  the  charitable  advantages  which  they  had  or- 
dained for  her  children,  and  the  great  figure  of  the  preacher  stand- 
ing by,  letting  them  have  their  own  way,  doubtless  not  without 
amusement  in  his  compassionate  eyes.  When  they  came  to  the 
second  house,  he  took  the  office  of  spokesman  upon  himself. 


168  IRVING'S  "WAY." 

"  When  the  door  was  opened,  he  spoke  in  the  kindest  tone  to  the 
woman  who  opened  it,  and  asked  permission  to  go  in.  He  then 
explained  the  intention  of  the  ladies,  asked  how  many  children 
she  had,  and  whether  she  would  send  them.  A  ready  consent 
was  the  result ;  and  the  mother's  heart  was  completely  won  when 
the  visitor  took  one  of  her  little  ones  on  his  knee,  and  blessed 
her."  The  city  ladies  were  confounded.  They  had  honestly  in- 
tended to  benefit  the  poor,  very,  very  distantly  related  to  them  by 
way  of  Adam  and  the  forgotten  patriarchs,  but  the  cheerful  broth- 
erhood of  the  man  who  had  blessed  the  bread  of  the  starving 
Glasgow  weavers  was  as  strange  to  them  as  if  he  had  spoken  He- 
brew instead  of  English.  "  Why,  Mr.  Irving,"  exclaimed  one  of 
the  ladies  when  they  got  to  the  street,  "you  spoke  to  that  woman 
as  if  she  were  doing  you  a  favor,  and  not  you  conferring  one  on 
her  !  How  could  you  speak  so  ?  and  how  could  you  take  up  that 
child  on  your  knee?"  "The  woman,"  he  replied,  "does  not  as 
yet  know  the  advantages  which  her  children  will  derive  from 
your  school ;  by-and-by  she  will  know  them,  and  own  her  obli- 
gations to  you ;  and  in  so  speaking  and  in  blessing  her  child  I  do 
but  follow  the  example  of  our  Lord,  who  blessed  the  little  ones, 
the  lambs  of  his  flock."  In  another  house  the  children  had  beau- 
tiful hair,  which  the  benevolent  visitors,  intent  on  doing  good  after 
their  own  fashion,  insisted  on  having  cut  short  as  a  preliminary 
of  admission.  The  great  preacher  lifted  the  pretty  curls  in  his 
hand  and  pleaded  for  them,  but  in  vain.  When  they  were  denied 
admission  at  one  house,  he  left  his  benediction  to  the  unseen  peo- 
ple within,  and  passed  on.  ■  On  the  whole,  his  companions  did  not 
know  what  to  make  of  him.  Irving's  fashion  of  visiting  "  the 
poor"  was  unknown  in  Billingsgate. 

Such  a  junction  and  contrast  of  duties  throws  a  singular  light 
upon  his  full  and  various  life. 

In  the  early  summer,  a  deputation  from  Scotland  in  the  persons 
of  two  gentlemen,  henceforward  to  be  numbered  among  his  warm- 
est and  closest  friends,  Mr.  James  Bridges  and  Mr.  Matthew  Nor- 
man Macdonald,  two  Edinburgh  lawyers,  of  influence  and  weight 
in  the  Church,  came,  on  a  mission  of  inquiry,  to  ascertain,  appar- 
ently, whether  the  much-distinguished  preacher  was  equally  zeal- 
ous in  the  performance  of  his  pastoral  duties,  whether  he  was 
worthy  of  the  honor  of  being  called  to  a  church  in  Edinburgh, 
and  whether  he  would  be  disposed  to  accept  such  an  invitation. 
Irving's  determination,  lauded  by  Dr.  Chalmers,  of  not  suffering 


REPLY  TO  AN  APPLICATION  TO  REMOVE  TO  EDINBURGH.     169 

his  hours  of  study  to  be  interrupted  by  visitors,  kept  these  gen- 
tlemen wandering  about  the  unsuggestive  streets  of  Pentonville 
till  after  two  o'clock,  when  he  received  visitors.  The  inquirers 
returned  not  only  satisfied,  but  delighted,  and  stimulated  the 
church  which  had  sent  them  out  as  laudable  spies,  to  discover, 
not  the  nakedness,  but  the  wealth  and  vigor  of  the  land,  to  send 
another  deputation,  expressly  asking  Mr.  Irving  to  become  their 
minister.  His  reply  to  this  application  I  have  been  favored  with 
by  Dr.  Douglas  Maclagan,  in  whose  possession  the  letter  now  is : 

"  My  beloved  Bketheen"  in  the  Gospel  of  Christ, — I  rejoice  to 
have  received  by  your  hands  and  from  your  lips  the  assurance  that 
such  a  grave  and  spiritual  body  of  Christians  as  the  eldership  of  St. 
Cuthbert's,  Edinburgh,  have  judged  me  a  fit  person  to  be  presented 
to  the  people  of  Hope  Place  Chapel  as  one  worthy  to  exercise  the 
minsitry  of  Avord  and  sacrament  over  them,  if  they  should  see  it  good 
and  profitable  to  call  me,  the  more  when  I  consider  the  character  and 
gifts  of  my  dear  friend  and  brother  in  the  ministry,*  who  has  been 

called  from  among  them  to  labor  elsewhere All  that  has  been 

said  on  both  sides  has  sunk  deep  into  my  mind,  and  I  have  sought 
grace  to  enable  me  to  come  to  a  wise  and  righteous  determination ; 
and,  after  mxich  thought  and  anxiety,  I  have  expressed  the  state  of 
my  feelings  toward  both  sides  in  a  letter  to  my  session  and  peoj^le, 
of  which  there  is  inclosed  an  exact  copy. 

"You  will  perceive  from  that  letter  by  what  strong  and  enduring 
ties  I  am  drawn  toward  my  native  country  and  my  beloved  Church, 
and  by  what  present  stronger,  though  not  so  enduring,  ties  I  am  held 
here.  I  have  no  doubt  the  time  is  coming  when  the  Spii'it  will  press 
me  to  declare  in  the  ear  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  that  truth  which 
I  am  bound  at  present  to  deliver  here,  until  I  shall  liave  finished  the 
burden  of  it.  When  that  time  comes,  you  will  find  me  in  the  midst 
of  you ;  or,  if  any  emergency  should  occur  before  that  time  to  hasten 
my  resolution,  it  is,  I  think,  to  my  own  country,  and  to  the  chief  city 
of  it,  that  I  will  present  myself 

"  You  have  been  faithful  to  your  trust,  and  are  worthy  to  be  the 
messengers  of  such  a  spiritual  body.  The  Lord  conduct  you  on  your 
way  to  your  home,  and  bring  you  in  peace  to  your  oflice  in  His 
Church  !  And  be  assured  of  the  communion  and  felloAvship  of  your 
brother  in  the  Gospel  and  in  the  Eldership,        Edw^aed  iRAaisra." 

A  word  or  two  as  to  the  most  modest  and  primitive  life  led  by 
the  subject  of  our  memoir  will  not  be  out  of  place  here.  I  give  it 
on  the  authority  of  one  of  his  nearest  relatives,  a  lady,  who  fre- 
quently lived  in  his  house :  "  Mr.  Irving's  rule  was  to  see  any  of 
his  friends  who  wished  to  visit  him  without  ceremony  at  break- 
fast. Eight  o'clock  was  the  hour.  Family  worship  first,  and  then 
breakfast.     At  ten  he  rose,  bade  every  one  good-by,  and  retired 

*  The  Rev.  Dr.  Gordon. 


+- 


170  MANNER  OF  LIFE.— THE  PADDINGTON  COACH. 

to  his  study.  He  gave  no  audience  again  till  after  three.  Two 
o'clock  was  the  dinner  hour ;  and,  after  that,  should  no  one  come 
to  prevent  him,  he  generally  walked  out,  Mrs.  Irving  accompany- 
ing him ;  and,  until  the  baby  took  hooping-cough,  Mr.  Irving  al- 
most always  carried  him  in  his  arms.  Some  people  laughed  at 
this,  but  that  he  did  not  care  for  in  the  very  least."  To  see  the 
great  preacher,  admired  and  flattered  by  the  highest  personages 
in  the  kingdom,  marching  along  the  Pentonville  streets  with  his 
baby,  must  have  been  a  spectacle  to  make  ordinary  men  open 
their  eyes.  An  amusing  personal  anecdote,  belonging  to  a  similar 
period,  comes  from  the  same  authority.  His  indifference  to  money 
has  been  visible  with  sufl&cient  distinctness  throughout  his  life; 
but,  after  his  marriage,  according  to  a  primitive  habit  most  worthy 
of  imitation,  he  committed  the  charge  of  his  finances  entirely  to 
the  prudence  of  his  wife,  and  carried  sometimes  only  the  smallest 
of  coins,  sometimes  nothing  at  all,  in  his  own  private  purse.  This 
habit  sometimes  brought  him  into  situations  of  amusing  embar- 
rassment. On  one  occasion  he  had  left  home  to  visit  a  member 
of  his  congregation  somewhere  on  the  line  of  the  New  Road ;  but, 
finding  himself  late,  took,  without  considering  the  state  of  his  pock- 
et, the  Paddington  coach^  omnibuses  having  not  yet  come  into  fash- 
ion. As  soon  as  the  vehicle  was  on  its  way,  the  unlucky  passen- 
ger recollected  that  he  was  penniless.  His  dismay  at  the  thought 
was  overwhelming,  but  soon  brightened  with  a  sudden  inspiration. 
Looking  around  him,  he  artfully  fixed  upon  the  most  benevolent- 
looking  face  he  saw,  and  poured  his  sorrows  into  his  fellow-trav- 
eler's ear.  "  I  told  him  that  I  was  a  clergyman,"  was  the  account 
he  gave  to  his  amused  home-audience ;  "  that,  since  I  had  obtained 
a  wife  from  the  Lord,  I  had  given  up  all  concern  with  the  things 
of  this  world,  leaving  my  purse  in  my  wife's  hands ;  and  that  to- 
day I  had  set  out  to  visit  some  of  my  flock  at  a  distance,  without 
recollecting  to  put  a  shilling  in  my  purse  for  the  coach."  The 
good  man  thus  addressed  was  propitious,  and  paid  the  fare.  But 
the  honor  due  to  such  a  good  Samaritan  is  lessened  when  we  learn 
that  the  preacher's  remarkable  appearance,  and  scarcely  less  ex- 
traordinary request,  betrayed  him,  and  the  stranger  had  the  honor 
and  satisfaction,  for  his  sixpence,  of  making  the  acquaintance  of 
Edward  Irving. 

Early  in  this  summer  clouds  began  to  appear  in  the  firmament 
of  the  new  household.  The  baby,  so  joyfully  welcomed  and  dearly 
prized,  was  seized  with  hooping-cough ;  and,  in  the  end  of  June, 


LETTER  OF  WELCOME  TO  HIS  WIFE.  171 

Mrs.  Irving,  then  herself  in  a  delicate  condition  of  health,  accom- 
panied by  her  sister,  took  little  Edward  down  to  Scotland,  to  the 
peaceful  manse  of  Kirkcaldy,  for  change  of  air.  The  following 
letter  was  written  immediately  after  the  departure  of  the  travelers : 

"London,  Friday  afternoon,  July  1st,  1825. 

"My  dear  Isabella  and  beloved  Wife, — I  suppose,  by  the  time 
this  arrives  in  Kirkcaldy,  you  will  be  arrived,  and  little  Edward,  and 
our  dear  brother  and  sister,  and  faithful  Mary ;  and,  because  I  can  not 
be  there  to  welcome  you  in  person  to  your  father's  house,  I  send  this 
my  representative  to  take  you  by  the  hand,  to  embrace  you  by  the 
heart,  and  say  welcome,  thrice  welcome,  to  your  home  and  your  coun- 
try, which  you  have  honored  by  fulfilling  the  duties  of  a  wife  and 
mother  well  and  faithfully — the  noblest  duties  of  womanhood.  And 
while  I  say  this  to  yourself,  I  take  you  to  your  father  and  mother, 
and  say  unto  them,  Receive,  honored  parents,  your  daughter — your 
eldest-born  child — and  give  her  double  honor  as  one  who  hath  been 
faithful  and  dutiful  to  her  husband,  and  brings  with  her  a  child  to  bear 
down  your  piety,  and  faith,  and  blessedness  to  other  generations,  if  it 
please  the  Lord.  Thus  I  fulfill  the  duty  of  restoring  with  honor  and 
credit — well  due  and  well  won — one  whom  I  received  from  their 
house  as  its  best  gift  to  me. 

"  When  I  returned,  I  went  solitary  to  Mrs.  Montagu's,  who  was 
pleased  with  your  letter,  in  order  to  see  whether  I  was  expected  at 

Highgate.  ...  So  to  Highgate  B and  I  hied,  and  we  found  the 

sage,*  as  usual,  full  of  matter.  He  talked  with  me  privately  about 
his  own  spiritual  concerns,  and  I  trust  he  is  in  the  way  of  salvation, 
although  I  see  that  he  has  much  to  prevail  against,  as  we  have  all. 
....  I  have  pastoral  work  for  all  next  week  but  Thursday,  and  shall 
continue  so  until  I  remove.  To-day  I  have  been  busy  with  my  first 
discourse  upon  the  '  Will  of  tlie  Father,'  which  I  pray  you  to  study 
diligently  in  the  Gospel  by  John,  i.,  13,  14;  v.,  20,  21 ;  vii.,  37,  44,  65 ; 
viii.,  16,  19,  26,  28;  x.,  27,  29 — and  all  those  discourses  study  if  you 
would  know  the  precedency  which  the  will  of  the  Father  hath  of  the 
preaching  of  the  Son,  and  how  much  constant  honor  you  must  give 
to  it  in  order  to  be  a  disciple  of  Christ.  My  head  is  wearied,  and 
with  difliculty  directeth  my  hand  to  write  these  few  words,  which  I 
am  moved  to  by  my  affection  to  you  as  my  wife,  and  my  desire  after 
you  as  a  saint.  Therefore  I  conclude  hastily  with  my  love  to  our 
dear  parents,  brothers,  and  sisters,  and  all  our  kindred.  The  Lord 
preserve  my  wife  and  child! 

"  Your  faithful  husband,  Edward  Irving." 

This  letter  was  followed,  a  week  after,  by  another  letter,  in 
which  his  doubts  and  inclinations  in  respect  to  the  call  from  Edin- 
burgh— his  decision  of  which  question  has  been  already  recorded 
— are  fully  set  forth.  The  tone  of  this  letter  is  far  from  enthu- 
siastic as  regards  London,  notwithstanding  his  intention  of  remain- 
ing in  it.    • 

*  Coleridge,  then  living  at  Highgate  with  liis  friends  the  Gillmans. 


172   REASONS  FOR  REFUSING  THE  CALL  TO  EDINBURGH. 

..."  I  have  Mr.  Paul  and  Mr.  Howden  waiting  upon  me  as  a 
deputation  from  the  Kirk  Session  of  the  West  Kirk,  Edinburgh,  that 
I  would  consent  to  succeed  Dr.  Gordon,  and  I  now  write  to  you  for 
your  counsel  and  advice  in  this  matter.  Take  it  into  your  serious 
consideration,  and  seek  counsel  of  the  Lord,  and  write  me  your  judg- 
ment. For  myself,  observe  how  it  is.  There  is  no  home  here,  either 
to  our  family  or  my  ministrations,  and  all  tlie  love  of  my  people  can 
not  make  it  a  home.  If  any  thing  Avould  have  rallied  the  Scotch 
people  to  the  Church,  my  notoriety,  not  to  say  my  talents,  would 
have  done  it;  and  you  know  how  vain  it  has  been.  The  religious 
bodies  are  too  bigoted  to  receive  me  with  any  cordiality.  I  had 
wished  to  preach  the  Gospel  in  Edinburgh,  though  the  call  has  come 
sooner  than  I  had  looked  for.  I  have  a  desire  to  meet  the  anti- 
Christian  influence  full  in  the  face,  and,  in  God's  helj),  to  Avrestle  with 
it.  I  love  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  would  contend  for  its  pros- 
perity. 

"These  are  weighty  considerations.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
would  break  the  heai't  of  so  many  dear  friends  and  servants  of  Christ 
who  have  cherished  me  here.  I  fear  it  would  disperse  the  flock,  and 
smite  down  the  proposed  National  Church.  I  see  the  victory  over 
my  enemies,  in  and  out  of  the  Established  Church,  to  be  already  at 
hand,  and  their  advantage  likely  to  be  promoted  by  my  continuance. 
But  I  know  not  how  it  is,  the  considerations  on  this  side  of  the  ques- 
tion do  not  muster  so  strong. 

"There  is  a  feeling  of  instability — a  sense  of  insufficiency'connected 
with  all  one's  undertakings  here — I  know  not  what  to  make  of  it.  I 
shall  consider  the  matter  very  maturely.  Do  you  the  same,  and  re- 
turn me  your  (oi^inion)  by  return  of  post.  Consult  also  your  dear 
father  and  mother." 

The  wife's  answering  letter  does  not  seem  to  have  been  pre- 
served ;  and  in  the  next  (from  which  it  appears  that  she  had  been, 
as  was  natural,  inclined  to  the  change)  he  intimates  his  decision. 
In  the  mean  time,  he  had  removed  from  his  own  solitary  home  to 
the  hospitable  house  of  Mr.  Montagu : 

"2a  Bedford  Square,  19th  July,  1825. 

"My  dearest  Wife, — On  Sunday  I  desired  a  meeting  of  the 
church  and  congregation  at  six  o'clock  last  night,  and  then  laid  be- 
fore them  both  my  resolution  to  remain  among  them,  and  the  grounds 
of  it ;  and  I  now  haste,  having  completed  my  morning's  study,  to  lay 
before  you  what  I  laid  before  them,  that  I  may  have  your  approba- 
tion, which  is  all  that  noAV  remains  to  the  full  contentment  of  my  own 
mind. 

"The  invitation,  I  said,  had  three  chief  reasons  to  recommend  it, 
and  by  which  it  still  remains  on  my  mind  weightily  recommended : 
First,  That  so  well  advocated  in  your  letter,  which  sunk  deep  into 
my  thoughts,  that  it  might  be  the  call  of  Providence  to  do  for  Edin- 
burgh what  I  had  been  called  upon  to  do  for  London,  and  wliat  no 
one  of  the  ministers  of  God  had  done  before  I  came.  Secondly.  The 
desire  I  had  to  be  restored  to  the  communion  of  tlie  true  ministers  of 


SERMONS  ON  THE  TRINITY.  I73 

Christ  and  servants  of  God  in  the  Church  of  Scotland,  who  hereto- 
fore, with  a  very  few  exceptions,  have  estranged  me  from  their  confi- 
dence. Thirdly.  The  love  which  I  had  to  a  manageable  pastoral 
charge.  On  the  other  hand,  three  more  weighty  reasoill  prevailed 
with  me  to  remain:  First.  Their  desire  of  my  ministry,  and  assm-ance 
of  co-operation  in  my  oflicial  duties,  which,  going  elsewhere,  was  all 
to  work  for.  Secondly.  The  consciousness  that  I  had  not  yet  told 
half  my  message  out  of  the  Gospel,  and  but  j^artially  fulfilled  my  min- 
istry. Thirdly.  The  desire  I  had  that  my  countrymen  should  yet 
have  a  little  longer  trial,  and  the  opportunity  which  a  new  church 
would  aftbrd  them  of  returning  to  the  bosom  of  the  Church.  Lastly. 
The  strong  love  which  I  bore  my  i^eople,  and  which  made  me  shrink 
from  any  call  to  dej^art  but  such  a  one  as  was  very  imperious  and 
strong.  But  while  I  consented  to  stay  in  my  present  ministry  for 
these  weighty  reasons,  I  gave  them,  at  the  same  time,  distinctly  to  un- 
derstand that  such  a  call  might  be  given  me  as  would  be  able  to  call 
me  elsewhere ;  and  that,  without  a  call,  if  the  Spirit  moved  me,  I 
would  certainly  go  to  the  world's  end.  Having  said  this  much  I  left 
the  desk,  and  the  people  remained  to  consider  what  Avas  best  to  be 
done,  and  I  have  but  heard  imperfectly  from  Mr.  Paul  and  Mr.  How- 
den,  Avho  breakfasted  with  us  this  morning,  that  it  was  conducted  in 
a  good  spirit. 

"I  trust  that  my  dear  Isabella  will  approve  of  what  I  have  done, 
which  I  have  certainly  done  by  much  patient  deliberation,  yet  with  a 
strong  resolution,  and,  at  the  same  time,  a  high  sense  and  feeling  of 
all  the  considerations  on  the  other  side.  The  thing  has  done  much 
good  already,  and  will  do  much  more,  chiefly  as  it  has  brought  out 
the  declaration  and  understanding  on  all  hands  that  I  may  be  called 
away,  which  the  people  here  had  little  thought  of.  Also,  that  I  Avill 
stand  justified  before  incredulous  Edinburgh  by  two  other  witnesses. 
For  I  am  not  to  seek  as  to  the  true  sentiment  that  is  still  entertained 
by  the  religious  part  of  men  there  concerning  me,  and  would  gladly 
see  it  wiped  away. 

"Last  Sabbath  I  preached  in  the  morning  on  the  subject  of  the 
Trinity,  showing  that  the  revelation  of  the  Word  consisted  of  three 
parts,  Law,  Gospel,  and  Obedience,  Avhich  were  severally  the  forms  of 
the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  so  that  a  trinity  was  every 
where  in  the  Word  of  God ;  and  I  intend  to  continue  the  same  sub- 
ject next  Sabbath,  and  on  the  following  one  to  show  that  there  are 
three  constant  states  by  which  the  soul  expresses  her  homage  to  the 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost :  First,  prayer ;  secondly,  faith ;  and, 
thirdly,  activity,  which  are  a  trinity  in  unity  with  the  new  man.  In 
the  evening  I  lectured  on  John  sending  his  disciples  to  inquire  at 
Christ  of  his  Messiahship,  showing  thence  how  his  mind,  partaking  of 
the  vulgar  error,  had  lost  the  impression  of  the  outward  signs  shown 
at  his  baptism,  and  thence  arguing  the  total  insufiiciency  of  that  man- 
ner of  demonstration  and  proof  to  which  the  last  century  hath  given 
such  exaggerated  importance.  I  showed  that  Christ's  action  before 
the  messengers,  and  his  message  to  the  Baptist,  was  a  fulfillment  of 
the  prophecy  in  the  61st  of  Isaiah,  which  led  me  to  explain  the  great 
point  that  miracles  were  nothing  but  the  incarnation  or  visible  repre- 


174  SACRAMENT  OF  BAPTISM. 

sentation  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  of  the  Word 
of  God ;  and  that,  as  His  AVord  was  the  will  of  the  Father,  so  were 
His  works  the  acts  of  the  Spirit  dwelling  in  Him,  and  about  to  pro- 
ceed from  Him. 

"  We  were  at  Allan  Cunningham's  last  night,  where  I  met  with 
Wilkie.  They  all  desired  their  love  to  you  and  Margaret.  Every 
body  inquires  after  you,  and  rejoices  in  your  welfare.  You  must 
keep  yourself  quiet.  Let  not  ceremony  or  any  other  cause  take  hold 
of  your  kind  heart,  and  disturb  you  from  necessary  quiet.  I  trust 
little  Edward  continues  to  thrive.  Cease  not  to  pray  for  him  and 
me  as  for  yourself.  I  see  not  why  we  may  not  pray  in  the  plui'al 
number,  as  if  we  were  present  together.  I  shall  keep  by  eight  in  the 
morning  and  ten  at  night  for  my  hours  of  prayer.  Oh,  Isabella,  pray 
much  for  me.  I  need  it  much.  These  are  high  things  after  which 
I  strive,  and  I  oft  fear  lest  Satan  should  make  them  a  snare  to  my 

soul The  Lord  protect  you  all,  and  save  you ! 

"  Your  afiectionate  husband,  Edwakd  Irving." 

"  London,  25  Bedford  Square,  August  2d,  1825.  i 

"4th  August:  Dies  natalis  atque  fat  alls  incidit.  > 

"  'The  day  of  birth  and  of  death  draweth  nigh.'  j 

"  Mt  deaeest  Wife, — .  ...  I  have  not  altered  my  mind  upon 
the  course  of  my  journey,  which  I  will  direct  forthwith  to  Kirkcaldy 
by  the  steam-boat,  without  passing  at  the  present  through  the  towns 
in  England,  which,  if  all  be  well  ordered,  I  can  take  upon  my  return. 

I  greatly  rejoice  that  you  are  enjoying  the  quiet  and  repose 

whereof  you  stand  so  much  in  need,  and  that  little  Edward  is  thriv- 
ing daily.  The  Lord  give  health  and  strength  to  his  soul !  I  pray 
you,  my  dear  Isabella,  to  bear  in  mind  that  he  has  been  consecrated 
to  God  by  the  Sacrament  of  Baptism,  whereby  Christ  did  assure  to 
our  faith  the  death  of  his  body  of  sin,  and  the  life  of  his  spirit  of 
righteousness ;  and  that  he  is  to  be  brought  np  in  the  full  faith  and 
assurance  of  the  fulfillment  of  this  greatest  promise  and  blessing, 
which  our  dear  Lord  hath  bestowed  upon  our  faith ;  wherefore 
adopt  not  the  base  notion,  into  which  many  parents  fall,  of  waiting 
for  a  full  conversion  and  new  birth,  but  regard  that  as  fully  promised 
to  us  from  the  beginning,  and  let  all  your  prayers,  desires,  words, 
and  thoughts  toward  the  child  proceed  accordingly.  For  I  think 
that  we  are  all  grown  virtually  adult  Baptists,  whatever  we  be  pro- 
fessedly, in  that  we  take  no  comfort  or  encouragement  out  of  the 
Sacrament.  Let  it  not  be  so  with  you,  whom  God  hath  set  to  be  a 
mother  in  Israel. 

"  Since  I  wrote,  I  have  passed  a  Sabbath,  when  I  had  much  of  the 
Lord's  presence  in  all  the  exercises  of  public  worship,  and  was  able 
to  declare  the  truth  with  much  liberty ;  preaching  in  the  morning 
from  Rom.,  viii.,  3,  4,  and  opening  the  sentence  of  death  which  there 
was  in  the  law,  and  the  reprieve  of  life  which  there  was  in  the  work 
and  Gospel  of  Christ — a  subject  which  I  mean  to  follow  up  by  show- 
ing that  tlie  reprieve  is  for  the  end  of  our  fulfilling  the  law,  which,  as 
an  antecedent  to  the  Gospel,  is  the  form  of  our  death,  as  the  conse- 
quent of  the  Gospel  is  the  form  of  our  life,  to  be  perfected  and  com- 
pleted in  the  state  of  complete  restitution,  when  Christ  shall  present 


"ORIGINAL  STANDARDS."  175 

His  Church  without  siDot  to  His  Father,  and  shall  then  resign  the 
mediatorial  kingdom.  This  all  deduces  itself  from  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity :  the  Father  is  not  beloved  nor  obeyed  without  the  Son ; 
but  the  Son  sends  forth  his  Spirit,  that  we  may  be  enabled  to  come 
and  obey  the  Father.  So  that,  unless  the  law  be  kept  in  our  contin- 
ual view,  the  Spirit  hath  no  end  nor  operation.  In  the  evening  I 
lectured  uiDon  Luke,  vii.,  29,  36,  setting  forth  the  three  foi-ms  of  the 
Pharisees :  First,  The  Pharisee  of  the  intellect  or  reason  (of  whom 
Edinburgh  is  the  chief  city),  who  contemn  faith  and  form  equally. 
Second,  The  Pharisee  of  form,  who  can  not  away  with  spiritual  re- 
generation. Third,  The  Spiritiial  Pharisee,  or  religious  world,  who 
take  up  notions,  and  language,  and  preachers  upon  second-hand  from 
spiritual  people,  instead  of  waiting  for  them  directly  from  the  Spirit 
by  the  workings  of  faith  upon  the  Divine  Word.  I  pray  the  Lord 
to  bless  these  discourses. 

"  I  have  agreed  Avith  Collins  about  the  publication  of  the  Original 
Standards  of  the  Churchy  concerning  which  I  pray  you  to  say  noth- 
ing.   I  shall  write  my  essay  on  the  salt  sea  where  Knox  first  matured 

his  idea  of  the  Scottish  Reformation My  dear  Isabella,  guard 

against  the  formalities  which  abound  on  every  side  of  you.  Let  me 
find  you  grounded  and  strengthened  in  the  spirit  of  godliness.  For 
the  other  book,*  it  is  nearly  finished.  I  have  just  brought  to  a  close 
the  destruction  of  Babylon.  And  I  have  a  part  to  write  ujDon  the 
things  wliich  follow  till  the  Revelation  of  our  blessed  Redeemer  in 
the  clouds  of  heaven.  Pray  God  that  my  pen  may  be  guided  to 
truth,  and  that  much  profit  may  flow  into  the  Church  from  what  I 
write !....!  pray  the  Lord  to  bless  you  and  EdAvard  continually ; 
write  me,  when  you  can  do  it  without  wearying  yourself  or  injuring 

your  health Say  to  the  pati'iarch  that  I  have  got  a  noble  New 

Testament,  in  Greek,  with  all  the  Glosses  and  Scholise  of  the  Fathers, 
with  which  I  delight  myself.  The  Lord  bless  yoii  all !  Forget  not 
to  give  my  kind  regards  to  Mary,  and  to  encourage  her  to  walk 
steadfastly  in  the  faith. 

"  Yours  in  one  body  and  soul,  Edwakd  Ieving." 

The  publication  referred  to  in  the  above  letter,  the  Original 
Standards  of  the  Church,  did  not  actually  appear  till  many  years 
later,  when  it  came  in  the  shape,  not  of  a  simple  republication,  in- 
tended for  the  edification  of  all,  but  as  a  sharp  rebuke  and  remind- 
er to  the  Church  of  Scotland,  between  whom  and  her  devoted  son 
a  gulf  of  sejDaration  had  grown.  It  does  not,  consequently,  belong 
to  this  period  of  his  history ;  but  the  fact  that  it  had  been  so  long 
in  his  mind,  and  that  these  documents  were  recognized  by  him 
specially  as  the  confession  of  his  faith,  and  as  containing  all  the 
doctrines  for  whicb  he  afterward  suffered  the  penalties  of  the 
Church,  is  interesting  and  significant.  No  man  in  modern  times 
has  so  much  proclaimed  the  merits  of  those  ancient  standards,  or 

*  Babylon  and  Infidelity  Foredoomed. 


176  BAPTISMAL  REGENERATION. 

SO  pertinaciously  ranged  himself  under  their  shelter,  as  this  man, 
whom  the  Church  which  holds  them  cut  off  as  a  heretic. 

It  will  also  be  seen  from  these  letters  that  Irving  had  already 
found  his  way  to  those  views  of  baptism  which  he  did  not  pub- 
lish to  the  world  till  some  time  after.  The  instincts  of  fatherhood 
had  quickened  his  mind  in  his  investigations.  He  had  found  it 
impossible,  when  his  thoughts  were  directed  to  this  subject,  to  rest 
in  the  vagueness  of  ordinary  conceptions :  "  We  assuredly  believe 
that  by  baptism  we  are  ingrafted  in  Christ  Jesus,"  says  simply 
that  ancient,  primitive  confession  to  which  his  heart  turned  as  the 
clearest,  simple  utterance,  uncontroversial  and  single-minded,  of 
the  national  faith.  When  Irving  turned  toward  that  question,  he 
"  assuredly  believed"  the  canon  he  had  subscribed  at  his  ordina- 
tion ;  and  receiving  it  with  no  lukewarm  and  indifferent  belief, 
but  with  a  faith  intense  and  real,  came  to  regard  the  ordinance  in 
so  much  warmer  and  clearer  a  light  than  is  usual  in  his  Church, 
that  his  sentiments  seem  to  have  differed  from  those  of  the  High- 
Church  party  of  England,  who  hold  baptismal  regeneration,  by 
the  merest  hair's-breadth  of  distinction  —  a  distinction  which,  in- 
deed, I  confess  myself  unable  to  appreciate.  This  intensified  and 
brightened  apprehension,  which  made  the  ordinance  not  a  sign 
only,  nor  a  vaguely  mysterious  conjunction  of  sign  and  reality, 
but  an  actual,  effectual  sacrament,  rejoiced  the  new-made  father  to 
the  bottom  of  his  heart.  His  soul  expanded  in  a  deeper  tender- 
ness over  the  chrisom  child,  whom  he  "  assuredly  believed"  to  be 
"ingrafted  in  Christ  Jesus."  Years  afterward  he  makes  a  touch- 
ing acknowledgment  of  gratitude  for  this  insight,  given,  as  in  the 
fervor  and  simplicity  of  his  heart  he  believed  it  to  be,  as  a 
strengthening  preparation  against  the  sharpest  personal  anguish 
of  life. 

In  the  months  of  July  and  August  he  remained  alone  in  Lon- 
don, living  in  the  house  of  his  friends,  Mr.  and  M.rs.  Montagu,  and 
proceeding  vigorously,  as  has  been  seen,  in  his  labors,  with  no  se- 
rious fears  respecting  the  boy  who  was  so  dear  to  his  heart,  of 
whom  he  had  received  comforting  news.  In  the  beginning  of 
September  he  went  to  Scotland  to  join  his  wife,  who  was  then  in 
expectation  of  the  birth  of  her  second  child.  But,  with  the  cold 
autumn  winds,  trouble  and  fear  came  upon  the  anxious  household. 
The  baby,  Edward,  had  rallied  so  much  as  to  make  them  forget 
their  former  fears  on  his  account,  but  it  was  only  a  temporary  re- 
lief.    On  the  second  day  of  October  a  daughter  was  born ;  and 


ILLNESS  AND  DEATH.— SORROW  AND  CONSOLATION.       I77 

for  ten  days  longer,  in  another  room  of  the  house,  separated  from 
the  poor  mother,  who,  for  her  other  baby's  sake,  was  not  permitted 
ever  again,  in  Hfe,  to  behold  her  first-born,  little  Edward  lingered 
out  the  troubled  moments,  and  died  slowly  in  his  father's  agonized 
sight.  The  new-born  infant  was  baptized  on  Sunday,  the  9th  of 
October,  for  a  consolation  to  their  hearts ;  and  on  the  11th  her 
brother  died.  Dr.  Martin,  of  Kirkcaldy,  writing  to  his  father — 
the  venerable  old  man  who  had  baptized  little  Edward,  his  de- 
scendant of  the  fourth  generation — describes  with  tears  in  his 
voice  how,  sitting  beside  the  little  body,  he  could  do  nothing  but 
kneel  down  and  weep,  till  reminded  of  the  words  used  by  the 
child's  father  "in  a  sense  in  which,  probably,  they  have  not  often 
been  applied,  but  the  force  of  which,  at  the  moment,  was  very 
striking,  when  he  saw  all  about  him  dissolved  in  tears  on  view- 
ing the  dear  infant's  cruel  struggle, '  Look  not  at  the  things  which 
are  seen,  but  at  those  which  are  unseen !'  "  "  Edward  and  Isa- 
bella," he  continues,  "both  bear  the  stroke,  though  sore,  with  won- 
derful resignation Two  nights  ago  they  resolved,  in  their 

conference  and  prayers  concerning  him,  to  surrender  him  wholly 

to  God — to  consider  him  as  not  their  child,  but  God's 

When  her  husband  came  down  stairs  to-day,  he  said,  in  reply  to 
a  question  from  her  mother,  '  She  is  bearing  it  as  well  as  one  saint 
could  wish  to  see  another  do.'  Blessed  be  the  Holy  Name !  Da- 
vid will  tell  you  that  the  little  Margaret  was  received  into  the 

Church  visible  on  Sabbath  afternoon I  should  have  said, 

that  when  assembled  to  worship  as  a  family,  after  all  was  over, 
Mr.  Irving,  before  I  began  to  pray,  requested  leave  to  address  us ; 
and  he  addressed  us,  all  and  several,  in  the  most  affectionate  and 
impressive  manner.  The  Lord  bless  and  fix  his  words !  In  tes- 
timony of  his  gratitude  for  the  consolation  afforded  him  and  his 
wife,  he  has  gone  out  to  visit  and  comfort  some  of  the  afilicted 
around  us." 

The  manner  in  which  Irving  himself  announced  this  first  inter- 
ruption of  his  family  happiness,  with  an  elevation  and  ecstasy  of 
grief  which  I  do  not  doubt  will  go  to  the  hearts  of  all  who  have 
suffered  similar  anguish,  as  indeed  the  writer  can  scarcely  tran- 
scribe it  without  tears,  will  be  seen  by  the  following  letter,  ad- 
dressed to  William  Hamilton,  and  written  on  the  day  of  death 
itself: 

"Kirkcaldy,  11th  October,  1825. 
"Our  dearly -beloved  Friend, — The  hand  of  the  Lord  hath 

M 


178        IBVING'S  ANNOUNCEMENT  OF  HIS  CHILD'S  DEATH. 

touched  my  wife  and  me,  and  taken  from  ns  our  well-Leloved  child, 
sweet  Edwai'd,  who  was  dear  to  you  also,  as  he  was  to  all  who  knew 
him.  But,  before  taking  him,  He  gave  unto  us  good  comfort  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  as  He  doth  to  all  His  faithful  servants ;  and  we  are  com- 
forted, verily  we  are  comforted.  Let  the  Lord  be  praised,  who  hath 
visited  the  lowly,  and  raised  them  up ! 

"  If  you  had  been  here  yesterday  and  this  day  when  our  little  babe 
was  taken,  you  would  have  seen  the  stroke  of  death  subdued  by  faith, 
and  the  strength  of  the  grave  overcome ;  for  the  Lord  hath  made 
His  grace  to  be  known  unto  us  in  the  inward  part.  I  feel  that  the 
Lord  hath  Avell  done  in  that  He  hath  afflicted  me,  and  that  by  his 
grace  I  shall  be  a  more  faithful  minister  unto  you,  and  unto  all  the 
tiock  committed  to  my  charge.  Now  is  my  heart  broken — now  is 
its  hardness  melted ;  and  my  pride  is  liumbled,  and  my  strength  is 
renewed.     The  good  name  of  the  Lord  be  j)raised  ! 

"  Our  little  Edward,  dear  friend,  is  gone  the  way  of  all  the  earth, 
and  his  mother  and  I  are  sustained  by  the  Prince  and  Savior  who 
hath  abolished  death  and  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light.  The 
affection  which  you  bear  to  us,  or  did  bear  toward  the  dear  child 
who  is  departed,  we  desire  that  you  will  not  spend  it  in  unavailing 
sorrow,  but  elevate  it  unto  Him  who  hath  sustained  our  souls,  even 
the  Lord  our  Savior  Jesus  Christ ;  and  if  you  feel  grief  and  trouble, 
oh !  turn  the  edge  of  it  against  sin  and  Satan  to  destroy  their  works, 
for  it  is  they  who  haA^e  made  us  to  drink  of  this  bitter  cup. 

"  Communicate  this  to  all  our  friends  in  the  congregation  and 
church,  as  much  as  may  be,  by  the  perusal  of  this  letter,  that  they 
may  know  the  grace  of  God  manifested  unto  us ;  and  oh !  William 
Hamilton,  remember  thyself,  and  tell  them  all  that  they  are  dust,  and 
that  their  children  are  as  the  flowers  of  the  field. 

"Nevertheless,  God  granting  me  a  safe  journey,  I  will  preach  at 
the  Caledonian  church  on  Sabbath  the  23d,  though  I  am  cut  off  from 
my  pur])ose  of  visiting  the  churches  by  the  way.  The  Lord  be  with 
you,  and  your  brethren  of  the  Eldership,  and  all  the  church  and  con- 
gregation. 

"  Your  affectionate  friend,  Edward  Irving. 

"  My  wife  joining  with  me." 

With  such  an  ode  and  outburst  of  the  highest  strain  of  grief, 
brought  so  close  to  the  gates  of  heaven  that  the  dazzled  mourner, 
overpowered  with  the  greatness  of  the  anguish  and  glorj,  sees  the 
Lord  within,  and  takes  a  comfort  more  pathetic  than  any  lament- 
ation, was  the  child  Edward  buried.  He  was  but  fifteen  months 
old ;  but  either  from  his  natural  loveliness,  or  from  the  subliming 
influence  of  his  father's  love  and  grief,  seems  to  have  left  a  mem- 
ory behind  him  as  of  the  very  ideal  and  flower  of  infiincy.  By 
his  father  and  mother  the  child  was  always  held  in  pathetically 
thankful  remembrance.  "Little  Edward,  their  fairest  and  their 
first,"  writes  one  of  Mrs.  Irving's  sisters,  "never  lost  his  place  in 
their  aJEfections.    Writing  of  one  of  her  little  ones  some  years  aft- 


LITTLE  EDWARD'S  MEMORY.  I79 

erward,  my  sister  said,  'I  have  said  all  to  you  when  I  tell  you 
that  we  think  her  very  like  our  little  Edward ;' "  and  the  same 
lady  tells  us  of  Irving's  answer  to  somebody  who  expressed  the 
superficial  and  common  wonder,  so  often  heard,  that  helpless  ba- 
bies should  grow  up  to  be  the  leaders  and  guides  of  the  world,  in 
words  similar  to  those  which  break  from  him  in  his  Preface  to 
Ben-Ezra:  "Whoso  studieth  as  I  have  done,  and  reflecteth  as  I 
have  sought  to  reflect,  upon  the  first  twelve  months  of  a  child ; 
whoso  hath  had  such  a  child  to  look  and  reflect  upon  as  the  Lord 
for  fifteen  months  did  bless  me  withal  (whom  I  would  not  recall, 
if  a  wish  could  recall  him,  from  the  enjoyment  and  service  of  our 
dear  Lord),  will  rather  marvel  how  the  growth  of  that  wonderful 
creature,  which  put  forth  such  a  glorious  bud  of  being,  should 
come  to  be  so  cloaked  by  the  flesh,  cramped  by  the  world,  and 
cut  short  by  Satan,  as  not  to  become  a  winged  seraph ;  will  rather 
wonder  that  such  a  puny,  heartless,  feeble  thing  as  manhood 
should  be  the  abortive  fruit  of  the  rich  bud  of  childhood,  than 
think  that  childhood  is  an  imperfect  promise  and  opening  of  the 
future  man.  And  therefore  it  is  that  I  grudged  not  our  noble, 
lovely  child,  but  rather  do  delight  that  such  a  seed  should  blos- 
som and  bear  in  the  kindly  and  kindred  paradise  of  my  God. 
And  why  should  I  not  speak  of  thee,  my  Edward,  seeing  it  was 
in  the  season  of  thy  sickness  and  death  the  Lord  did  reveal  in  me 
the  knowledge,  and  hope,  and  desire  of  His  Son  from  heaven  ? 
Glorious  exchange !  He  took  my  son  to  His  own  more  fatherly 
bosom,  and  revealed  in  my  bosom  the  sure  expectation  and  faith 
of  His  own  eternal  Son !  Dear  season  of  my  life,  ever  to  be  re- 
membered, when  I  knew  the  sweetness  and  fruitfulness  of  such 
joy  and  sorrow." 

I  can  not  doubt  that  the  record  of  this  infant's  death,  and  the 
traces  it  leaves  upon  the  life  and  words  of  his  sorrowful  but  re 
joicing  father,  will  endear  the  great  orator  to  many  sorrowful 
hearts.  So  far  as  I  can  perceive,  no  other  event  of  his  life  pene- 
trated so  profoundly  the  depths  of  his  spirit.  And  I  can  not  think 
it  is  irreverent  to  lift  the  veil,  now  that  both  of  those  most  con- 
cerned have  rejoined  their  children,  from  that  sanctuary  of  human 
sorrow,  faith,  and  patience.  Those  of  us  who  know  such  days  of 
darkness  may  take  some  courage  from  the  sight ;  and  such  of  my 
readers  as  may  have  become  interested  in  the  domestic  portions 
of  this  history  will  be  pleased  to  hear  that  the  little  daughter, 
born  under  such  lamentable  circumstances,  lived  to  grow  up  into 


180  IRVING  VISITS  THE  SOEROWTUL  IN  KIRKCALDY. 

a  beautifal  and  gifted  woman,  brightened  her  father's  house  dur- 
ing all  his  lifetime,  and  died — ^happily  not  long  before  her  much- 
tried  and  patient  mother. 

Irving  remained  in  Kirkcaldy  about  a  week  after  this  sad 
event,  during  which  time  he  occupied  himself,  "  in  gratitude  for 
the  comfort  he  had  himself  received,"  as  it  is  pathetically  said,  in 
visiting  all  who  were  sorrowful  in  his  father-in-law's  congregation. 
Then,  leaving  his  wife  to  perfect  her  slow  and  sad  recovery  in  her 
father's  house,  until  she  and  the  new-born  infant,  now  doubly 
precious,  were  fit  to  travel,  he  went  away  sadly  by  himself,  to 
seek  comfort  and  strength  in  a  solitary  journey  on  foot — an  apos- 
tolical journey,  in  which  he  carried  his  Master's  message  from 
house  to  house  along  the  way — to  his  father's  house  in  Annan, 
Mrs.  Irving  and  her  child  remained  for  some  time  in  Scotland ; 
and  to  this  circumstance  we  owe  a  closer  and  more  faithful  picture 
of  Irving's  life  and  heart  than  any  thing  which  a  biographer  could 
attempt ;  than  any  thing,  indeed,  which,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  any 
man  of  modern  days  has  left  behind  him. 


CHAPTEE  XI. 

JOURNAL. 

Wanderings  among  the  Hills. — An  Apostolical  Journey. — Annan. — Incidents  of  a 
Stage-coach  Journey. — Arrival  at  Home. — Commencement  of  Journal-letters. — 
ilorning  Worship. — Historical  Reading. — Bishop  Overall's  Convocation  Book. — 
"Idolatry  of  the  Memory." — Devotion  and  Study. — Visions  of  the  Night. — 
Breakfast  Party. — A  Day  in  the  City. — Book-stalls. — Christian  Counsel. — In 
Faintness  and  Fervor. — "For  the  Consolation  of  Edward's  Mother." — The  Secret 
of  Fellowship. — Influence  of  the  Landscape. — Wisdom  and  Power. — Prayers  for 
the  Absent. — Interceding  for  the  People. — A  Sunday's  Services. — Exposition. — 
Sermon. — Evening  Service. — His  Responsibility  as  Head  of  the  Household. — At 
Home. — Scottish  Adventurers. — The  Priest  and  his  Catechumens. — Two  Sisters. 
— A  Companion  for  his  Isabella. — A  Son  from  the  Lord. — Weariness. — A  Spirit 
full  of  Inspirations. — Returns  to  the  Convocation  Book. — Study. — A  Reunion  of 
Young  Christians. — Self-denial  in  Religious  Conversation. — "A  very  rich  Har- 
vest."— Temptations  of  Satan. — Pastoral  Visits. — A  Sick-bed. — Correggio's  "St. 
John." — Prayers. — ^Ecclcsiasticus. — Deteriorating  Effect  of  a  Great  City. — Two 
London  Boys. — A  logical  Companion. — Sunday  Services. — Want  of  Faith. — Lit- 
tle Edward's  Ministiy. — An  Intellectualist. — Influence  of  Custom. — Remonstrance 
about  Length  of  Services. — The  Peace-offering. — Philanthropy. — The  Mystery  of 
the  Trinity. — Missionaries. — Readings  in  Hebrew. — Letters  of  Introduction. — The 
Church  as  a  House. — Simple  and  unprovided  Faith. — Funeral  Services. — The 
Twelfth  Day  of  the  Month. — Sunday  Morning. — Presentiments. — True  Brother- 


LETTER  TO  HIS  WIFE.  IQl 

hood. — The  prodigal  Widow. — Undirected  Letters. — A  London  Sponging-house. 
— Joseph  in  Prison. — From  House  to  House. — Christian  Intercourse. — Domestic 
Worship. — A  Death-bed. — A  good  Voyage. — The  Theology  of  Medicine. — The 
Glory  of  God. — Huskiness  about  the  Heart. — The  Spirit  of  a  Man. — Different 
Forms  of  the  worldly  Spirit. — Try  the  Spirits. — A  Benediction  to  the  Absent. — 
Visions  of  the  Night. — Sunday. — The  Ministry  of  Women. — Morning  Visitors. — 
A  Dream. — Skeptics. — The  four  Spirits. — Religious  Belles. — Best  Manner  of  con- 
tending with  Infidelity. — A  subtle  Cantab. — A  Circle  of  Kinsfolk. — Pleasures  of 
the  Table :  Pea-soup  and  Potatoes. — The  Spirit  of  a  former  Age. — The  lost 
Sheep. — The  Influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit. — New  Testament  History  of  the  Church. 
— The  Sons  of  God  and  the  Daughters  of  Men. — Wisdom. — Farewell  Counsels. — A 
Funeral. — The  Joy  of  Grief. — JNIanagemcnt. — Deterioration. — The  new  Church. 
— ^Ministerial  Liberty. — Dreams  of  Edward. — The  Spirit  of  Prayer. — "  My  Dum- 
friesshire."— Paralytic  in  Soul. — Under-current  of  Thought  during  Prayer. — 
Money,  the  imiversal  Falsehood. — Lessons  in  Spanish. — The  Wings  of  Love. — 
Parables. — Tokens  of  God's  Blessing. — Irving's  Anxiety  about  his  Wife's  Jour- 
ney.— A  young  Visitor. — A  "Benedict." — Evils  of  Formality. — Benediction. — 
Irv^g's  only  Journal. 

The  correspondence  wliicli  follows  needs  neither  introduction 
nor  comment.  No  one  who  reads  it  will  need  to  be  told  how  re- 
markable it  is.  It  was  Irving's  first  long  separation  from  his  wife, 
and  his  heart  was  opened  and  warmed  by  that  touch  of  mutual 
sorrow  which  gives  a  more  exquisite  closeness  to  all  love.  This 
perfect  revelation  of  a  man's  heart,  and  of  a  husband's  trust  and 
confidence,  is  given  by  permission  of  the  remaining  children  of 
his  house.  It  will  be  seen  to  begin  from  the  time  of  his  leaving 
Kirkcaldy,  after  the  sorrows  above  recorded. 

"Annan,  18th  October,  1825. 

"  My  dearest  Wipe, — I  am  grieved  that  I  should  have  missed 
this  day's  post  by  the  awkwardness  of  the  hour  of  making  up  the 
bag  at  noon  precisely,  beyond  which  I  was  carried,  before  I  knew 
that  it  was  past,  by  the  many  spiritual  duties  to  which  I  felt  called 
in  ray  father's  house  and  my  sister's But  I  know  my  dear  Isa- 
bella will  not  grieve  half  so  much  on  this  account  as  I  have  done  my- 
self ....  And  now,  having  parted  with  all  the  household,  I  sit  down 
here,  at  the  solemn  hour  of  midnight,  to  write  you  how  it  is  with  me, 
and  has  been  since  I  left  you,  first  praying  that  this  may  find  you 
and  our  dear  babe  as  I  left  yoii,  increased  in  strength. 

"  Andrew  bore  me  company  to  Peebles,  and  will  inform  you  of  my 
journey  so  far.  We  parted  at  two  o'clock  on  the  south  side  of  Pee- 
bles Bridge,  and  I  look  my  solitary  way  up  Glen  Sark,  calling  at 
every  shepherd's  house  along  my  route,  to  obtain  an  opportunity  of 
admonishing  mother  and  children  of  their  mortality,  and  so  proceeded 
till  I  set  my  face  to  climb  the  hill  which  you  must  pass  to  get  out  of 
the  glen ;  in  ascending  which,  I  had  the  sight  and  feeling  of  a  new 
phenomenon  among  the  mountains,  a  terrible  hail-storm,  which  swept 
down  the  side  of  the  opposite  mountain,  and  came  upon  me  with  such 
a  violence  as  required  all  my  force  of  hand  and  foot  to  keep  erect, 


182  WANDERINGS  AMONG  THE  HILLS.— ANNAN. 

obliterating  my  meagre  path,  and  leaving  me  in  the  wildest  mountain, 
wholly  at  a  nonplus,  to  steer  my  way,  until  the  sun  breaking  out,  or 
rather  streaking  the  west  with  a  bright  light,  I  found  myself  holding 
right  east  instead  of  south,  and  night  threatening  to  be  upon  me  be- 
fore I  could  clear  the  unknown  wild.  I  Avas  lonely  enough;  but, 
committing  my  way  unto  the  Lord,  I  held  south  as  nearly  as  I  could 
guess,  and  reached  the  solitary  house  in  the  head  of  another  water, 
of  which  Sam  may  recollect  something ;  where,  forgathering  with  a 
shepherd,  I  got  directions,  and  set  my  breast  against  Black-house 
heights,  and  reached  my  old  haunts  on  Douglas  Burn,  where,  in  an- 
swer to  the  apostolic  benediction  which  I  carried  every  where,  I  re- 
ceived a  kindly  offer  of  tea,  night's  lodging,  then  a  horse  to  carry  me 
through  the  wet,  all  of  which  in  my  haste  refusing,  I  took  my  way 
over  the  rough  grounds  which  lie  between  that  and  Dryhope  by  Loch 
St.  Mary.  My  adventures  here  with  the  Inverness-shire  herds  and 
the  dogs  of  Dryhope  Tower  (a  perfect  colony,  threatening  to  devour 
me  with  open  mouth),  I  can  not  go  into,  and  leave  it  to  the  discourse 
of  the  lip.  Here  I  waded  the  Yarrow  at  the  foot  of  the  loch,  vyjder 
the  crescent  moon,  where,  finding  a  convenient  rock  beneath  some 
overhanging  branches  Avhicli  moaned  and  sighed  in  the  breeze,  I  sat 
me  down,  while  the  wind,  sweeping,  brought  the  waters  of  the  loch 
to  my  feet ;  and  I  paid  my  devotions  to  the  Lord  in  His  own  ample 
and  magnificent  temple ;  and  sweet  meditations  were  aflforded  me  of 
thee,  our  babe,  and  our  departed  boy.  My  soul  was  filled  with  sweet- 
ness. '  I  did  not  ask  for  a  sign,'  as  Colonel  Blackadder  says ;  but 
when  I  looked  up  to  the  moon,  as  I  came  out  from  the  ecclesia  of  the 
rock,  she  looked  as  never  a  moon  had  looked  before  in  my  eye — as  if 
she  had  been  washed  in  dew,  Avhich,  speedily  clearing  oif,  she  looked 
so  bright  and  beautiful ;  and  on  the  summit  of  the  opposite  hill  a  lit- 
tle bright  star  gleamed  upon  me,  like  the  bright,  bright  eye  of  our 
darling.  Oh,  how  I  wished  you  had  been  with  me  to  partake  the 
sweet  solacement  of  that  moment !  Of  my  adventure  with  the  shep- 
herd-boy Andrew,  whose  motlier's  sons  were  all  squandered  abroad 
among  the  shepherds,  and  our  prayer  upon  the  edge  of  the  mountain, 
and  my  welcome  at  the  cottage,  and  cold  reception  at  the  farm-house, 
I  must  also  be  silent  till  the  living  pen  shall  declare  them  unto  you. 
Only  I  had  trial  of  an  apostolic  day  and  night,  and  slept  sweetly,  after 
blessing  my  wife  and  child.  Next  day  I  passed  over  to  the  grave  of 
Boston,  at  Ettrick,  where  I  ministered  in  the  manse  to  the  minister's 
household,  and  tracked  my  Avay  up  into  Eskdale,  where,  after  con- 
versing with  the  martyr's  tomb  (Andrew  Hyslop's),  I  reached  the 
Ware  about  half  an  hour  after  George,  who  had  brought  a  gig  up  to 
Grange,  and  from  that  place  had  crossed  the  moor  to  meet  me ;  and 
by  returning  upon  his  steps,  Ave  reached  home  about  eleven  o'clock. 
But  such  weather !  I  was  soaked,  the  case  of  my  desk  was  utterly 
dissolved,  and  the  mechanical  ingenuity  of  Annan  is  now  employed 
constructing  another.  But  I  am  well,  very  well,  and  for  the  first  time 
have  made  proof  of  an  apostolical  journey,  and  found  it  to  be  very, 
very  sweet  and  profitable.  Whether  I  have  left  any  seed  that  will 
grow,  the  Lord  only  knows. 

"  Many,  many  are  the  tender  and  loving  sj'^mpathies  toward  you 


ARRIVAL  AT  CARLISLE.— VISITORS.  183 

which  are  here  expressed,  and  many  the  anxious  wishes  for  your  wel- 
fare and  hope  of  seeing  you,  when,  without  danger,  you  can  undei'- 
take  it I  shall  never  forget,  and  never  repay,  the  tender  atten- 
tions of  all  your  dear  father's  household  to  me  and  mine.  The  Lord 
remember  them  with  the  love  He  beareth  to  His  own.  I  affection- 
ately, most  aftectionately,  salute  them  all The  Lord  comfort 

and  foster  your  spirit.     The  Lord  enrich  our  darling,  and  make  her 

a  Mary  to  us 

"  Your  most  affectionate  husband,  Edward  Irving." 

"  Carlisle,  21st  October,  1825. 

"  My  dear  Isabella, — Thus  far  I  am  arrived  safely,  and  lind  that 
my  seat  is  taken  out  in  the  London  mail  to-morrow  evening  at  seven 
o'clock.  I  left  all  my  father's  family  in  good  health,  full  of  affection 
to  me,  and,  I  trust,  not  Avithout  faith  and  love  toward  God.  Mr. 
Fergus'son,  and  Margaret,  and  the  two  eldest  boys  came  down  from 
Dumfries  on  Wednesday,  and  added  much  to  our  domestic  enjoy- 
ment, which,  but  for  the  pain  of  jjarting  so  soon,  was  as  complete  as 
ever  I  had  felt  it ;  for,  though  my  heart  was  very  cold,  I  persevered, 
by  the  force,  I  fear,  rather  of  strong  resolution  than  of  spiritual  affec- 
tion, to  set  before  them  their  duties  to  God  and  to  the  souls  of  their 
children.  They  spoke  all  very  tenderly  of  you,  and  feel  much  for 
your  weal,  and  long  for  the  time  when  they  shall  be  able  to  comfort 
you  in  person.     Thomas  Carlyle  came  down  to-day,  and  edified  me 

very  much  with  his  discourse.     Dr.  Duncan  came  down  with  C 

M ,  who,  poor  lad,  seems  fast  hastening  into  one  of  the  worst 

forms  of  Satanic  pride.     He  desires  solitude,  he  says,  and  hates  men. 

"  Your  short  penciled  note  was  like  honey  to  my  soul;  and,  though 
I  have  not  had  the  outpouring  of  soul  for  you,  little  baby,  and  my- 
self which  I  desire,  I  hope  the  Lord  wall  enable  me  this  night  to  utter 
my  spiritital  affections  before  His  throne.  I  am  an  unworthy  man — 
a  poor,  miserable  servant — unworthy  to  be  a  doorkeeper;  how  un- 
worthy to  be  a  minister  at  the  altar  of  His  house !  I  shall  write  you 
when  1  reach  London.  Till  then,  may  the  Lord  be  your  defense,  my 
dear  lamb's  nourishment  and  strength,  Mary's  encouragement,  and 
the  sustenance  of  your  unworthy  head.  Rest  you,  my  dear,  and  be 
untroubled  till  the  Lord  restore  your  health ;  then  cease  not  to  med- 
itate upon,  and  to  seek  the  improvement  of  our  great  trial,  which 
may  I  never  forget,  and  as  oft  as  I  remember,  exercise  an  act  of  sub- 
mission unto  the  will  of  God.  This  is  written  at  the  fire  of  the  pub- 
lic room  among  my  fellow-travelers.  The  Laird  of  Dornoch,  Tris- 
tram Lowther  the  Avillful,  Avhere  I  waited  for  the  coach,  expressed  a 
great  desire  that,  when  you  came  to  the  country,  you  would  visit 

him 

"  Your  true  and  faithful  husband,  Edward  Irving." 

"  Myddelton  Terrace,  25th  October,  1825. 

"  My  dear  Wife,  beloved  in  the  Lord, — I  bless  you  and  our  little 
child,  and  pray  that  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  may  be  with 
you  and  all  the  house. 

"  I  reached  London  late  (eleven  o'clock)  on  Saturday  night,  by  the 
good  preservation  of  God,  to  which,  Avhen  I  sought  at  times  to  turn 


184  INCIDENTS  OF  A  STAGE-COACH  JOURNEY. 

the  minds  of  my  fellow-travelers,  I  seemed  unto  them  as  one  that 
mocked ;  but,  though  we  were  a  graceless  company,  we  were  pre- 
served by  the  Lord.  On  our  journey  there  occui-red  nothing  rermark- 
able  except  one  thing,  which,  for  its  singular  hospitality,  I  resolved 
to  recount  to  you.  Our  road  lay  through  Rutlandshire,  and  half 
way  between  Uppingham  and  Kettering  there  appeared  before  us, 
on  the  top  of  a  hill,  an  ancient  building,  but  not  like  any  castle  which 
I  had  ever  seen  before,  being  low  and  irregular,  and  covering  a  deal 
of  ground,  and  built,  you  would  say,  more  for  hospitality  and  enter- 
tainment than  strength.  I  make  no  doubt,  from  the  form  of  the 
structure,  it  is  as  old  as  the  Saxon  times,  and  belonged  to  one  of 
those  franklins  of  whom  Walter  Scott  speaks  in  'Ivanhoe.'  .... 
Now  mark ;  Avhen  our  road,  swinging  up  the  hill,  came  to  the  gate 
of  this  mansion,  which  was  a  simple  gate — not  a  hold,  or  any  imita- 
tion of  a  hold  of  strength — to  my  astonishment,  the  guard  of  the 
mail  descended  and  opened  the  gate,  and  in  we  drove  to  the  park 
and  gate  of  the  castle,  where  they  were  cutting  wood  into  billets, 
which  wei'e  lying  in  heaps,  for  the  sake  of  the  poor  in  the  village  be- 
neath the  hill.  One  of  these  billets  they  laid  in  the  wheel  of  the 
coach,  for  the  hill  is  very  steep ;  and  while  I  meditated  what  all  this 
might  mean,  thinking  it  was  some  service  they  were  going  to  do  for 
the  family,  out  came  from  a  door  of  the  castle  a  very  kindly-looking 
man,  bearing  in  a  basket  bread  and  cheese,  and  in  his  hand  a  pitcher 
full  of  ale,  of  which  he  kindly  invited  us  all  to  jDartake,  and  of  which  we 
all  partook  most  heartily,  for  it  was  now  past  noon,  and  we  had  trav- 
eled far  since  breakfast — from  Nottingham So  here  I  paid  my 

last  farewell  to  ale,  and  am  now  a  Nazarite  to  the  sense.  Oh  that  the 
Lord  would  make  me  a  Nazarite  indeed  from  all  lusts  of  the  flesh ! 
....  Remember  this  hospitable  lord  in  your  prayers.  He  is  my 
Lord  Londes,  and  his  place  is  Rockingham  Castle.  The  mail-coach 
hath  this  privilege  from  him  at  all  times,  and,  I  understand,  during 
the  great  fall  of  snow,  he  took  the  passengers  in,  and  entertained  them 
for  several  days,  until  they  were  able  to  get  forward. 

"  I  arrived,  I  say,  at  eleven  o'clock,  and  Alexander  Hamilton  was 
waiting  for  me  at  the  Angel,  with  Avhom  I  walked  to  this  house  of 
mourning,  and  found  Hall  getting  better,  and  all  things  prepared  by 
his  worthy  wife  for  my  comfort.  So  here  I  am  resolved  to  abide, 
and  meditate  my  present  trials  and  widowhood  for  a  time.  But  I 
forget  not,  morning  and  evening,  to  bless  you,  and  our  dear  little 
lamb,  and  Mary  our  faithful  servant,  and  to  sue  for  blessings  to  you 
all  from  the  Lord ;  and  truly  I  feel  very  lonely  to  ascend  those  stairs, 
and  lie  down  upon  my  lonely  bed.  But  the  Lord  filled  me  with  some 
strong  consolations  Avhen  I  thought  that  a  spirit  calling  me  father, 
and  thee  mother,  might  now  be  ministering  at  His  throne.  I  do  not 
remember  ever  being  so  uplifted  in  soul.  Yesterday  I  travailed 
much  in  spirit  for  the  people,  and  preached  to  them  with  a  full  heart 
— that  is,  compared  with  myself;  but,  measured  by  the  rule  of  Chris- 
tian lovCj  how  poor,  how  cold,  how  sinful !  This  morning  I  have  had 
the  younger  Sottomayor*  with  me.     Would  you  cause  inquiries  to 

*  This  was  one  of  two  brothers,  Spaniards,  the  elder  of  whom  had  been  abbot  of 


COMMENCEMENT  OF  JOUKNAL  LETTERS.  I35 

be  made  what  likelihood  there  is  of  his  succeeding  as  a  SjDanish  teach- 
er in  Edinburgh  ?  .  .  .  .  Before  setting  out,  I  resolved  to  write  you, 
however  briefly,  that  your  heart  might  be  comforted ;  for  are  not 
you  my  chief  comfort?  and  ought  not  I  to  be  yours,  according  to  my 
ability  ?  I  assure  you,  all  the  people  Avere  glad  to  see  me  back  again, 
and  condoled  with  us  with  a  great  grief  The  Lord  bless  them  with 
all  consolations  in  their  day  of  affliction.  The  church  was,  as  usual, 
very  crowded,  and  I  had  much  liberty  of  utterance  granted  me  of 

the  Lord I  desire  my  love  to  your  dear  father  and  mother, 

and  my  most  dutiful  obedience  as  a  son  of  their  house.  My  broth- 
erly affection  to  all  your  sisters,  Avho  were  parents  to  our  Edward ; 
and  to  our  brothers,  who  loved  him  as  their  own  bowels.  Oh,  forget 
not  any  of  you  the  softening  chastisement  of  the  Lord.  Walk  in 
His  fear,  and  let  your  hearts  be  comforted. 

"  Your  most  aflectionate  husband  and  pastor  of  your  soul, 

"Edward  Irving. 

'^  Say  to  Mary, '  Pray  for  the  Comforter,  even  the  Spirit  of  truth, 
which  proceedeth  from  the  Father.'  " 

After  his  arrival  in  London  his  letters  take  the  form  of  a  jour- 
nal, commenced  as  follows : 

"Let  me  now  endeavor  to  express,  for  the  information  of  my 
dear  wife,  and  for  her  consolation  under  our  present  sore  trial,  and 
for  the  entertainment  of  her  present  separation  from  me,  and  the 
gratification  of  all  her  spousal  affections,  and,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
for  the  building  up  of  her  faith  in  Christ,  and  her  love  toward  her 
husband,  whatever  hath  occurred  to  the  experience  of  my  soul 
this  day,  and  whatever  hath  occupied  my  thoughts  in  this  my 
study,  and  whatever  hath  engaged  my  activity  out  of  doors ;  and 
for  her  sake  may  the  Lord  grant  me  a  faithful  memory  and  a  true 
utterance. 

"  2Qth.  This  morning  I  arose  a  little  after  seven  o'clock,  in  pos- 
session of  my  reason  and  of  my  health,  and  not  without  aspira- 
tions of  soul  toward  the  communion  of  God,  but  poor  and  heart- 
less when  compared  with  those  experiences  of  the  Psalmist,  whose 
prayers  prevented  the  dawning  of  the  morning,  and  his  medita- 
tions the  night-watches ;   and  my  soul  being  afflicted  with  the 

a  monastery,  and  had  more  than  once  been  intrusted  with  missions  to  Eome.  He 
had  been  enlightened  by  a  copy  of  the  Bible  in  the  library  of  his  convent,  and  after 
a  while  had  been  obliged  to  flee  from  the  terrors  of  the  Inquisition.  He  could  speak 
scarcely  any  English,  but  was  kindly  helped  to  acquire  it  by  the  ladies  of  Mr.  Irving's 
family.  The  younger  was  a  soldier,  brought  to  Protestantism  as  much  by  love  for 
his  brother  as  by  love  for  the  truth.  Irving  exerted  himself  in  behalf  of  both,  and 
treated  them  with  great  and  constant  kindness.  The  abbe  married  a  lady  whose 
confessor  he  had  been,  and  whom  he  had  insensibly  led  into  his  own  views,  and,  as 
a  consequence,  into  persecution,  but  died  early,  leaving  his  widow  to  the  protection 
of  his  devoted  brother. 


186     AN  UNFAITHFUL  SABBATH-SCHOOL  TEACHEE. 

downwardness,  and  wandering  of  spirit,  and  coldness  of  heart  to- 
ward tlie  God  of  my  salvation,  in  tlie  morning,  which  is,  as  it 
were,  a  new  resurrection,  it  was  borne  in  upon  my  mind  that  it 
arose  in  a  great  measure  from  my  not  realizing  with  abiding  con- 
stancy the  Mediator  between  me  and  God,  but  breaking  through, 
as  it  were,  to  commune  with  him  in  my  own  strength,  whereby 
the  lightning  did  scathe  my  soul,  or  rather  my  soul  abode  in  its 
barrenness,  unwatered  from  the  living  fountain,  in  its  slavery  un- 
redeemed by  the  Caj)tain  of  my  salvation,  who  will  be  acknowl- 
edged before  He  will  bless  us,  or  rather  who  must  be  honored  in 
order  that  we  may  stand  well  in  the  sight  of  the  Father.  When 
the  family  were  assembled  to  prayers  in  the  little  library  (our 
family  consists  at  present  of  Mrs.  Hall,  her  niece,  a  sweet  young 
woman  out  of  Somersetshire,  and  a  servant-maid,  and  Hall,  who 
is  not  able  to  come  down  stairs  till  afternoon).  Miss  Dalzell*  and 
her  sister  came  in  to  consult  me  concerning  the  unsuitable  behav- 
ior of  one  of  the  Sabbath-school  teachers,  who  was  becoming  a 
scandal  unto  the  rest  of  the  teachers,  and  had  been  a  sore  trouble 
to  her,  and  whom  Satan  was  moving  to  trouble  the  general  peace 
of  the  society.  Under  which  affliction,  having  given  her  what 
present  comfort  the  Lord  enabled  me,  I  refrained  from  any  posi- 
tive deliverance,  or  even  hinting  any  idea,  till  the  matter  should 
come  before  our  committee,  against  which  may  the  Lord  grant  me 
and  all  the  teachers  the  spirit  of  wise  counsel  to  meet  and  defeat 
this  device  of  the  Evil  One.  How  the  tares  grow  up  among  the 
wheat  in  every  society,  and,  alas !  in  every  heart !  The  Lord  root 
them  out  of  my  soul,  though  the  pain  be  sore  as  the  jjlucking  out 
a  right  eye  or  a  right  hand.  After  worship  and  breakfast  I  com- 
posed myself  to  read  out  of  a  book  of  old  pamphlets  concerning 
the  Revolution  one  which  contains  a  minute  journal  of  the  expe- 
dition of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  for  the  Protestant  cause,  into  Eng- 
land, from  the  day  of  his  setting  out  to  the  day  of  his  coronation ; 
which,  written  as  it  is  in  a  spiritual  and  Biblical  style,  brought 
more  clear  convictions  to  my  mind  that  this  passage  of  history  is 
as  wonderful  a  manifestation  of  God's  arm  as  any  event  in  the 
history  of  the  Jews,  being  the  judgment  of  the  Stuarts,  the  re- 
ward of  the  Orange  house,  the  liberation  of  the  sealed  nation  from 
its  idolatrous  oppressors,  and  the  beginning  of  the  humiliation  of 
France,  which  went  on  for  a  century  and  was  consummated  in  the 
Revolution,  of  which  the  remote  cause  was  in  the  expensive  wars 

*  A  lady  who  had  been  the  means  of  establishing  a  system  of  local  Sabbath-schools. 


BISHOP  OVERALL'S  CONVOCATION  BOOK.  137 

of  Louis  Xiy.,  exhausting  the  finances,  and  causing  Louis  XVI. 
to  be  a  '  raiser  of  taxes,'  according  to  Daniel's  prophecy.  Oh  that 
some  one  would  follow  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church,  and 
embody  it  in  chronicles  in  the  spirit  of  the  books  of  Samuel ! 
There  is  no  presumption,  surely,  in  giving  a  spiritual  account  of 
that  which  we  know  from  the  prophecies  to  be  under  spiritual 
administration.  Afterward  I  addressed  myself  to  Bishop  Over-j 
all's  Convoca^tioiL-Book,  concerning  the  government  of  the  Catho- 
lic ChurcETlind  the  kingdoms  of  the  whole  world,  which  digests, 
under  short  chapters,  the  history  of  God's  revelation,  and  appends 
a  canon  to  each ;  in  the  first  twenty-two  of  which  chapters  and 
canons  I  was  astonished  to  find  the  full  declaration  of  what  had 
been  dawning  upon  my  mind,  viz.,  that  the  maxim,  which,  since 
Locke's  time,  has  been  the  basis  of  all  government, '  that  all  power 
is  derived  from  the  people,  and  held  of  the  people  for  the  people's 
good,'  is  in  truth  the  basis  of  all  revolution  and  radicalism,  and 
the  dissolution  of  all  government;  and  that  governors  and  judges, 
of  whatever  name,  hold  their  place  and  authority  of  God  for  ends 
discovered  in  His  Word,  even  as  people  yield  obedience  to  laws 
and  magistrates  by  the  same  highest  authority.  Also  it  pleased 
me  to  find  how  late-sprung  is  the  notion  among  our  leveling  Dis- 
senters, that  the  magistrate  hath  no  power  in  the  Church,  and  how 
universal  was  the  notion  among  the  Eeformers  and  divines  that 
the  magistrate  is  bound  to  put  down  idolatry  and  will-worship, 
and  provide  for  the  right  religious  instruction  of  the  people.  That 
subject  of  toleration  needs  to  be  reconsidered;  the  Liberals  have 
that  question  wholly  their  own  way,  and  therefore  I  know  that 
there  must  be  error  in  it;  for  where  Satan  is  there  is  confusion 
and  every  evil  work. 

"  I  went  out  into  the  garden  to  walk  before  dinner,  and  with 
difficulty  refrained  my  tears  to  think  how  oft  and  with  what  sweet 
delight  I  had  borne  ray  dear,  dear  boy  along  that  walk,  with  my 
dear  wife  at  my  side ;  but  had  faith  given  me  to  see  his  immortal- 
ity in  another  world,  and  rest  satisfied  with  my  Maker's  will.  Sir 
Peter  Lawrie  called  after  dinner,  and  besought  me,  as  indeed  have 
many,  to  go  and  live  with  him ;  but  nothing  shall  tempt  me  from 
this  sweet  solitude  of  retirement,  and  activity  of  consolation,  and 

ministry  to  the  afflicted When  he  was  gone  I  went  forth 

upon  my  outdoor  ministry,  and  as  I  walked  to  Mr.  Whyte's,  along 
the  terraces  overlooking  those  fields  where  we  used  to  walk,  three 
in  one,  I  was  sore,  sore  distressed,  and  found  the  temptation  to 


~) 


188  DEVOTION  AND  STUDY. 

'idolatry  of  tlie  memory,'  which  the  Lord  delivered  me  from,  at 
the  same  time  giving  the  clew  to  the  subject  which  has  been  tak- 
ing form  in  my  mind  lately,  to  be  treated  as  arising  out  of  my 
trial ;  and  the  form  in  which  it  presented  itself  is  'the  idolatry  of 
the  affections,'  which  will  embrace  the  whole  evil,  the  whole  rem- 
edy, and  the  sound  condition  of  all  relations.  I  proceeded  to 
Mrs.  S.,  and,  being  somewhat  out  of  spirits,  was  tempted  of  Satan 
to  return,  but  having  been  of  late  much  exercised  upon  the  neces- 
sity of  implicit  obedience  to  the  will  of  God,  I  hastened  to  pro- 
ceed, and  was  richly  rewarded  in  an  interview  with  the  mother 
and  daughter,  wherein  my  mouth  was  opened,  as  was  their  heart, 
and  I  trust  seed  was  sown  which  will  bear  fruit.     Then  I  returned 

home  through  the  church-yard,  full  of  softness  of  heart 

Upon  my  return  home  I  addressed  myself  to  a  discourse  upon  the 
text,  'To  me  to  live  is  Christ,  and  to  die  gain,'  until  the  hour  of 
evening  prayer,  when  I  gathered  my  little  flock,  and  having  com- 
mended all  our  spirits  and  all  our  beloved  ones  to  the  Father  of 
mercies,  we  parted — they  to  their  couches,  where  I  trust  they  now 
sleep  in  peace ;  I  to  this  sweet  office  of  affection,  which  I  now 
close  with  the  deep  closing  knell  of  St.  Paul's  sounding  twelve  in 
my  ear.  My  beloved  Isabella,  you  are  sleeping  upon  your  pillow; 
the  God  of  Jacob  make  it  rich  and  divine  as  the  pillow  of  Padan- 
aram !  My  little  darling,  thou  art  resting  on  thy  mother's  bo- 
som; the  Lord  make  thee  unto  us  what  Isaac  was  to  Abraham 
and  Sarah !     Farewell,  my  beloved ! 

"  21ih  October.  I  am  so  worn  out  with  work  that  I  fear  it  is  a 
vain  undertaking  to  which  I  now  address  myself,  of  giving  some 
account  of  the  day's  transactions  to  my  dear  wife.  I  began  the 
day  with  a  sweet  exercise  of  private  devotion,  wherein  the  Lord 
gave  me  more  than  usual  composure  of  soul ;  and  having  descend- 
ed, we  read  together  the  fourth  chapter  of  Job,  and  prayed  earn- 
estly that  the  Lord  would  enable  us  to  fulfill  His  will;  at  and 
after  breakfast  I  read  the  seventy-third  Psalm  in  Hebrew,  and  in 
the  Greek  New  Testament  the  first  chapter  of  Hebrews ;  after 
which  I  went  to  my  solitary  walk  in  the  garden,  and  was  exer- 
cised with  many  thoughts  which  came  clothed  in  a  cloud,  but 
passed  encircled  with  a  rainbow.  As  I  walked  I  employed  my- 
self in  committing  to  memory  some  Hebrew  roots.  Having  re- 
turned to  my  study,  I  addressed  myself  to  read  two  or  three  ad- 
ditional chapters  and  canons  in  the  Convocation  Book,  and  am  a 
good  deal  shaken  concerning  the  right  of  subjects  to  take  arms 


VISIONS  OF  THE  NIGHT.— BREAKFAST  PARTY.  189 

against  their  sovereign.  Thereafter  I  labored  at  my  discourse,  in 
the  composition  of  which  I  find  a  new  style  creeping  upon  me, 
whether  for  the  better  or  for  the  worse  I  know  not ;  but  this  I 
know,  that  I  seek  more  and  more  earnestly  to  be  a  tongue  unto 
the  Holy  Spirit.  My  dinner  being  ended  I  returned  to  my  read, 
ings,  and  sought  to  entertain  my  mind  with  a  volume  of  my  book 
of  ancient  voyages,  which  delights  me  with  its  simplicity.     I  had 

a  call  from  Mr.  M ,  and  Dr.  M with  him.     I  was  enabled 

to  be  very  faithful,  and  I  trust  with  some  good  effect.  .  .  .  Then 
I  went  to  church  to  meet  my  young  communicants  and  the  spirit- 
ual part  of  my  people.  But  of  all  that  passed,  sweet  and  profit- 
able, I  am  unable  to  write,  with  difficulty  forming  my  thoughts 
into  these  feeble  words.  The  Lord  send  refreshing  sleep  to  my 
dear  wife  and  little  babe,  and  to  His  servant,  who  has  the  satisfac- 
tion of  having  wearied  himself  in  His  service.     Farewell ! 

"28^/i  October^  Thursday.  This  day,  my  best  beloved,  has  been 
to  me  a  day  of  activity  and  not  of  study,  feeling  it  necessary  to  lie 
by  and  refresh  my  head,  whose  faintness  or  feebleness  hindered 
my  spirit  from  expressing  itself  last  night  to  its  beloved  mate. 
My  visions  of  the  night  were  of  our  dearly  beloved  boy,  whose 
death  I  thought  all  a  mistake  or  falsehood,  and  that  he  was  among 
our  hands  still;  but  this  illusion  was  accompanied  with  such 
prayers  and  refreshings  of  soul,  and  all  so  hallowed,  that  I  awoke 
out  of  it  nowise  disappointed  with  the  sad  reality ;  and  having 
arisen,  I  addressed  myself  to  the  cleansing  of  body  and  soul,  and 
especially  besought  the  Lord  for  simple  and  implicit  obedience  to 
His  holy  will,  of  which  prayer,  methinks,  I  have  this  day  expe- 
rienced the  sweet  and  gracious  answer.  At  family  prayers  and 
breakfast  there  assembled  Mr.  Hamilton,  our  brother;  Mr.  Darling, 
one  of  the  flock,  who  came  to  consult  concerning  the  schools,  for 
which  they  wish  a  collection,  to  which  I  am  the  more  disposed 
that  all  other  means  have  failed ;  Mr.  Thompson,  the  preacher  who 
visited  us  at  Kirkcaldy,  and  came  to  present  me  with  his  little  re- 
ligious novel  of  The  Martyr^  a  tale  of  the  first  century :  opus  per- 

difficile ;  Mr.  M ,  curate  of  our  parish  of  Clerkenwell,  who 

came  to  commune  with  me  concerning  Sottomayor  and  the  affairs 
of  the  parish,  a  man  of  zeal,  but  I  fear  not  of  much  wisdom,  yet 
devoted  to  the  Lord ;  Mr.  Johnstone,  a  young  lawyer  from  Aln- 
wick, four  years  an  inmate  of  Pears'  house,*  a  Christian  likewise, 
but  of  the  Eadical  or  Dissenting-for-dissenting-sake  school — I  trust 

*  The  school-house  at  Abbotshall,  Kirkcaldy,  referred  to  in  Chapter  IV. 


190  A  DAY  IN  THE  CITY. 

men  of  God ;  and  a  sweet  thought  it  is  to  me  that  the  Lord  should 
encompass  my  table  with  His  servants ;  for  whose  entertainment 
Mrs.  Hall  (best  and  frugalest  of  housekeepers)  had  prepared  a  ham 
and  other  eatables,  with  which,  and  tea  not  over  strong,  we  were 
well  pleased  and  thankful  to  satisfy  our  hunger.  After  breakfast 
we  set  out  (which  had  been  projected  between  Mr.  Hamilton  and 
me)  to  see  the  walls  of  the  new  church,  arising  out  of  the  earth  in 
massive  strength  to  more  than  the  height  of  a  man,  where  we 
found  Mr.  Dinwiddle,  with  his  daughters,  of  whom  he  would  not 
allow  one  to  go  to  Edinburgh  on  a  visit  of  months  without  having 
seen  it,  to  carry  the  reports  of  our  work.  This  careful  elder 
having  pointed  to  Mr.  Hamilton  the  remissness  of  the  overseer  to 
be  on  his  post  betimes,  we  proceeded  to  the  city ;  I  to  visit  the 

flock,  they  to  their  honest  callings.     In  Mr. 's  hospitium  of 

business  and  general  rendezvous  of  Caledonian  friends,4i  wrote  for 
Elizabeth  Dinwiddle  a  letter  of  pastoral  commendation  to  Mrs. 
Gordon,  through  whom,  wife  of  my  heart  and  sharer  of  my  joys, 
you  will  find  her  out  if  you  should  be  resident  in  the  city.  In 
the  room  of  shawls,  muslin,  and  muslin-boxes,  which  your  father 
found  cool  as  the  refreshing  zephyrs,  there  were  four  Greeks,  ne- 
gotiating with  Alexander,  by  the  universal  language  of  the  ex- 
change, the  ten  digits,  for  one  other  common  sign  had  they  not. 
They  were  small,  strong,  well-built  fellows,  turbaned,  with  black 
hair  curling  from  beneath  high  skull-caps ;  and  yet,  I  think,  though 
they  had  fire  in  their  look,  one  or  two  English  seamen  carry  as 
much  battle  in  their  resolute  faces  as  did  these  four  outlandish 
mariners.  But  I  hastened  to  another  conflict — the  conflict  of  sor- 
row and  sickness,  in  the  house  of  our  dear  brother  David,  whose 
hurt  in  his  head  threatens  him  grievously.  ...  In  my  first  visit 
I  liked  the  complexion  of  his  sickness  ill ;  he  was  then  so  moved 
and  overacted  by  my  visit  that  we  judged  it  best  that  I  should 
not  have  an  interview  with  him.  He  had  spoken  much  and  de- 
lightfully to  his  excellent  wife I  gathered  the  family  to- 
gether, and  having  spoken  to  them,  we  had  a  season  of  prayer, 

from  whence  I  proceeded  to  Mr.  L ,  in  order  to  exhort  him 

and  his  wife  concerning  their  children,  and  especially  concerning 
the  Sacrament  of  Baptism,  which  they  sought  for  the  youngest, 
two  months  old.  They  are  two  saints,  as  I  judge,  and  our  com- 
muning was  sweet.  Thence  I  passed  to  Whitecross  Street,  in  or- 
der to  visit  an  old  couple,  Alexander  M and  his  wife  (he 

whom  wc  got  into  the  pension  society).     They  are  sadly  tried 


BOOKSTALLS.— CHEISTIAN  COUNSEL.  191 

"witli  two  sons,  one  of  whom  has  fits  of  madness ;  the  other,  accord- 
ing to  his  father's  account,  '  has  caught  the  fever  of  the  day,'  be- 
come infidel,  which  he  tells  me  is  amazingly  spread  among  the 
tradesmen.  Having  exhorted  them  to  zeal  and  steadfastness,  I 
passed  on  to  Sottomayor's,  whom  I  found  correcting  a  Spanish 
translation  of  Doddridge's  '  Else  and  Progress ;'  and  after  much 
sweet  discourse — for,  dear  Isabella,  he  proves  well — his  wife  came 
up,  and  he  interpreted  between  us.  She  is  jDcrplexed  most  to  give 
up  the  honor  of  the  Virgin — I  should  say  the  idolatry  of  the  Vir- 
gin. I  prayed  with  them,  as  in  every  other  place,  and  hastened 
home,  expecting  letters  from  my  Isabella,  which  I  found  not,  at 
Pentonville.  Thence  I  passed,  peeping  at  the  bookstalls,  and 
sometimes  going  a  step  out  of  my  way,  but  purchasing  nothing, 
though  sore  tempted  with  St.  Bernard's  works,  until  I  reached 
Bedford  Square,  where  I  found  the  two  proof-sheets  with  the  let- 
ter, which  was  like  water  to  my  soul.  But  one  o'clock  has  struck. 
"William  Hamilton  came  at  six,  when  we  went  to  St.  Peter's.  .  .  . 
After  which,  returning  home  with  sweet  discourse,  I  assembled 
my  family,  and  when  I  prayed  there  wept  one,  I  know  not  which 
(may  they  be  tears  of  penitence  and  contrition !) ;  and  having  sup- 
ped upon  my  cup  of  milk  and  slice  of  toast,  I  have  wrought  at 
this  sweet  occupation  till  this  early  hour.  And  now,  with  a  hus- 
band's and  a  father's  blessing  upon  my  sleeping  treasures — a  mas- 
ter's blessing  on  my  faithful  servant,  and  a  son  and  brother's  upon 
all  your  house — I  go  to  commit  myself  to  the  arms  of  Him  who 
slumbers  not  nor  sleeps.     Farewell. 

"  Walihamstow,  29/A,  Friday.  This  morning,  my  dear  Isabella,  I 
excused  myself  a  little  longer  rest  by  the  lateness  of  my  home-re- 
turning last  night  and  my  weariness,  which  you  will  observe  is 
not  right ;  for,  unless  there  be  some  fixed  hour,  there  can  be  no 
regularity,  of  which  the  great  use  is  to  form  a  restraint  upon  our 
willfulness.  Moreover,  I  always  find  that  the  work  of  the  Lord 
proceeds  with  me  during  the  day  according  to  my  readiness  to 
serve  Him  in  the  morning.  Oh,  when  shall  my  eyes  prevent  the 
morning,  that  I  might  meditate  in  His  law  or  lift  up  my  soul  unto 
His  throne  !  After  our  morning  prayers,  our  friend  Mr.  W.  came 
in,  much  grieved  in  spirit  by  the  vexations  of  the  world,  and  the 
mistreatments  of  one  whom  he  thought  his  friend.  But  I  told 
him  that  his  faith  was  unremoved  and  unremovable,  and  his  wife 
and  children  spared  to  him,  and  daily  bread  furnished  out  to 
them,  therefore  he  ought  not  so  sadly  to  grieve  himself.  ...  I  ad- 


192  IN  FAINTNESS  AND  FERVOR. 

dressed  myself  to  my  main  occupation  of  preparing  food  for  my 
people,  beginning  a  lecture  upon  the  first  three  verses  of  the  eighth 
chapter  of  Luke,  which  I  sought  to  introduce  by  giving  a  sketch, 
chiefly  taken  from  the  preceding  chapter,  of  what  kind  His  min- 
istry was  likely  to  be  in  these  cities,  in  which  I  think  I  had  no 
small  liberty  granted  to  my  mind  and  to  my  pen,  for  which  I  had 
earnestly  besought  the  Lord  in  the  morning.  And  having  well 
exhausted  myself  by  about  one  o'clock,  and  brought  the  discourse 
to  a  resting-place,  I  judged  I  could  not  do  better  than  gather  my 
implements  and  walk  over  to  Walthamstow,  that  I  might  have 
the  more  time  with  our  afflicted  friends.  ...  I  pursued  my  road 
alone,  reflecting  much  upon  the  emptiness  of  all  our  expectations, 
and  the  transitoriness  of  all  our  enjoyments,  seeing  that  the  last 
time  I  traveled  that  way  I  had  pleased  myself  with  having  found 
a  road  through  the  park,  by  which  you  and  I  and  dear  Edward 
might  oft  walk  out  of  a  summer  eve  to  see  our  friends ;  and  now 
little  Edward  and  our  esteemed  friend  are  in  the  dust.  Be  it  so. 
I  praise  the  Lord  for  His  goodness,  and  so  do  you,  my  dearest 

wife.     I  found  our  dear  friends  as  I  could  have  wished 

Having  assembled  the  family,  and  encouraged  them  to  stand  fast 
in  the  Lord  and  see  his  wonders,  we  joined  in  worship,  and  the 
ladies  retired,  leaving  me  in  this  room,  dear,  and  sitting  in  the 
spot  where  our  friend  used  so  cheerfully  to  entertain  us.  .  .  .  Oh, 
Isabella,  my  soul  is  sometimes  stirred  up,  and  sometimes  languish- 
es with  much  faintness,  yet  with  a  very  faint  as  well  as  a  very 
fervent  cry,  I  will  entreat  Him  that  I  may  be  wholly  His,  in  my 
strength  and  in  my  weakness.  I  pray  for  you  all  continually.  I 
bless  you  and  our  dear  babe  night  and  morning,  not  forgetting 
Mary,  whom  I  entreat  to  advance,  and  not  to  go  back.  .  .  .  Now, 
my  dearest,  how  glad  should  we  be  that  the  fresh,  free  air  of  our 
house  was  eminently  servicable  to  Hall,  with  whom  it  might  have 
gone  very  hard  in  his  confined  place.  The  servant  is  now  about 
to  leave  us;  and  then  we  are  Hall,  his  wife,  his  wife's  cousin, 
three  most  worthy  people.  ...  So  be  wholly  at  rest,  my  dearest, 
concerning  my  comfort,  and  regulate  your  time  wholly  by  consid- 
eration for  your  health  and  dear  Margaret's.  The  solitude  does 
me  good.  It  teaches  mo  my  blessedness  in  such  a  wife,  which  I 
have  much  forgotten,  but  now,  thank  God,  forget  not.  .  .  .  But 
time  hastens,  and  my  eyes  grow  heavy  and  my  conceptions  dull. 
The  Lord,  who  preserved  the  Virgin  and  the  Blessed  Babe  on 
their  journey  to  Egypt,  preserve  my  wife  and  babe,  and  bring 


"FOR  THE  CONSOLATION  OF  EDWARD'S  MOTHER."        I93 

them  in  safety  to  their  home,  and  their  home  in  my  heart.     This 
night  may  His  arms  be  around  you,  and  soft  and  gentle  sleep  seal 
your  eyelids,  and  when  you  awake  may  you  be  with  Him.    Amen. 
"29^A,  Saturday. 

"  '  Long  have  I  viewed,  long  have  I  thought. 

And  trembling  held  the  bitter  draught ; 

But  now  resolved  and  firm  I'll  be, 

Since  'tis  prepared  and  mixed  by  Thee. 
"  '  I'll  trust  my  great  Physician's  skill, 

"What  He  prescribes  can  ne'er  be  ill ; 

No  longer  will  I  groan  or  pine, 

Thy  pleasure  'tis — it  shall  be  mine. 
"  'Thy  medicine  oft  produces  smart, 

Thou  wound'st  me  in  the  tenderest  part ; 

All  that  I  prized  below  is  gone ; 

Yet,  Father,  still  Thy  will  be  done. 
"  '  Since  'tis  Thy  sentence  I  shall  part 

With  what  is  nearest  to  my  heart, 

My  little  all  I  here  resign, 

And  lo  !  my  heart  itself  is  Thine. 
"  '  Take  all,  Great  God.     I  will  not  grieve, 

But  wish  I  still  had  more  to  give. 

I  hear  Thy  voice ;  Thou  bidd'st  me  quit 

This  favored  gourd,  and  I  submit.' 

"These  lines,  my  dearest,  were  brought  in  for  the  consolation 

of  Mrs.  I by  the  two  pious  sisters  in  whom  our  departed 

friend  used  to  rejoice  so  much.  I  thought  them  so  pious  and 
obedient  in  their  spirit  that  I  immediately  copied  them  out  for 
the  consolation  of  Edward's  mother.  Dear  Isabella,  if  the  fruit 
of  our  marriage  had  been  no  more  than  to  give  birth  and  being 
to  so  sweet  a  spirit,  I  would  bless  the  Lord  that  He  had  ever  giv- 
en you  to  my  arms. 

"I  am  in  Dr.  M 's  back  dining-room,  so  far  on  my  way 

home.  ,  .  .  So,  to  place  myself  in  the  sweetest  company  which 
the  world  possesses  for  me,  I  have  taken  my  pen  in  hand.  I  know 
not  how  it  is,  my  dear,  that  I  find  not  the  communion  I  looked 

for  in  the   company  of  Mrs.  I .     Her  mind  is  fidgety  or 

flighty,  I  know  not  which.  ...  So  it  is  with  me  also,  and  with 
all  others  who  nourish  their  own  will  in  its  hidden  places.  An 
evidence,  my  dear,  of  those  who  nourish  their  own  will,  is  the 
carelessness  which  they  have  in  expressing  their  thought,  and 
manifesting  it  to  others.  Being  manifest  to  themselves,  they  stop 
short,  and  heed  not  the  farther  revealing  it.     How  this  has  been 

my  character,  and  that  of  Mrs.  I !    Hence  our  inability  to  en- 

N 


19 J:  IKFLUENCE  OF  THE  LANDSCAPE. 

ter  into  communion;  for  communion  implies  one  common,  not 
two  several  minds.  The  true  access  and  assurance  of  good  soci- 
ety* is  the  communion  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  if  you  cultivate, 
my  beloved  wife,  it  will  be  well  for  you  in  all  relations,  and  so 
also  for  me.  As  Christ  is  the  author  of  all  true  regulation  of  the 
mind,  or  understanding,  or  reason,  so  the  Holy  Ghost  is  the  au- 
thor of  all  true  love,  and  affection,  and  communion,  out  of  which 

all  forms  of  society  spring.     But  for  Miss  B ,  I  think  her,  so 

far  as  I  can  judge,  a  faithful  and  true  disciple  of  the  Lord ;  rather, 
perhaps,  over-theological,  and  not  enough  practiced  in  the  inward 
obedience  of  the  mind.  Oh,  my  dearest,  this  obedience  is  the  per- 
fection of  the  Christian — obedience  in  the  thought,  obedience  in 
the  feeling,  obedience  in  the  action.  Think  much  of  this,  for  it  is 
true^  true  !  As  I  came  over  these  fields  and  marshes,  and  by  that 
running  water,  there  revived  in  me  some  effeminate  feelings,  which 
convince  me  that  there  is  an  intimate  connection  between  the  soft- 
er and  more  luxurious  forms  of  nature,  and  the  softer  passions  of 
the  mind ;  for  I  am  never  visited  with  any  such  fleshly  thoughts 
when  moving  through  the  mountains  and  wilds  of  my  native 
country ;  and,  to  my  judgment,  this  tendency  of  visible  beauty, 
variety,  and  richness  to  cultivate  the  sensual  part  of  our  nature, 
which  obscures  the  intellectual  and  moral,  is  the  true  account  that, 
being  left  to  themselves  without  religion,  the  people  of  the  plains 
sink  into  lethargy  and  luxury  of  soul  far  sooner  than  the  people 
of  the  mountains.  The  eye  hath  more  to  do  with  the  flesh  than 
any  other  sense,  although  they  be  all  its  vile  ministers.  Oh, 
when  shall  I  be  delivered  from  these  base  bonds  ?  When  shall  I 
desire  to  be  delivered,  and  loathe  them  with  my  soul? 

"  Dr.  M interrupted  me,  and  I  now  write  by  my  fireside, 

whither  the  Lord  has  conducted  me  again  in  safety,  preparing  all 
things  for  my  reception.  I  have  finished  both  my  discourses,  and 
have  had  a  season  of  discourse- and  prayer  with  the  three  women 
whose  tears  are  the  tokens  of  their  emotion.     Oh,  that  they  may 

be  saved !  .  .  .  .  Dr.  M pleases  me  not  a  little.     He  is  an 

exact,  but  formal  man,  yet  he  seems  to  possess  more  insight  into 
theology  than  I  had  thought.  One  discourse  was  profitable  and 
full  of  argument.    The  Universityf  makes  progress,  and  the  good- 

*  In-ing  uses  this  word  in  the  Scotch  sense — good  company,  fellowship.  The  so- 
cial faculty  is  evidently  what  he  means. 

t  London  University,  which  was  then  being  established,  and  which,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  exclusion  of  religion,  Irving  strenuously  opposed. 


WISDOM  AND  POWER.— PRAYERS  FOR  THE  ABSENT.       I95 

natured  doctor  thinks  he  has  mellowed  them  into  the  adoption  of 
some  measure  defensive  of  religion.  He  pleases  himself  with  the 
thought  that  Dr.  Cox  can  do  every  thing  or  any  thing  with  Brough- 
am. '  The  man  who  thinks  he  hath  Brougham  captive  hath 
caught  a  Tartar.  He  has  more  of  the  whirlpool  quality  in  him 
than  any  man  I  have  met  with ;  and  he  careth  not  for  wisdom, 
but  for  power  only.'  These  were  some  of  my  exclamations  in 
the  midst  of  the  doctor's  simplicity.  Observe,  Isabella,  that  the 
philosopher,  or  lover  of  wisdom,  is  a  grade  higher  than  the  lovers 
of  power,  or  the  monarchs  who  have  reached  it.  Hence,  when  a 
truly  great  man  chances  to  be  a  king,  he  desires  wisdom  more- 
over, as  Alfred  did,  and  others  after,  as  Justinian  and  Napoleon  ; 
but  no  philosopher  ever  cared  to  be  a  king — Pythagoras,  or  Pla- 
to, or  Socrates,  for  instance.  There  are  no  philosophers  nowa- 
days, because  they  are  all  ambitious  of  power  or  eminence.  Even 
Basil  Montagu  is  desirous  of  power — that  is,  his  own  will ;  and 
Coleridge  is  desirous  of  power — that  is,  the  good-will  of  others,  or 
the  idolatry  of  himself.  The  Christian  is  both  priest  and  king,  a 
minister  of  wisdom  and  a  possessor  of  power.  The  rest  I  leave  to 
your  own  reflections.     I  had  much  earnest  discourse  with  Mr. 

T on  our  way  home,  concerning  his  vocation.     The  Lord  be 

his  defense.  And  now,  Edward  Irving,  another  day  hath  passed 
over  thy  head,  and  hast  thou  occupied  the  time  well  ?  Art  thou 
worthy  of  to-morrow  ?  I  have  passed  the  day  amiss,  and  am  not 
worthy  of  to-morrow.  I  have  been  in  communion  with  myself. 
I  have  loved  myself  better  than  another.  I  know  not  whether  I 
have  been  altogether  temj)erate ;  and  yet  will  I  praise  the  Lord, 
for  I  have  prayed  oft,  and  I  have  written  my  discourses  in  a  spir- 
itual frame  of  mind.  But  oh !  my  meditations,  why  centre  ye  at 
home  so  much  ?  Now  may  the  Lord  prepare  me  for  to-morrow's 
holy  dawn,  and  all  my  people,  and  give  me  strength  to  beget  one 
unto  Christ,  whom  I  may  call  my  son!  How  doth  my  sweet 
daughter,  my  dear  child  ?  Thou  seed  of  an  immortal !  the  Lord 
make  light  thy  swaddling-band,  and  salvation  thy  swathing  round 
about  thee !  And  thou,  my  most  excellent  wife !  when  shall  these 
eyes  behold  thee,  and  these  lips  call  thee  blessed,  and  these  arms 
embrace  thee?  In  the  Lord's  good  time.  When  Thou  judgest 
it  to  be  best,  oh  my  God,  direct  them  to  a  good  time,  and  conduct 
them  by  a  healthy  way.  Thou  doest  all  things  well.  And  this 
night  encircle  them  with  Thy  arm  where  they  lie,  and  bless  the 
house  where  they  dwell  for  their  sake.     Make  my  wife  like  the 


196  INTERCEDING  FOR  THE  PEOPLE. 

ancient  women,  and  my  child  like  the  seed  of  the  fathers  of  Thj 
Church.  And,  oh !  that  Thy  servant  might  be  held  in  remem- 
brance by  the  generation  of  the  godly.  Bless  also  Thine  hand- 
maiden, our  faithful  servant.  Even  so,  my  family,  let  the  bless- 
ing of  God  encompass  us  all. 

"  Sunday,  SOth.  This  has  been  to  me  a  day  to  be  held  in  remem- 
brance, my  dearest  wife,  for  the  strength  with  which  the  Lord  hath 
endowed  me  to  manifest  his  truth.  I  pray  it  may  be  a  day  to  be 
remembered  for  the  strength  with  which  He  hath  endowed  many 
of  my  people  to  conceive  truth  and  bring  forth  its  fruitfulness. 
In  the  morning  I  rose  before  eight,  and  having  sought  to  purify 
myself  by  prayer  for  the  sanctification  of  the  Sabbath,  I  came 
down  to  the  duties  of  my  family ;  but,  before  passing  out  of  my 
bedchamber,  let  me  take  warning,  and  admonish  my  dear  Isabella 
how  necessary  it  is  for  the  first  opening  of  our  eyelids  upon  the 
sweet  light  of  the  morning  to  open  the  eye  of  our  soul  upon  its 
blessed  light,  which  is  Christ,  otherwise  the  tempter  will  carry  us 
away  to  look  upon  some  vanity  or  folly  in  the  kingdom  of  this 
world,  and  so  divert  our  souls  as  that,  when  they  come  to  lift 
themselves  up  to  God,  they  shall  find  no  concentration  of  spirit 
upon  God,  no  sweet  flow  of  holy  desires,  no  strong  feeling  of  want 
to  extort  supplication  or  groanings  of  soul,  so  that  we  shall  have 
complainings  of  absence  instead  of  consolations  of  His  holy  pres- 
ence, barrenness  and  leanness  for  faithfulness  and  beauty.  So, 
alas !  I  found  it  in  the  morning;  but  the  Lord  heard  the  voice  of 
my  crying,  and  sent  me  this  instruction,  which  may  He  enable  me 
and  my  dear  wife  to  profit  from  in  the  time  to  come.  After  our 
family  worship,  in  which  I  read  the  first  chapter  of  the  Hebrews, 
as  preparatory  to  reading  it  in  the  church,  Mr.  Dinwiddle,  our 
worthy  and  venerable  elder,  came  in  as  usual,  and  we  joined  in 
prayer  for  the  blessing  of  the  Lord  upon  the  ministry  of  the  Word 
this  day  throughout  all  the  churches,  and  especially  in  the  church 
and  congregation  given  into  our  hand;  whereupon  he  departed, 
having  some  preparations  to  make  before  the  service,  and  I  went 
alone,  meditating  upon  that  first  of  Hebrews,  which  has  occupied 
my  thoughts  so  much  all  the  week.  We  began  by  singing  the 
first  six  verses  of  the  forty-fifth  Psalm,  whose  reference  to  Messiah 
I  shortly  instructed  the  people  to  bear  in  mind.  In  prayer  I  found 
much  liberty,  especially  in  confession  of  sin  and  humiliation  of 
soul,  for  the  people  seemed  bowed  down,  very  still  and  silent,  and 
full  of  solemnity ;  then,  having  read  the  first  of  Hebrews,  I  told 


A  SUNDAY'S  SEEVICES.  197  • 

them  that  it  was  the  epistle  for  instructing  them  in  the  person  and 
offices  of  Christ  as  our  mediator,  both  priest  and  Iving ;  but  that  it 
wholly  bore  upon  the  present  being  of  the  man  Christ  Jesus,  from 
the  time  that  he  was  begotten  from  the  dead,  not  upon  his  former 
being,  from  eternity  before  He  became  flesh,  which  was  best  to  be 
understood  from  the  Gospel  by  John,  but  for  the  new  character 
which  He  had  acquired  by  virtue  of  His  incarnation  and  resurrec- 
tion, and  the  relations  in  which  He  stood  to  the  Church  and  to 
the  world,  this  epistle  is  the  great  fountain  of  knowledge,  though, 
at  the  same  time,  it  throws  much  light  upon  His  eternal  Sonship 
and  divinity,  by  the  way  of  allusion  and  acknowledgment  in  pass- 
ing ;  that  the  purpose  of  the  epistle  was  to  satisfy  the  believing 
Hebrews,  who  were  terribly  assailed  and  tempted  by  their  unbe- 
lieving brethren,  and  confirm  them  in  the  superiority  of  Christ  to 
Moses  as  a  lawgiver,  to  Aaron  and  the  Levitical  priesthood  as  a 
priest,  and  to  angels,  through  wliose  ministry  they  believed  that 
the  law  was  given,  as  the  apostle  himself  teacheth  in  his  Epistle 
to  the  Gralatians.  And  therefore  he  opens  with  great  dignity  the 
solemn  discourse  by  connecting  Christ  with  all  the  prophets,  and 
exalts  Him  above  all  rank  and  comparison  by  declaring  His  in- 
heritance. His  workmanship.  His  prerogative  of  representing  God, 
of  upholding  the  universe,  of  purging  our  sins  by  Himself,  and 
sitting  at  the  right  hand  of  the  majesty  on  high.  Then,  address- 
ing himself  to  his  work,  he  demonstrates  His  superiority  to  angels, 
in  order,  not  to  the  adjustment  of  His  true  dignity — which  he  had 
already  made  peerless — but  to  the  exaltation  of  the  dispensation 
which  he  brought,  above  the  former  which  was  given  by  angels. 
This  demonstration  he  makes  by  reference  to  psalms,  which,  by 
the  belief  of  all  the  Jewish  Church,  from  the  earliest  times,  were 
understood  of  Messiah,  which  quotations,  however,  far  surpass,  in- 
finitely surpass  the  purpose  for  which  they  are  quoted,  placing 
Him,  each  one,  on  a  level  with  God,  to  us,  at  least,  to  whom  that 
doctrine  hath  been  otherwise  revealed.  But  those  Psalms  looking 
forward  to  MessiaJi's  glory  can  consequently  have  only  an  applica- 
tion posterior  to  the  time  that  He  was  Messiah,  and  that  he  was 
Messiah  in  humility.  Therefore,  the  '  this  day'  is  the  day  either 
of  His  birth  or  of  His  ascension,  the  '  first-begotten'  is  from  the 
dead,  and  the  '  kingdom'  is  the  kingdom  purchased  by  His  obedi- 
ence unto  the  death ;  and  hence  the  reason  given  for  His  exalta- 
tion is,  because  He  hath  loved  righteousness  and  hated  iniquity. 
These  trains  of  reasoning  and  quotation  being  concluded,  I  chal- 


198  SERMON. 

lenged  them  to  remark  the  sublimity  of  tliat  from  the  102d  Psalm, 
and  thence  took  occasion  to  rebuke  them  very  sharply  for  going 
after  idolatries  of  profane  poets,  and  fictitious  novelists,  and  mea- 
gre sentimentalists,  who  are  Satan's  prophets,  and  wear  his  livery 
of  malice,  and  falsehood,  and  mocking  merriment,  while  they  for- 
sook the  prophets  of  the  Lord,  and  their  sublime,  pathetic,  true, 
wise,  and  everlasting  forms  of  discourse.  Then,  having  begun 
with  a  prayer  that  the  Lord  would  make  the  reading  of  this  Epis- 
tle effectual  to  the  confirming  their  faith  in  Christ's  character,  oflO.- 
ces,  and  work,  and  possessing  them  of  the  efficacy  thereof,  I  con- 
cluded with  a  prayer  that  the  Lord  would  enlarge  our  souls  b}" 
that  powerful  word  which  had  now  been  preached  to  us  of  His 
great  grace. 

"  Then  we  sung  the  last  verses  of  the  102d  Psalm,  and  prayed 
in  the  words  of  the  Lord.  The  sermon*  was  from  Phil.,  i.,  21,  to 
which  I  introduced  their  attention  by  explaining  my  object  to 
show  them  the  way  to  possess  and  be  assured  of  that  victory  over 
death,  of  which,  last  Lord's  day,  I  showed  them  the  great  achieve- 
ment (1  Cor.,  sv.,  55-57) ;  then,  having,  in  a  few  sentences,  embod- 
ied Paul's  sublime  dilemma  bet;iveen  living  and  dying,  I  joined 
earnest  battle  with  the  subject,  and  set  to  work  to  explain  the  life 
that  was  Christ,  which  I  drew  out  of  Gral.,  ii.,  20,  to  consist  in  a 
total  loss  of  personality  and  self,  and  surrender  of  all  our  being 
unto  Him  who  hath  purchased  us  with  His  blood,  leaving  us  no 
longer  '  our  own' — which  condition  of  being,  though  it  seem  ideal 
and  unattainable,  is  nothing  else  than  the  obedience  of  the  first 
great  commandment,  '  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God,'  &c. ; 
since  to  be  so  identified,  and  at  one  with  Christ,  was  only  to  be 
wholly  in  love  with,  and  obedient  to  the  Father.  Now  this  con- 
dition of  life  must  insure  to  all  who  have  reached  to  it  the  same 
grace  at  death  which  Christ,  the  man  Christ,  the  Messiah,  by  His 
resurrection,  attained  to — or,  if  not  wholly  at  death,  partiall}''  then, 
and  wholly  at  the  resurrection.  For  I  argued  from  the  2d  of  the 
Hebrews  that  whatever  Christ  attained  to  His  people  attained  to, 
and  also  from  all  the  promises  in  the  2d  and  8d  of  the  Revelations 
to  those  who  overcome.  This  gave  me  great  purchase  upon  the 
subject,  allowing  me  the  whole  scope  of  the  contrast  between 

*  This  wonderful  resume  of  the  clay's  services  will  give  a  better  idea  than  any  de- 
scription of  the  lengthened  and  engrossing  character  of  these  discourses,  into  which 
the  preacher  went  with  his  whole  soul  and  heart,  and  of  the  extraordinary  fascina- 
tion which  could  hold  his  audience  interested  through  exercises  so  long,  close,  and 
solemn. 


EVENING  SEEVICE.  I99 

Christ's  humiliation  and  exaltation;  -which  having  wrought  ac- 
cording  to  my  gift,  I  then  proceeded  to  show  the  vanity  of  any 
lower  estimate  of  the  life  which  is  '  Christ'  by  touching  many 
popular  errors,  such  as  place  it  in  a  sound  faith  merely,  or  in  a 
correct  morality,  or  in  a  religious  conformity,  against  which  hav- 
ing opposed  the  universality  and  unreservedness  of  obedience,  the 
thoroughness  of  redemption,  and  the  perfectness  of  regeneration, 
I  told  them  and  warned  them  of  sad  misgivings  on  a  death-bed, 
of  desperate  fears  and  hoodwinkings  of  the  conscience,  showing 
them  that  the  believer  could  not  die  hard,  like  the  unbeliever,  or 
brutified,  like  the  carnalist;  and  I  prayed  them,  when  these  doubt- 
ings  came  upon  them,  to  remember  that  this  day  they  had  been 
warned  by  a  minister  of  the  Gospel,  I  had  a  good  deal  of  matter 
still  remaining,  but  Mr.  Lee's  child  being  to  be  baptized,  and  the 
quarterly  collection  to  be  gathered,  I  stopped  there,  the  place  being 
convenient, 

"  We  sang  the  three  first  verses  of  the  28d  Psalm,  and  con- 
cluded. Mr.  Hamilton  walked  home  with  me,  and  we  enjoyed 
much  spiritual  discourse.  I  refused  to  dine  with  him,  and  also 
with  Mr.  Dinwiddle,  and  had  my  chop,  which,  being  eaten  with 
thankfulness,  was  sweet.  Benjamin  shared  with  me,  and  was  sad- 
ly afflicted  to  hear  of  little  Edward's  death.  I  am  sure  it  does 
not  trouble  you  to  speak  of  our  departed  joy,  else  I  would  desist. 
I  rested  the  interval,  meditating  upon  the  22d  chapter  of  Genesis ; 
and  having  gone  forth,  not  without  prayer  and  thanksgiving,  to 
my  second  ministry,  I  have  reason  to  give  God  thanks  for  his  gra- 
cious support.  From  the  chapter  I  took  occasion  first  to  observe, 
in  general,  that  it  was  for  the  instruction  of  families,  as  the  fount^ 
of  nations,  in  God's  holiness ;  .  .  .  I  observed  how  it  was  that 
idolatry  in  the  people  and  true  piety  in  the  king  were  found  to- 
gether, even  as,  among  the  Eoman  Catholics,  you  have  among  the 
priests  singular  saints,  while  the  body  of  the  people  are  rank  and 
gross  idolaters.  .  .  .  The  Lecture  was  upon  Luke,  xiii.,  1 ;  when 
I  sought,  first,  to  give  the  character  of  our  Lord's  ministry  in  their 
towns  and  villages,  deriving  it  from  the  specimen  of  Nain,  and 
other  fragments  from  the  preceding  pages,  its  munificence  of  well- 
doing, its  public  discourses,  sifting  and  sounding  the  hearers,  its 
private  ministrations  in  houses  and  families,  improving  each  to 
the  justification  and  recommendation  of  a  higher  kind  of  ministry 
than  what  presently  prevails  among  us.  .  .  .  Such,  dear,  hath 
been  my  employment  this  day,  of  which  I  give  you  this  account 


200  -A^T  HOME.— SOTTOMAYOR. 

before  I  sleep,  that  you  may  be  edified.  .  .  .  The  Lord  be  gra- 
cious unto  you,  and  to  our  little  babe,  and  to  our  faithful  servant, 
for  He  regards  me  accountable  for  all  my  household.  Therefore 
I  exhort  you  all  to  holiness  and  love.  The  Lord  reunite  us  all  in 
peace  and  blessedness. 

^^  Monday  J  ^Ist  October.  I  now  sit  down,  my  dear  Isabella,  to 
give  you  the  humble  history  of  another  day,  which,  from  yester- 
day's exhaustion,  hath  been  a  day  of  weakness.  What  a  restraint 
and  hinderance  this  flesh  and  blood  is  upon  the  inflamed  spirit, 
and  to  what  degradation  that  spirit  is  reduced  which  doth  not 
beat  its  weary  breast  against  the  narrow  cage  which  confineth  it. 
But  to  fret  and  consume  away  with  struggles  against  the  conti- 
nent flesh  is  rather  the  part  of  discontented  and  proud  spirits  than 
of  those  who  are  enlightened  in  the  faith  of  Christ,  to  whom  the 
encumbrance  which  weighs  them  down  is  a  constant  memorial  of 
the  resurrection,  and  by  the  faith  of  the  resurrection  soothed 
down  into  patience  and  contentment.  Besides,  the  bodily  life  is 
to  them  the  period  of  destinies  so  infinite,  and  the  means  of  char- 
ities so  enlarged,  that  it  is  often  a  matter  of  doubt  and  question 
with  them,  as  with  St.  Paul,  whether  it  is  better  to  depart  and  be 
with  Christ,  which  is  far  better,  or  to  remain  in  the  flesh,  which  is 
more  profitable  to  the  Church.  And  I  do  trust  that  my  abode 
this  day  in  an  overstrained  tabernacle  hath  not  been  unprofitable 
to  that  Church  which  is  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth.  It 
was  a  day  devoted  to  private  conversations  with  those  who  pro- 
pose, for  the  first  time,  to  join  themselves  to  the  Church  at  our 
approaching  communion.  When  I  came  down  to  breakfast,  my 
table  was  spread  with  the  welcome  news  of  Anne  P 's  mer- 
ciful delivery,  which  Mr.  M had  come  to  tell  me  of,  but  not 

finding  me,  had  written  out.  Sottomayor  was  waiting  for  me,  and 
joined  with  us  in  our  morning  worship.  He  is  in  good  cheer,  but 
in  want  of  another  hour's  teaching,  in  order  to  keep  his  head  above 
water,  which,  I  trust,  will  be  obtained  for  him  by  that  merciful 
Providence  which  has  watched  over  his  wife  and  him.  By-the- 
by,  I  had  taken  upon  me  the  task  of  inquiring,  while  in  the  north, 
what  opening  Edinburgh  presented  for  his  brother,  the  soldier, 
which  my  various  unforeseen  duties  hindered  me  from  fulfilling. 
Would  you  give  that  in  trust  to  some  one  and  let  me  know  ?  I 
think  Sottomayor,  the  priest,  is  truly  confirmed  in  the  faith,  and 
I  have  good  reason  to  think  that  the  soldier  is  finding  relief  for 
the  multitude  of  his  doubts.     There  came  also  to  breakfast  with 


SCOTTISH  ADVENTURERS.— A  WOMAN  OF  TEARS.  201 

me  a  Mr.  M and  a  Mr.  C (I  think),  of  neither  of  whom  I 

know  any  thing,  except  that  the  former  had  met  me  in  Glasgow. 
He  has  come  to  this  town  on  adventure,  like  so  many  of  our  coun- 
trymen, and  came  to  me  in  his  straits  to  help  him  to  a  situation, 
leading  with  him,  or  being  led  by,  the  other  lad.  I  thought  it 
hard  enough  to  be  by  so  slight  a  thread  bound  to  so  secular  a 
work ;  but  looking  to  the  lad,  and  seeing  in  him  an  air  of  serious- 
ness and  good  sense,  and  thinking  of  his  helplessness,  I  felt  it  my 
duty  to  encourage  liim ;  and  though  I  could  not  depart  from  my 
rule  of  not  meddling  with  secular  affairs,  and  stated  so  to  him 
plainly,  I  penciled  him  a  word  to  Alex.  Hamilton  to  give  him 
counsel.  At  the  same  time  I  declared  to  him  what  I  believe  to 
be  the  truth,  that  this  coming  upon  venture  from  a  place  we  are 
occupied  well,  and  sustained  in  daily  food  from  our  occupation, 
merely  that  we  may  rise  in  the  world,  is  not  a  righteous  thing  be- 
fore God,  however  approved  by  our  ambitious  countrymen ;  and 
though  it  may  be  successful  in  bringing  them  to  what  they  seek, 
a  fortune  and  an  establishment  in  the  world,  it  is  generally  unsuc- 
cessful in  increasing  them  in  the  riches  of  the  kingdom,  in  which 
they  become  impoverished  every  dayj  until  they  are  the  hardest, 
most  secular,  worldly,  and  self-seeking  creatures  which  this  me- 
tropolis contains.  Let  them  come,  if  they  have  any  kindred  or 
friends  to  whose  help  they  may  come,  or  if  they  be  in  want,  for 
then  they  come  on  an  errand  which  the  Lord  may  countenance ; 
but  let  them  come  merely  for  desire  of  gain,  or  of  getting  on,  and 
they  come  at  Mammon's  instigation,  with  whom  our  God  doth  not 
co-operate  at  all.  ...  I  began  the  duties  of  the  day  at  ten  o'clock, 
with  Mrs.  C ,  the  woman  whom  Lady  Mackintosh  recommend- 
ed to  you  for  a  matron.  She  has  been  a  mother  of  tears,  having 
lost,  since  she  came  to  England,  about  twenty-five  years  ago,  hus- 
band, and  child,  and  mother,  and  brothers  three,  and  all  her  kin- 
dred but  one  brother,  who  still  lives  in  Buchan.  The  loss  of  her 
little  daughter,  at  six  years  of  age,  by  an  accident  upon  the  streets, 
brought  her  to  the  very  edge  of  derangement,  in  the  excess  of  her 
grief,  so  that,  like  Job,  she  was  glad  when  the  sun  went  down, 
and  shut  out  the  cheerful  light  from  her  eyes.  But  the  Lord  re- 
strained this  natural  sorrow,  that  it  should  not  work  utter  death, 
as  its  nature  is  to  do,  in  consideration,  I  doubt  not,  of  her  faith, 
and  for  the  farther  sanctification  of  her  soul.  .  .  .  She  left  Scot- 
land without  her  mother's  consent  (why,  I  did  not  venture  to  ask), 
and  in  six  months  her  mother  was  no  more  to  give  or  withhold 


202  CATECHUMENS.— TWO  SISTERS. 

her  consent,  wliicli  made  her  miseries  in  England  have  something 
in  them,  to  her  mind,  of  a  mother's  curse ;  and  this,  she  told  me, 
was  bitterness  embittered.  Tell  this  to  all  your  sisters,  that  they 
may  honor  their  parents,  and  never  gainsay  their  mother.  Tell  it 
also  to  Mary,  and  let  Mary  tell  it  to  her  sisters ;  but  withhold  the 
woman's  name ;  that,  like  many  other  things  I  write,  is  to  your- 
self alone.  .  .  .  This  good  woman,  whose  face  is  all  written  over 

with  sorrow  and  sadness,  like  Mrs.  M 's,  had  been  a  member 

of  Dr.  ISTicol's  church  till  his  death,  whose  ministry  had  been  to 
her  a  great  consolation.  Tell  this  to  James  Nicol  when  you  see 
him ;  and  say  that,  now  that  he  is  inheriting  his  father's  prayers, 
he  must  walk  in  his  father's  footsteps,  and  comfort  the  aiSicted 
flock  of  Christ,  which  is  our  anointed  calling,  as  it  was  that  of  our 
great  Master.  Obey  this  at  the  commandment  of  your  husband. 
This  woman  satisfied  me  well,  both  as  to  knowledge  and  spirit, 
and  I  admitted  her  freely  thus  far.  She  is  now  a  sort  of  guardian- 
servant  to  a  lady  in  Bloomsbury,  who  has  partial  and  occasional 
aberrations  of  mind.     The  Lord  bless  her  in  such  a  tender  case ! 

"  My  next  spiritual  visitants  were  the  two  Misses  A ,  whom 

I  am  wont  to  meet  at  Mr,  Cassel's,  of  whom  the  younger  came  to 
my  instructions,  drawn  by  spiritual  concern,  the  elder  to  accom- 
pany the  younger,  and  thus  both  have  been  led  to  come  forward 
— I  fear  the  latter  still  rather  as  a  companion  than  as  a  disciple. 
But  oh!  the  difference;  as  a  lad  who  has  just  parted  from  me 
said,  'Grace  gives  to  the  youth  a  fuller  majesty,  without  any  petty 
pride,'  so  I  found  it  here  in  the  difference  between  the  living  spirit 
of  the  one's  conversation  and  words,  and  the  shaped  formality  and 
measured  cadence  of  the  other.  I  propose  looking  here  a  little 
deeper ;  but  as  I  have  several  days  devoted  to  farther  instruction, 
I  made  no  demur  at  present,  though  I  counseled  them  fervently 

and  prayed  with  them  both.     My  next  was  a  Miss  S ,  from 

Johnstone,  near  Paisley,  who  has  come  to  London  to  be  under  her 
brother's  medical  care — a  fine  Scotch  head,  with  an  art-pale  coun- 
tenance, and  fine  Grrecian  outline  of  face ;  she  is  a  regular  mem- 
ber of  the  Church  in  her  native  place,  but  out  of  her  own  will 
came  to  speak  with  me ;  and,  though  feeble  in  strength,  we  were 
able  to  commune  and  pray  together  to  our  mutual  comfort.     My 

last,  at  one  o'clock,  was  Mrs.  K ,  a  widow  lady  of  most  devout 

and  intelligent  appearance,  who  has  been  in  the  habit,  for  many 
months,  of  attending  my  "Wednesday  ministrations,  bringing  a  son 
or  a  daughter  in  her  hand,  with  the  latter  of  whom,  a  sweet  girl 


A  SON  FROM  THE  LORD.  £03 

of  about  seven,  sHe  came  attended.  And  we  joined  in  discourse, 
and  I  found  in  her  a  most  exercised  and  tender  spirit,  whose  hus- 
band of  her  youth  had  been  cut  off  from  her  in  the  East  Indies, 
and  left  her  three  sons  and  a  daughter ;  the  former  she  had  now 
come  up  to  town  to  prepare  for  cadetships ;  afterward  to  return, 
with  her  daughter,  to  the  country  again,  to  rear  her  in  the  fear  of 
the  Lord.  And  of  her  eldest  son,  whom  she  had  watched  over 
with  such  care  for  six  years,  having  for  that  time  lived  with  them 
in  Beverley,  for  no  other  end  but  to  educate  them  herself,  in  which 
occupation  she  met  with  the  healing  of  God  to  her  own  soul  in 
the  midst  of  scoffers  and  deriders  (whereof  the  memory  to  men- 
tion drew  tears  from  her  eyes) — her  eldest  son,  who  had  shown 
no  signs  of  grace  under  her  most  careful  instruction,  being  now, 
like  herself,  for  the  sake  of  the  Hindostanee  language,  placed 
among  the  alien  as  his  mother  was,  has  since  shown  such  a  new 
character,  and  written  such  letters  as  she  never  expected  to  receive 
from  him ;  and  then  she  communed  with  me  of  sweet  domestic 
interests  in  such  a  devout  and  simple  way,  with  so  many  appli- 
cations for  instruction,  and  such  a  tender  interest  in  two  half-caste 
daughters  of  her  husband,  whom  she  has  cared  for  as  her  own, 
that  I  delight  to  think  what  a  sweet  companion  she  will  make  for 
you,  my  dearest,  when  you  return.  Thus  passed  a  forenoon,  not 
without  its  mark  in  memory's  chart. 

"  I  walked  down  to  Mrs.  M. 's  in  order  to  inquire  after 

Anne But  time  forestalls  my  wishes,  dear  Isabella. 

Twelve  has  struck,  and  the  sweetest,  holiest  scene  of  the  day  re- 
mains untold.  I  prayed  for  a  son,  and  the  Lord  this  night  hath 
brought  me  my  son,  Henry  S ,  a  youth  who  called  on  me  be- 
fore my  northern  visit,  and  then  showed  tokens  of  grace  which  I 
had  not  time  to  consider ;  but  this  night,  though  but  an  appren- 
tice, he  hath,  being  the  last  of  my  visitants,  showed  such  wonder- 
ful seriousness  of  mind,  soberness  of  reason,  purity  of  life,  and 
richness  of  character,  as  far  outpasses  in  promise  any  youth  that 
I  have  been  the  means  of  bringing  unto  Christ.  And  when  at 
nine  we  assembled  to  prayer,  and  Hall  showed  his  pale,  emaciated 
face,  and  head  but  sprouting  again  from  the  shaver's  razor,  along 
with  the  rest  of  my  household,  and  I  gave  him  my  easy-chair  in 
consideration  of  his  weakness,  oh,  Isabella,  I  felt  like  a  priest  and 
a  patriarch !  and  the  Lord  enabled  us  to  have  one  of  the  sweetest 
occasions  of  praising  Him  and  serving  Him  which  for  a  long  time 
I  have  enjoyed ;  so  that  we  parted  bedewed  with  tears  from  our 


201  WEAKINESS.— COMMUNICANTS. 

prayers,  in  wliIcTi  we  never  forgot  you  and  our  separated  family ; 
after  which,  while  I  partook  of  my  usual  repast,  I  glanced  at  that 
very  remarkable  article  'Milton,'  in  the  'Edmburgh  Eeview,' 
which  came  in  from  the  library.  I  take  it  to  be  young  Macau- 
lay's.  It  is  clever— oh,  it  is  full  of  genius— but  little  grace.  The- 
ology of  this  day — politics  of  this  day — neither  sound.  Oh,  envi- 
ous Time,  why  dunnest  thou  me  ?  I  write  to  my  wife  to  comfort 
and  edify  her,  and  bless  her,  and  my  babe,  and  my  servant,  and 
all  my  kindred  of  her  father's  honorable  and  pious  house.  Well, 
I  come.     Farewell,  my  dear  wife. 

^^  November  Ist^  Tuesday.  The  command  of  King  George  could 
not  "have  made  me  take  a  pen  in  my  hand  this  night,  dearest  Isa- 
bella ;  and  now  that  I  have  taken  it  in  hand,  I  exceedingly  ques- 
tion whether  this  weary  head  will  drive  it  over  another  line.  But, 
dear,  your  thanks  with  me !  I  have  had  such  a  harvest  of  six 
precious  souls,  whose  spiritual  communications  have  carried  me  al- 
most beyond  my  power  of  enduring  delight.  The  Lord  doth  in- 
deed honor  me.  But,  ah !  this  will  not  do ;  I  must  leave  off.  To- 
morrow, the  Lord  sparing  me,  I  will  set  forth  the  particulars  to 
my  Isabella,  whom,  with  my  dear  daughter,  may  the  Lord  this 
night  preserve. 

"2(i,  Wednesday.  It  was  well-nigh  nine  o'clock  before  I  was 
recruited  this  morning  with  strength  enough  to  go  forth  to  my 
labors ;  for  these  mental  and  spiritual  labors,  being  in  excess,  do 
as  truly  require  an  extra  quantity  of  rest  as  do  bodily  and  social 
labors.  But  I  have  risen,  thank  God,  well  recruited,  and  have 
proceeded  thus  far  on  the  day  (five  o'clock)  very  prosperously. 

The  first  of  my  communicants  yesterday  was  a  Mary  B ,  from 

Hatton  Garden,  a  young  woman  of  a  sweet  and  gracious  appear- 
ance and  discourse,  who,  with  her  mother  and  a  numerous  family, 
were  early  cast  upon  God's  care,  who  hath  cared  for  them  accord- 
ing to  His  promise.  I  was  much  pleased  with  the  simplicity  and 
sincerity  of  her  heart,  and  the  affectionate  way  in  which  she  spoke 
of  her  Lord ;  so  that  she  left  no  doubt  on  my  mind  of  her  being, 
to  the  extent  of  her  knowledge  and  talents,  a  faithful  and  true 
disciple.  I  shall  seek  another  interview  with  her ;  for  I  do  not 
feel  that  I  have  got  acquainted  with  her  spirit,  or  else  it  is  of  so 
simple  and  catholic  a  form  as  to  have  no  character  to  distinguish 
it.  The  next  was  my  old  acquaintance,  Sarah  Evans,  the  wild 
girl,  who  was  somewhat  carried  in  her  mind,  if  you  remember,  in 
the  beginning  of  a  sermon,  and  whom  I  visited  at  Dr. 's,  in 


RETURNS  TO  THE  CONVOCATION  BOOK.        205 

Bloomsbury.  I  little  expected-  to  see  her  so  soon,  and  so  com- 
pletely restored,  althougli  slie  still  gives  one  the  idea  of  one  on 
whom  our  friend  Greaves  would  work  wonders  by  animal  mag- 
netism. I  have  a  moral  certainty  that  this  is  her  temperament, 
and  that  her  temporary  instability  was  rather  a  somnambulism  of 
the  spirit  than  any  insanity  or  derangement  of  mind.  Since  her 
seventeenth  year  she  has  been  a  denizen  of  this  great  hive  of  men, 
friendless  and  without  kindred,  and  has  partook  the  watchful  care 
of  the  Great  Shepherd.  She  is  a  spirit  full  of  inspirations.  Her 
very  words  are  remarkable,  and  there  is  a  strange  abundance  and 
fertility  in  her  sayings  which  astonishes  me.  She  has  already 
had  much  influence  on  her  fellow-servants,  who  have  banished 
cards  and  idle,  worldly  books.  Poor  Sarah  (and  yet  thou  art  not 
poor),  I  feel  a  strange  feeling  toward  thee,  as  if  thou  wert  not 
wholly  dwelling  upon  the  earth,  nor  wholly  present  when  I  con- 
verse with  thee.  And  sure  it  is,  dear  Isabella,  she  has  always  to 
recall  herself,  as  from  a  distance,  before  she  answers  your  inqui- 
ries ;  and  even  the  word  is  but  like  an  echo.  Of  her  spirituality 
I  have  no  doubt,  though  still  she  seems  to  me  like  a  stranger. 

Her  master  at  present  is  Dr.  H^ ,  one  of  my  brother's  medical 

teachers  here,  who  inquires  at  her  occasionally  about  my  brother 
and  about  the  Caledonian  church,  from  which  I  presume  that 
every  one  recognizes  in  her  the  same  unlikeness  to  another  and 
to  her  station. 

"These  occupied  me  till  eleven  o'clock,  after  which  I  went 
forth  to  breathe  the  air  into  the  garden,  in  expectation  of  another 
visitor ;  and,  as  usual,  for  his  memory  hangs  on  every  twig,  the 
little  darling  whom  I  used  to  fondle  and  instruct  came  to  my  re- 
membrance, and  bowed  me  down  with  a  momentary  sorrow,  which 
passed,  full  of  sweetness,  into  what  train  of  thought  I  have  now 
forgotten.  I  occupied  myself  with  my  Convocation  Book,  which 
is  to  me  what  a  politician  and  Christian  of  the  year  1600  would 
be  if  I  could  have  him  to  converse  with  me  and  deliver  his  opin- 
ions. It  embodies  the  ideas  of  the  English  Church  in  full  convo- 
cation upon  all  points  connected  with  the  government  of  the 
Church  and  of  the  world,  and  hath  done  more  than  any  other 
thing  to  scatter  the  rear  of  radicalism  from  my  mind,  and  to  give 
me  insight  into  the  true  principles  of  obedience  to  government. 
There  are,  my  dear,  certain  great  feelings  or  laws  of  the  soul,  un- 
der which  it  grows  into  full  stature,  of  which  obedience  to  govern- 
ment is  one,  communion  with  the  Church  is  another,  trust  in  the 


206  STUDY. 

providence  of  God  another,  and  so  forth,  wliicli  form  the  original 
demand  in  the  soul,  both  for  religion,  and  law,  and  family,  and  to 
answer  which  these  were  appointed-  of  God,  and  are  preserved  by 
His  authority.  My  notion  is,  that  the  ten  commandments  contain 
the  ten  principal  of  these  mother-elements  of  a  thriving  soul — these 
laws  of  laws,  and  generating  principles  of  all  institutions.  These 
also,  I  think,  ought  to  be  made  the  basis  of  every  system  of  moral 
and  political  philosophy.  But  all  this  is  but  looming  upon  my 
eye,  and  durst  not  be  spoken  in  Scotland,  under  the  penalty  of 
high  treason  against  their  laws  of  logic  and  their  enslaved  spirit 
of  discourse.  By-the-by,  when  I  speak  of  Scotland,  it  was  about 
this  time  of  day  when  I  received  a  letter  from  Dr.  Gordon,  asking 
me  to  preach  a  sermon  in  some  chapel  which  Dr.  Waugh  has  pro- 
cured for  the  Scots  Missionary  Society,  and  bring  the  claims  of 
that  Society  before  the  great  people  of  London.  I  mean  to  an- 
swer it  by  referring  them  to  my  Orations  on  the  Missionary  Doc- 
trine, as  being  my  contribution  to  the  Society.  .  .  .  But  I  must 
go  to  the  church  to  preach  from  John,  xiv.,  27.  The  Lord 
strengthen  me. 

"  And  now,  having  enjoyed  no  small  portion  of  His  presence 
for  one  so  unworthy,  I  return  to  my  sweet  occupation  of  making 
my  dear  Isabella  the  sharer  and  partner  of  my  very  soul.  From 
the  garden,  where  I  communed  with  the  canons  of  the  convoca- 
tion, and  with  my  own  meditations  on  these  elemental  principles 
of  wisdom,  I  returned,  and  upon  looking  over  my  paper,  I  found  I 
had  no  more  visitors  till  five  o'clock ;  so  I  addressed  myself  to  my 
discourse,  which  I  purposed  from  Gal.,  ii.,  20,  in  continuation  and 
enlargement  of  that  from  Phil,,  i.,  21 ;  but,  going  into  the  context, 
I  was  drawn  away  to  write  concerning  the  Church  in  Antioch, 
which  occasioned  the  dispute  between  Paul  and  Peter,  until  I 
found  it  was  too  late  to  return,  so  that  my  discourse  has  changed 
its  shape  into  a  lecture,  and  where  it  will  end  you  shall  know  on 
Sabbath,  if  the  Lord  spare  me.  At  five  came  a  young  man,  by 
name  Peter  Samuel,  of  a  boyish  appearance,  very  modest  and 
backward,  a  native  of  Edinburgh,  and  by  trade  a  painter  in  grain ; 
in  whom,  Isabella,  I  found  such  real  utterance  of  the  Spirit,  such 
an  uplifted  and  enlarged  soul,  that  I  could  but  lie  back  upon  my 
chair  and  listen.  The  Lord  bless  the  youth !  It  was  very  mar- 
velous; such  grace,  such  strength  of  understanding,  such  meek- 
ness, such  wisdom!  He  is  also  one  of  the  fruits  of  my  ministry; 
had  wandered  like  a  sheep  without  a  shepherd, '  creeping  by  the 


A  REUNION  OF  YOUNG  CHRISTIANS.  207 

earth,'  until,  in  hearing  me,  he  seemed  exalted  into  the  third 
heavens,  at  times  hardly  knowing  whether  he  was  in  the  body  or 
out  of  the  body,  '  And  all  the  day  long,  at  my  work,  I  am  hap- 
py, and  in  communion  with  the  Church,  which  is  every  where  dif- 
fused around  me  like  the  air;'  and  he  arose  into  the  mysteries  of 
the  Trinity,  and  his  soul  expatiated  in  a  marvelous  way.  At  six 
I  had  made  double  appointments ;  the  one  for  James  Scott,  a  state- 
ly, bashful  lad  from  Earlston,  on  the  Leader,  between  Lauder  and 
Melrose — the  residence,  in  days  of  yore,  of  Thomas  the  Ehymer — 
who  is  come  to  town  to  prosecute  his  studies  as  an  artist.  He  is 
already  in  full  communion  with  the  Church,  but  loved  the  oppor- 
tunity of  conversing  with  me ;  and  the  other  was  of  two  who  de- 
sire to  come  in  company,  John  E ,  a  man  of  about  thirty -five, 

and  C ,  a  young  lad  of  about  twenty.     Moreover,  Samuel  had 

not  departed ;  and  I  think  they  had  been  congregated  of  the  Lord 
on  very  purpose  to  encourage  my  heart  and  strengthen  my  hands, 
for  it  is  not  to  be  told  what  a  heavenly  hour  they  spent  in  making 
known  the  doings  of  the  Lord  to  their  souls ;  and  the  two  latter 
told  me  that  every  Sabbath  they  held  meetings,  before  and  after 
church,  with  others  of  the  Church.  Poor  Samuel  had  been  la- 
menting his  loneliness,  but  now  his  soul  was  filled  with  company 
who  welcomed  him  to  their  heart ;  and  Scott  had  now  one  whose 
spirit  and  manners  attracted  him ;  and  I  was  lost  in  wonder  how 
the  Lord  should  work  such  things  by  my  un worthiness.  But  re- 
membering my  ministerial  calling,  I  opened  to  them  the  duty  of 
self-denial  in  the  expression  of  our  spiritual  experiences  before 
the  world,  lest  they  should  profane  these  sanctuaries  of  our  God ; 
and  the  necessity  of  wisdom  to  veil  with  parable  and  similitude, 
before  the  weak  eye  of  man,  the  brightness  of  the  pure  and  simple 
truth,  reserving  for  the  Lord  and  for  his  saints  the  unveiled  reve- 
lations of  our  higher  delights.  Upon  which  life,  having  enlarged 
to  their  great  seeming  contentment,  we  joined  our  prayers  to- 
gether, and  they  departed.     Now  these  men  who  thus  commune 

together  are  of  most  diverse  ranks.     C is  a  gentleman's  son ; 

R ,  though  of  high  expectations,  has  been  reduced  to  fill  some 

inferior  office  in  Clement's  Lm ;  and  the  others,  whom  I  know,  are 
Scotch  lads,  working  as  journeymen ;  so  true  is  it  that  there  is  no 
difference  in  Christ  Jesus.  After  seven  I  went  to  the  meeting  of 
the  Sabbath-school  teachers.  .  .  .  After  I  returned  home,  I  wrote 
a  letter  to  Constantinople  to  L ,  who  sends  us  the  figs,  exhort- 
ing him  to  stand  fast  among  the  alien ;  which  altogether  was  a  day 


208  "A  VERY  KICK  HARVEST." 

of  such  exhaustion  as  unfitted  me  for  writing  to  you  the  particu- 
lars of  it,  that  you  might  rejoice  in  my  joy,  and  give  praise  unto 
the  Lord,  when  you  know  the  blessing  which  He  is  pouring  out 
upon  my  ministry.  Oh  that  He  would  give  me  food  for  these 
sheep,  and  a  rich  pasture,  and  a  shepherd's  watchfulness,  and  the 
love  of  the  Chief  Shepherd,  that  I  might  even  die  for  them,  if 
need  were !  In  all  which  spiritual  conditions  I  am  much  encour- 
aged by  what  yesterday  the  Lord  brought  before  me. 

"  And  now,  dearest,  this  day  hath  been  a  day  of  thought  which 
has  hardly  yet  taken  form  to  be  distinctly  represented ;  but  on 
Sabbath  I  will  communicate  the  result.  Only  I  have  had  much 
insight  given  me  into  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  from  which  the 
matter  of  my  discourse  will  be  taken.  At  sis  I  went  forth  to  my 
duties,  and  opened  to  my  children  the  nature  of  the  Christian 
Church,  as  being  to  the  world  what  the  new  man  is  to  the  old ; 
what  the  body,  after  the  resurrection,  is  to  the  present  body.  .  .  . 
After  which,  commending  them  to  the  grace  of  God,  I  returned  to 
the  vestry,  and  came  forth  again  to  discourse  to  the  people  of 
Christ's  bequest  of  peace.  .  .  .  But,  though  my  head  could  thus 
rudely  block  out  the  matter,  I  wanted  strength  and  skill  to  de- 
lineate it  as  it  deserved,  which,  if  I  be  in  strength,  I  shall  do  it 
another  time.  .  .  .  After  the  lecture,  ten  more  came,  desirous  to 
converse  with  me ;  so  that  I  shall  have,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  a 
very  rich  harvest  this  season.  .  .  .  The  Lord  be  with  thy  spirit. 

"  Thursday^  Nov.  3d  Last  night,  my  dearest  Isabella,  upon  my 
bed  I  had  one  of  those  temptations  of  Satan,  with  which  I  per- 
ceive, by  your  affectionate  letter,  that  you  are  oft  troubled,  and 
which  I  shall  therefore  recount  to  you.  The  occasion  of  it  was 
the  memory  of  our  beloved  boy,  who  hath  now  got  home  out  of 
Satan's  dominion.  That  morning  he  was  taken  by  the  Lord  I 
was  sleeping  in  the  back  room,  when  dear  sister  Anne,  who  loved 
him  as  dearly  as  we  all  did,  came  in  about  three  or  four  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  and  said,  '  Get  up,  for  Edward  is  much  worse.' 
The  sound  of  these  words,  caught  in  my  sleeping  ear,  shot  a  cold 
shiver  through  my  frame  like  the  hand  of  death,  and  I  arose.  Of 
this  I  had  not  thought  again  till,  last  night  on  my  bed,  before 
sleeping,  Satan  seemed  to  bring  to  my  ear  these  words ;  and,  as 
he  brought  them,  the  cold  shiver  trickled  to  my  very  extremities. 
I  thought  to  while  it  away,  but  it  was  vain ;  and  I  remembered 
that  the  only  method  of  dealing  with  him  is  by  faith,  and  of  over- 
coming him  by  the  word  of  God.     So  I  took  his  suggestion  in 


PASTORAL  VISITS.  209 

good  part,  and  meditated  all  the  sufferings  of  the  darling,  which 
are  too  fresh  upon  my  mind ;  and  sought  to  ascend,  by  that  help, 
to  the  sympathy  of  our  Lord's  sufferings,  and  to  take  refuge  (as 
the  old  divines  say)  in  the  clefts  of  His  wounds  till  this  evil  should 
be  overpast.  Whereupon  there  came  sweet  exercises  of  faith, 
which  occupied  me  till  I  fell  asleep,  and  awoke  this  morning  in 
the  fear  of  the  Lord.  I  make  Mondays  and  Thursdays  my  days 
of  receiving  friends ;  and  while  we  were  engaged  with  worship, 

Mr.  Ker  came  in,  and,  after  prayers,  Mr.  C .     I  was  happy  to 

understand  from  the  former  that  Mr.  Cunningham,  of  Harrow, 
has  become  a  violent  opponent  of  the  expediency  principle  in  re- 
spect to  the  Apocrypha,*  and  think  the  committee  will  come  to 
the  righteous  conclusion,  which  will  please  our  good  father  much. 

Mr.  C came  on  purpose  to  communicate  the  dying  injunction 

of  a  friend  who  had  been  converted  from  Unitarianism  by  my 
discourse  on  that  heresy  last  summer,  and  had  died  full  of  faith 
and  joy  before  fulfilling  his  purpose  of  joining  my  church.  I 
trust  he  hath  joined  our  Church  of  the  first-born,  whose  names 
are  written  in  heaven.  As  we  went  to  the  city  together,  Mr.  Ker 
bore  the  same  testimony  to  the  blessing  of  my  discourses  to  his 
soul,  for  which  I  desire  you  to  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord  when 
you  pray  secretly,  or  with  Mary,  for  it  is  a  great  blessing  to  our 
household  to  be  so  honored.  I  found  our  friend  David  at  length 
able  to  see  me  again,  who  has  passed  through  a  terrible  storm  of 
afflictions,  swimming  for  his  life,  and  tried  with  great  agony  of 
the  body ;  but  in  his  soul  above  measure  strengthened  and  en- 
dowed with  patience,  and  full  of  holy  purposes  and  continued  ac- 
knowledgment to  the  Lord.  .  .  .  His  wife,  and  Martha  her  sister, 
bore  testimony  to  the  goodness  of  the  Lord,  and  we  joined  our 
souls  in  thanksgiving  with  one  accord. 

"Thence  I  went  on  my  way  to  our  friends,  the  G 's,  who 

now  live  in  America  Square,  toward  the  Tower.  I  know  not 
how  it  is,  but  I  feel  a  certain  infirmity  and  backwardness  to  speak 

to  Alex.  Gr concerning  spiritual  things,  though  I  love  him, 

and  believe  that  he  loves  the  truth ;  against  which,  by  the  grace 
of  God,  I  was  enabled  in  some  measure  to  prevail,  and  make  some 
manifestation  of  the  truth,  and  unite  in  prayer,  which  had  the 
effect  of  bringing  him  to  signify  his  purpose  of  waiting  upon  me 

*  Referring  to  the  hot  and  bitter  conflict  then  going  on  in  the  Bible  Society,  chiefly 
between  the  parent  society  in  England  and  its  Scotch  auxiliaries,  which  were  vehe- 
mently ojiposcd  to  the  insertion  of  the  Apocrypha  along  with  the  canonical  Scriptures. 

0 


210  A  SICK-BED.— A  SUFFERING  SAINT. 

(I  suppose  concerning  the  communion).  The  Lord  receive  this 
worthy  and  honorable  youth  into  the  number  of  his  chosen ! 
Thence  returning,  I  felt  an  inclination  to  pay  a  visit  to  Miss 

F ,  in  Philpot  Lane,  but  resolved  again  to  proceed  on  more 

urgent  errands,  and  passed  the  head  of  the  lane,  and  was  drawn 
back,  I  know  not  by  what  inducement,  and  proceeded  against  my 
purpose.  It  was  the  good  will  of  the  Lord  that  I  should  comfort 
one  of  His  saints,  and  He  suffered  me  not  to  pass.  I  found  the 
mother  of  that  family,  who  has  long  walked  with  God,  and  tra- 
vailed in  birth  for  the  regeneration  of  all  her  children,  laid  down 
by  a  confusion  in  her  head,  which  threatened  apoplexy  or  palsy, 
and  now  for  three  days  afflicted,  without  that  clear  manifestation 
of  the  Holy  Comforter  which  might  have  been  expected  in  one  so 
exercised  with  faith  and  holiness.  Many  of  the  friends  and  kin- 
dred were  assembled  in  the  large  room  below,  and  the  father  and 
the  children ;  to  whom  having  ministered  the  word  of  warning 
and  exhortation,  and  prayed  with  one  accord  for  the  state  of  the 
sick,  I  went  up  to  her  bedchamber  with  the  father  and  daughters, 
and  found  the  aged  mother  lying  upon  the  bed  more  composed 
than  I  had  expected.  I  taught  her  that  Christ  was  the  same, 
though  her  faculties  were  bedimmed ;  that  her  soul  should  the 
more  long  to  escape  from  behind  the  dark  eclipse  of  the  clouds ; 
but  not  to  disbelieve  in  His  mercy,  because  her  body  burdened 
her,  and  caused  her  to  groan.  We  bowed  down  and  prayed,  and 
the  Lord  gave  me  a  large  utterance;  and  when  I  had  ceased,  I 
could  not  refrain  myself  from  continuing  to  kneel,  and  hold  the 
hand  of  the  dear  saint,  and  comfort  her,  and  utter  many  ejacula- 
tory  prayers  for  her  soul's  consolation ;  and  I  was  moved  even  to 
tears  for  the  love  of  her  soul;  with  which  having  parted,  her 
daughters,  who  remained  behind,  came  down  and  told  us  that  she 
was  much  comforted,  and  had  proposed  to  compose  herself  to  rest. 
The  Lord  rest  her  soul,  and  prepare  it  for  His  kingdom,  though 
I  hope  she  may  be  restored  again  to  health.  .  .  . 

"  Thence  I  proceeded  to  Bedford  Square,  by  Cheapside,  and 
gave  Mr.  Hamilton  charge  of  your  letter,  which  may  you  receive 
safe,  and  with  a  blessing,  for  it  is  intended  for  your  comfort  and 
edification  in  the  faith,  that  you  may  know  the  goodness  of  the 
Lord  to  your  head,  and  rejoice  and  give  thanks.  On  my  way  to 
Bedford  Square  I  called  at  Mr.  Macaulay's,  having  heard  that  he 
and  his  wife  were  poorly,  and  with  a  view,  if  opportunity  offered, 
of  saying  a  word  to  their  son  concerning  Milton's  true  character. 


CORREGGIO'S  "ST.  JOHN."— PRAYERS.  211 

if  so  be  tliat  lie  is  the  author  of  that  critique.  For  I  held  with 
him  once,  but  now  am  assured  that  Milton,  in  his  character,  was 
the  archangel  of  Eadicalism,  of  which  I  reckon  Henry  Brougham 
to  be  the  arch-fiend.  But  I  found  they  had  gone  to  Hannah 
Moore's  for  retirement  and  discourse.  The  Lord  bless  their  com- 
munion! I  called  at  Mr.  Procter's  to  look  at  two  marvelous  heads 
by  Correggio — the  one  of  the  Virgin  about  to  be  crowned  with 
stars,  the  other  of  St.  John;  certainly,  beyond  comparison,  the 
most  powerful  heads  I  have  ever  seen.  The  latter,  they  say,  is  a 
portrait  of  me.  But  I  do  not  think  so.  I  can  not  both  be  like 
the  Baptist  and  the  beloved  apostle ;  I  would  I  were  in  spirit,  for 

the  flesh  profiteth  nothing.     Anne  P and  the  child  continue 

to  do  well,  and  the  poet  is  already  a  very  tender  father.  .  .  .  The 
counselor  and  I  had  a  good  deal  of  private  discourse.  ...  He 
is  a  tender  father  and  a  well-meaning  man,  but  willful ;  and  will- 
fulness, dear  Isabella,  is  weakness  and  inutility,  the  excess  of  luill 
heing  to  the  same  effect  as  the  defect  of  ivill.  Yet  I  love  him,  and  he 
loves  me,  and  permits  me  to  open  truth  in  a  certain  guise  to  his 
ear.  The  Lord  give  me  wisdom,  if  it  were  only  for  this  family  ! 
I  returned  home  to  peruse  Eckhard's  'Eome,'  and  to  worship  with 
my  family,  and  read  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  conclude  by  writing 
the  summary  of  the  day  to  my  dear  Wife.  And  now  I  return  to 
my  chamber,  thankful  unto  Thee,  oh  my  Father,  who  hast  pro- 
tected thine  unworthy  child,  and  not  allowed  him  this  day  to  stray 
far  from  thy  commandments.  Thou  hast  made  me  to  know  Thee ; 
Thou  hast  exercised  my  soul  with  love  and  kindness ;  Thou  hast 
called  me  out  of  the  world  by  prayer.  I  bless  Thee,  oh  my  God; 
I  exceedingly  bless  Thee !  And  now,  my  tender  wife,  go  on  to 
seek  the  Lord ;  wait  upon  Him ;  entreat  Him ;  importune  Him. 
Do  not  let  Him  go  till  He  give  thee  thy  heart's  desire.  And  thou, 
Margaret,  my  sister,  submit  thy  strong  spirit  unto  the  Lord,  and 
thou  shalt  find  peace.  And  Elizabeth,  my  sister,  persevere  in  the 
good  part  which  thou  hast  chosen,  and  thou  wilt  find  all  that  is 
promised  to  be  true  and  faithful.  And,  my  lovely  Anne,  be  com- 
posed in  thy  spirit  by  God,  who  will  deliver  thee  from  all  things 
that  disconcert  and  trouble,  and  make  thy  spirit  lovely.  And,  my 
David,  remember  our  covenants  of  love  with  one  another,  where- 
in thou  wert  oft  moved  to  desire  God.  Oh,  forget  Him  not,  my 
children !  Walk  before  Him,  and  be  ye  perfect.  .  .  .  May  He 
keep  us  as  the  apple  of  the  eye,  and  hide  us  under  the  shadow  of 
His  wings  this  night ;  and  when  we  awake  in  th©  morning,  may 
we  be  satisfied  with  His  likeness ! 


212  ECCLESIASTICUS.— TWO  WILD  YOUTHS. 

"  Tuesday^  Nov.  4:th.  I  feel  it  necessary  already  to  be  on  my 
guard  against  the  adversary,  lest  he  should  convert  these  journals, 
intended  for  the  comfort  of  my  dear  wife,  into  an  occasion  of  self- 
display  or  self-delusion  ;  and  the  more,  because  I  have  been  sin- 
gularly blessed  by  the  goodness  of  the  Lord,  which,  you  would 
say,  was  the  best  protection  against  him;  but  the  Lord  judged 
otherwise  when,  after  enriching  Paul  with  such  revelations,  he 
saw  it  wise  to  give  him  a  thorn  in  the  flesh,  a  messenger  of  Satan 
to  buffet  him,  lest  he  should  be  exalted  above  measure.  There- 
fore let  me  watch  my  pen,  and  the  Lord  watch  my  soul,  that  noth- 
ing pass  thence  to  the  eye  of  my  partner  which  may  in  any  wise 
convey  a  false  impression  of  my  heart.  I  have  resumed  my  cus- 
tom of  reading  the  lessons  of  the  day,  besides  the  Psalms,  whatever 
else  I  may  read  out  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  was  struck,  in 
reading  out  of  Ecclesiasticus,  with  the  odor  of  earthliness  which 
there  is  about  the  wisdom  of  it.  It  is  rather  shrewd  than  divine, 
and,  I  am  convinced,  has  little  heavenward  drift  in  it  to  the  soul. 
But  how  much  more  spiritual  than  the  maxims  of  Eochefoucault, 
or  any  other  modern  who  has  sought  to  express  himself  by  apho- 
risms !  I  was  in  great  danger  of  falling  under  the  spirit  of  indo- 
lence after  breakfast,  and  loitering.  The  sensation  about  my  eyes, 
which  foretells  a  listless  day,  made  its  appearance,  and  I  felt  in- 
clined to  stretch  my  limbs,  and  take  up  a  book  at  hand,  and  while 
away  the  time.  But  I  thank  Grod  who  enabled  me  to  withstand 
the  enemy,  and  stir  myself  up  to  study,  which  I  prosecuted  with 
a  view  to  my  morning  sermon.  This  is  beginning  to  take  shape, 
and  will  form,  I  judge,  a  digest  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  or 
a  statement  of  the  apostle's  argument  for  the  abolition  of  the  law 
and  the  liberty  of  faith,  in  order  to  my  afterward  showing  our  de- 
liverance from  the  forms  of  the  world  into  the  liberty  of  Christ. 

"  This  was  a  fast-day  to  me,  at  least  a  soup-day,  which  I  judged 
good  for  my  health,  so  that  I  felt  languid  the  whole  forenoon  until 

four,  when  Miss  A called  to  conduct  me  to  her  house.     The 

two  Miss  A 's  joined  our  Church  at  the  last  communion.    Their 

mother  had  died  some  months  before,  and  they  are  orphans.  They 
win  their  bread  by  the  needle,  and  dwell  with  two  younger  broth- 
ers, whom  they  wished  me  much  to  converse  with.  Those  two 
brothers  have  no  one  over  them,  and  are  as  wild  as  the  beasts  of 
the  wood.  Though  only  fifteen  and  seventeen,  I  was  perfectly 
amazed  at  the  irreverent,  thoughtless  way  in  which  they  behaved 
when  I  entered — nothing  awed,  nothing  moved,  but  full  of  conceit 


TWO  LONDON  BOYS.  213 

and  self-possession.  The  eldest  is  a  clerk  in  a  writer's  {Anglice, 
attorney's)  office ;  the  younger  is  a  sort  of  clerk  to  a  councilor — 
one  to  keep  the  door  of  his  office  open,  and  to  go  errands — for 
whom  his  master  is  glad  to  find  something  to  do.  Oh !  what  a 
horrid  effect  London  has  upon  the  character  of  children  !  It  is 
only  beginning  to  be  revealed  to  me  in  its  native  deformity.  The 
awful  iniquity  of  a  great  city  is  nothing  to  its  silent  effects  in  de- 
teriorating the  races  of  men.  They  really  dwindle  as  if  they  were 
plants.  I  saw  at  once  that  if  I  was  to  be  profitable  to  these  two 
lads,  it  was  by  authority  as  well  as  by  affection ;  so  I  resolved  to 
teach  them  the  reverence  of  God,  and  of  God's  word,  and  of  God's 
messenger.  The  eldest  sat  over  against  me  on  the  other  side  of  the 
fire,  the  two  sisters  working  at  the  table,  and  the  youngest  beyond 
the  table,  and  he  would  not  be  persuaded  to  come  near  me.  I 
opened  my  way  by  speaking  of  their  orphan  state,  and  their  want 
of  counsel  and  authority  over  them.  Then  I  passed  to  the  author- 
ity of  God,  and  opened  the  tendency  of  youth  to  be  headstrong 
and  untamed.  The  eldest,  I  perceived,  was  full  of  observation 
and  thought.  He  could  not  divide  the  matter  between  the  au- 
thority and  affection  with  which  I  spoke.  By  degrees  I  got  him 
to  open  his  mind,  which  was  very  willful.  I  continued  to  oppose 
to  his  whims  the  will  of  God,  and  would  not  lower  the  discourse  to 
any  compromise,  or  indulgence  to  any  of  his  moods.  His  brother 
had  to  go  away  earlier ;  and  after  getting  him  to  sit  beside  me,  I 
spoke  to  him  with  great  earnestness  and  affection,  and  blessed 
him ;  but  whether  he  was  moved  from  his  indolent  and  lethargic 
obstinacy,  I  know  not.  Then  with  the  eldest  I  dealt  for  another 
hour,  in  various  discourse,  which  I  am  now  too  weary  to  recall. 
And  when  I  knew  not  what  impression  I  had  made  upon  his 
short  and  hasty  temper,  which  I  saw  writhing  between  the  awe 
of  the  truths  which  I  spoke  and  the  irritation  of  the  mastery 
which  I  held  over  him,  the  lad  rose  from  his  seat,  and  went  to  a 
press  and  took  out  a  parcel,  from  which  he  drew  forth  a  set  of 
beautiful  little  prints  of  Bible  subjects,  and  asked  if  I  had  seen 
them.  I  answered  no.  Then,  said  he,  '  Will  you  accept  them 
from  me  ?'  I  hesitated ;  but  perceiving  it  was  altogether  neces- 
sary, if  I  would  have  any  farther  dealing  with  this  strange  spirit, 
I  took  them,  and  here  they  are  before  me.  Upon  which,  his  hour 
of  seven  having  come,  he  went  his  way.  ...  I  am  weary,  but 
very  well,  and  give  the  Lord  thanks  for  his  goodness,  praying 
Him  to  strengthen  me  with  rest.     St.  Pancras  is  ringing  up  the 


214  A  LOGICAL  COMPANION.— SUNDAY  SEKVICES. 

hill  twelve  o'clock,  so  the  Lord  compass  you  and  my  beloved 
child.     Farewell ! 

"  Saturday,  Nov.  5.  I  had  all  arranged  to  finish  this  sheet  and 

send  it  off  to-night ;  but  James  P is  come,  and  has  occupied 

me  so  much,  and  the  Sabbath  is  now  on  the  verge  of  coming  in, 
and  I  have  much  before  me,  therefore  I  delay  this  day's  summa- 
ry till  to-morrow  evening,  if  God  spare  me.  But  that  I  might  not 
go  to  bed  without  blessing  you  and  our  tender  lamb,  I  have  taken 
up  my  pen  to  write — That  the  Lord  God,  whom  I  serve,  would 
be  the  guardian  of  my  wife  and  child  until  He  restore  them  to  the 
sight  of  his  servant.     Amen. 

"  jSahbaih,  Nov.  6,  And  now,  my  dearest  Isabella,  I  am  alone 
with  thee  again,  and  can  give  thee  the  news  which  are  dearest  to 
thy  heart,  that  the  Lord  hath  not  deserted  His  unworthy  servant 
this  day,  but  hath  been,  especially  in  the  evening,  present  to  my 
soul,  and  given  me  a  large  door  of  utterance,  I  trust  to  the  edifi- 
cation of  His  Church  and  the  comforting  of  His  people.  Yester- 
day I  had  labored  all  the  morning  with  a  constant  and  steady  dili- 
gence, and  about  one  o'clock  was  in  full  sight  of  land,  with  strength 
of  hand  still  left  me  to  have  finished  this  letter,  and  so  cheated 

the  lazy  post,  when,  as  I  said,  James  P stepped  in ;  in  whom, 

to  be  brief,  I  find  we  shall  have  a  most  easily  accommodated  in- 
mate, if  so  he  likes  to  become,  and  a  very  shrewd,  logical  com- 
panion, full  of  political  economy  and  of  mathematics,  who  can  not 
help  stating  every  thing  as  if  it  were  a  question  to  be  resolved  by 
the  Calculus,  and  can  not  conceive  of  any  ideas  or  knowledge 
which  are  to  be  otherwise  come  at  than  by  the  methods  of  the  in- 
tellect ;  which  error  I  have  labored  hard  to  correct  in  him,  and 
not,  I  believe,  without  some  partial  success.  He  is  one  of  the 
coolest,  shrewdest  intellects  I  have  ever  met  with — sweetly  dis- 
posed, very  gentle,  and  easily  served.  .  .  .  My  morning  lesson 
this  day  was  the  2d  chapter  of  the  Hebrews,  in  which  is  taught 
us  this  great  lesson,  that  we  shall  partake  with  Christ  in  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  world  to  come,  which  I  take  to  be  the  same  with 
the  '  rest  that  remaineth,'  mentioned  in  the  4th  chapter,  or  the  per- 
fection of  the  present  dispensation  of  the  Gospel  in  the  millennial 
state.  .  .  .  Also  there  is  taught  us,  though  but  incidentally,  the 
end  of  His  incarnation  to  destroy  death  and  him  that  hath  the 
power  of  death,  and  deliver  us  from  the  fear  and  bondage  of 
death.  Let  us  enter  into  faith,  my  dear  wife,  and  be  delivered 
from  the  blow  which  death  hath  brought  us.  .  .  .  Also  He  took 


WANT  OF  FAITH.  215 

our  flesh  that  we  might  be  assured  of  our  oneness ;  that  we  might 
be  able  to  give  ourselves  to  the  hope  of  His  glory,  He  did  first 
join  himself  to  the  reality  of  our  humility.  My  discourse  was  a 
view  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  introductory 
to  discourses  upon  Gal.,  ii.,  19,  20.  .  .  .  This  introduction,  sum 
of  doctrine,  and  threefold  argument  embraced  the  whole  Epistle, 
which  I  had  thus  digested  into  my  discourse,  with  application  of 
each  branch  of  the  argument  to  the  present  times  and  all  times ; 
but  I  was  able  to  deliver  only  about  a  half  of  it,  and  withal  our 
service  reached  to  within  a  quarter  of  two.  My  evening  chapter 
was  the  21st  of  Genesis,  when  I  felt  my  mouth  opened  in  a  re- 
markable way  to  bear  testimony  to  the  want  of  faith  in  this  gen- 
eration, who  would  embrace  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  and  the 
truth  and  majesty  of  God,  within  the  nutshell  of  their  own  intel- 
lect, and  believe  in  God  not  a  hair's-breadth  beyond  their  intel- 
lectual sight — which,  adopted  by  children  as  scholars,  would  de- 
stroy the  school — by  subjects,  would  destroy  government;  and, 
in  short,  that  these  sacred  things  all  hang  together,  and  must  sink 
or  swim  with  faith.  ...  I  was  much  strengthened  in  this  dis- 
course, and  in  both  my  prayers.  .  .  .  Mr.  E was  there  morn- 
ing and  evening.  The  Lord  add  that  youth  to  His  Church !  I 
travail  for  him.  Farewell,  dear  Isabella.  You  can  not  have  so 
much  pleasure  in  reading  these  as  I  have  in  writing  them.  The 
blessing  of  the  Lord  be  with  my  babe — my  tender  babe.  The 
blessing  of  the  Lord  be  with  her  mother — her  tempted  but  victo- 
rious mother.  »  .  . 

"Monday,  7th  November.  Though  wearied,  my  dearest  Isabella, 
with  a  day  of  much  activity,  and  afterward  with  the  exposition 
of  that  blessed  Psalm,  this  night's  lesson,  and  now  with  much  dis- 
course and  discussion  to  James  P ,  whom  I  like  exceedingly, 

and  William  Hamilton,  all  concerning  the  subordination  of  the 
sensual  or  visible,  and  the  intellectual  or  knowable,  to  the  spirit- 
ual or  redeemable  (the  first  giving  the  typography,  the  second  giv- 
ing the  method,  and  the  last  the  substance  of  all  true  and  excel- 
lent discourse),  I  do  now  sit  down  with  true  spiritual  delight  to 
commune  with  my  soul's  sweet  mate.  Yea,  hath  not  the  Lord 
made  us  for  one  another,  and  by  his  providence  united  us  to  one 
another,  against  many  fiery  trials  and  terrible  delusions  of  Satan? 
And,  as  you  yourself  observed,  has  he  not  over  again  wedded  us, 
far  more  closely  than  in  any  joy,  by  our  late  tribulation,  and  the 
burial  of  our  lovely  Edward,  our  holy  first-born,  who  gave  up  the 


216  LITTLE  EDWAED'S  MINISTEY. 

ghost  in  order  to  make  liis  father  and  mother  one,  and  expiate 
the  discords  and  divisions  of  their  souls  ?  Dear  spirit,  thou  dear- 
est spirit  which  doth  tenant  heaven,  this  is  the  mystery  of  thy 
burial  on  the  wedding-day*  of  thy  parents,  to  make  them  forever 
one.  Oh,  and  thou  shalt  be  sanctified,  God  blessing,  by  such  a 
concord  and  harmony  of  soul  as  hath  not  often  blessed  the  earth 
since  Eden  was  forfeited  by  sin.  My  wife,  this  is  not  poetry,  this 
is  not  imagination  which  I  write ;  it  is  truth,  rely  upon  it,  it  is 
truth  that  lovely  Edward  hath  been  the  sweet  offering  of  peace 
between  us  forever ;  and  so,  when  we  meet  in  heaven,  he  shall  be 
as  the  priest  who  joined  us — the  child  of  months  being  one  hund- 
red years  old.  Let  my  dear  wife  be  comforted  by  these  thoughts 
of  her  true  love.  I  found  much  sweet  meditation  upon  my  bed 
last  night ;  and  when  I  awoke  in  the  morning  He  was  with  me, 
and  I  had  much  countenance  of  the  Lord  in  my  secret  devotions ; 

and  when  I  descended  found  Mr.  T ,  the  preacher,  and  Mr. 

Bull  met  in  the  breakfast  parlor,  and  Mr.  P seated  in  the  li- 
brary. That  preacher  is  very  clever,  and  infinitely  prolific  in  his 
vein,  and  that  no  contemptible  one ;  but  volatile  and  wild  as  the 
winds,  yet  musical  in  his  mirth,  and  full  of  heartiness  and  good- 
will. But  he  serveth  joyaunce  of  the  mind,  and  has  not  yoked 
himself  to  any  workmanship ;  and  I  have  accordingly  exhorted 
iiim  to  be  about  his  Master's  work — to  get  him  down  into  the  bat- 
tle, and  take  his  post.  Mr.  Bull  brought  me  a  very  sweet  frontis- 
piece, which  he  has  executed  for  Montgomery's  Psalmist^  one  of 
Collins's  series.  ...  As  usual,  his  bashful,  meek  company  was 
very  sweet  to  me. 

"  When  they  went.  Miss  N came,  who  can  believe  none, 

and  would  intellectualize  every  thing,  and  consequently  looks  for 
her  religious  prosperity  in  expedients  of  the  intellectual  or  visible 
world,  or  in  meayis,  as  they  call  them  (but,  Isabella,  nothing  is  a 
means  of  grace  in  which  Christ  is  not  seen  to  be  present,  whence 
he  is  called  the  Mediator  or  mean-creator),  which,  I  told  her,  I 
could  -no  longer  indulge  her  in  by  framing  my  discourse  to  her 
subtleties,  but  would  read  her  the  Word  of  God,  to  which,  if  she 
framed  her  mind  by  faith,  then  it  would  be  well ;  but  if  not,  she 
must  utterly  perish.  After  which  reading  of  the  103d  Psalm,  be- 
ing moved  in  my  spirit  with  love  to  her,  I  pronounced  over  her, 
without  rising,  a  prayer  which  made  her  weep  abundantly — tears, 

*  This  much-lamented  child  was  buried  on  the  14th  of  October,  the  second  anni- 
versary of  their  marriage. 


INFLUENCE  OF  CUSTOM.  217 

I  trust,  which  may  by  God's  grace  reap  joy  hereafter.  She  says 
I  have  demolished  all  the  glory  of  her  building,  and  she  stands  as 

upon  a  ruin  of  herself.     I  say  unto  you,  Miss  N ,  Christ  can 

alone  build  up  and  mould  your  shattered  mind  to  the  similitude 
of  His  own  mind.  You  see,  my  dear,  what  boldness  the  Lord  is 
endowing  me  with.  .  .  .  What  clean,  black  villainy,  what  un- 
wrinkled  villainy,  there  was  upon  those  countenances  I  met  in 
Saffron  Hill  and  Field  Lane  on  my  way  to  the  Bible  Society, 
where,  among  others,  I  saw  the  face  of  Father  Simon,  looking  with 
all  its  eager  unrest ;  and  there  being  nothing  of  importance  to  de- 
tain me,  I  came  away  with  the  old  worthy,  and  held  such  discourse 
with  him  as  the  Strand  heareth  not  oft,  imtil  we  reached  the  Tem- 
ple, whither  he  entered  to  his  business,  and  I  returned  to  the  city 
to  dine  with  Mr.  Dinwiddle  and  Wm.  Hamilton ;  and  on  my  way, 
having  found  a  receiving-house,  I  committed  your  letter  to  the 
care  of  the  post.  But,  ah !  forgot  the  blessing  or  prayer  for  its 
safe  arrival,  so  doth  the  rust  of  custom  corrode  the  frame  of  our 
piety.  Life  should  be  a  web  of  piety ;  custom  makes  it  a  web  of 
impiety.  My  dear,  we  must  be  redeemed  in  all  things  from  wick- 
edness to  serve  the  living  God.  Having  dined  with  my  friends, 
I  proceeded  at  three  to  visit  Mr.  David,  who  had  yesterday  a  re- 
lapse, and  is  this  day  very  low.  The  surgeon  apprehended  no 
danger ;  but  I  know  not  how  it  is,  I  fear  we  are  going  to  lose  him. 
His  soul  is  winged  with  faith :  let  it  take  its  flight.  He  also  is 
my  son  in  the  Gospel.  I  could  not  see  him,  but  we  lifted  up  our 
hearts  together  for  his  health  and  salvation.     Then  I  proceeded 

to  Mrs.  T ;  and  now,  my  dear,  learn  a  lesson  of  spiritual  life, 

and  let  me  learn  what  I  am  now  to  teach  thee.  This  sweet  moth- 
er, whom  I  greatly  love,  said  to  me,  '  All  darkness,  all  darkness ; 
what  if  it  should  have  been  all  self-deception  ?'  That  is,  the  Lord 
was  shaking  His  saint  out  of  the  last  refuge  of  Satan,  which  he 
takes  in  the  righteousness  which  hath  been  wrought  in  us  by  the 
Holy  Spirit.  As  Knox  said  on  his  death-bed, '  The  enemy  has 
been  trying  me  with  representations  of  the  work  which  has  been 
done  by  me.'  .  .  . 

"  From  thence  I  proceeded  to  the  Session,  where  we  proceeded 
with  good  harmony  and  union  till  they  came  to  speak  of  time, 
and  then  I  told  them  they  must  talk  no  more  to  me  concerning 
the  ministry  of  the  Word,  for  I  would  submit  to  no  authority  in 
that  matter  but  the  authority  of  the  Church,  from  which  also  I 
would  take  liberty  to  appeal  if  it  gainsaid  my  conscience.     I  am 


218  HASTENING  THROUGH  THE  SERVICES. 

-f-.  resolved  that  two  hours  and  a  half  I  will  have  the  privilege  of. 
Write  me  your  judgment  in  this  matter.  .  .  .  We  had  another 
meeting,  at  seven,  of  the  congregation.  ...  So  I  returned,  and 
one  o'clock  sounding  in  my  ear  from  Pancras  church,  I  bid  you 
farewell  for  the  night,  and  pray  the  Lord  to  bless  you,  and  our  lit- 
tle treasure,  and  her  who  hath  joined  herself  to  our  house,  and 
hath  a  right  to  the  share  of  its  blessings.     Farewell,  my  spouse ! 

"  Wednesdat/,  9ih  November.  I  sit  down,  my  dearest,  after  a  day 
of  languishing  and  mourning,  rather  more  cheerful  and  refreshed 
than  I  have  deserved  to  be ;  for,  whether  from  defective  sleep  or 
overfatigue  yesterday,  I  have  been  very  dead  and  lifeless  all  day 
long,  until  the  evening  roused  me  to  some  spiritual  exercises. 
Satan  could  not  have  had  this  occasion  against  me  but  for  my 
own  most  blameworthy  conduct  in  preferring  man  before  God  in 
the  services  of  the  morning ;  for,  having  promised  to  take  James 

P down  to  Bedford  Square  to  breakfast,  I  hurried  over  both 

my  private  and  family  worship.  Now  this  is  such  infinite  irrev- 
erence done  unto  the  majesty  of  heaven,  that  I  know  not  how  any 
stronger  proof  of  want  of  faith  could  be  found.  .  .  .  When  we 

returned  from  Mr.  M 's,  I  endeavored  to  seek  the  Lord  in  my 

closet,  but  found  Him  not.  He  hid  His  countenance,  and  my 
heart  was  left  to  the  bitterness  of  being  alone.  I  took  to  the 
reading  of  the  8d  chapter  of  Hebrews,  in  the  original,  with  a  view 
to  pasture  for  my  people ;  and  afterward  to  the  22d  of  Genesis, 
with  the  same  end  in  view,  of  which  I  have  been  able  to  make 
out  eight  verses.  I  wish  to  read  the  Sabbath  lessons,  at  least,  in 
the  Hebrew,  and  to  make  both  lessons  a  diligent  study  through 
the  week,  with  Pool's  *  Synopsis'  before  me ;  and  I  have  besought 
the  Lord,  as  I  do  now  again  beseech  Him,  that  I  may  continue 
in  this  righteous  and  dutiful  custom.  Li  the  Hebrew,  it  would 
perhaps  be  an  entertainment  to  your  heart  to  accompany  me,  that 
we  may  not  be  divided  in  this  study  when  we  meet  again.  But 
I  forget  that  you  have  the  dear  babe  to  watch  over ;  for  whom, 
my  dear,  let  our  souls  be  exercised  rather  than  for  the  dead.  Oh, 
let  us  wrestle  with  God  for  her  soul,  that  she  may  not  be  caught 
away  from  us  at  unawares.  I  wish  she  were  here,  that  I  might 
in  my  arms  present  her  to  the  Lord  every  morning  and  evening. 
Your  letter  gave  me  great  delight,  and  came  to  cheer  me  in  my 
spiritual  mourning.  The  Lord  continue  to  support  your  soul,  and 
to  be  your  portion !  Oh,  how  blessed  has  been  thy  death,  my  be- 
loved, to  thy  parents'  souls !  thou  first-fruits  of  our  union,  and 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  TRINITY.  219 

peace  -  oflfering  of  our  family,  dearly  -  beloved  child,  wlio  never 
fi-owned  on  any  one,  and  never  fretted,  but  moaned  the  approach 
of  that  enemy  which  was  to  bereave  us  of  thee  I  .  .  . 

"I  sought  to  begin  the  discourse  on  Galatians,  ii.,  19,  whose  ob- 
ject it  will  be  to  show  that  an  outward  law  is  always  a  sign  of 
bondage,  and  that  the  inward  willingness  is  liberty,  which  a  Di- 
vine indwelling  spirit  can  alone  beget  and  maintain  within  us. 
Pray  that  I  may  be  enabled  to  handle  this  mighty  theme  to  the 
glory  of  God  and  the  promotion  of  the  Eedeemer's  kingdom ;  for 
it  calls  upon  all  that  is  within  me,  and  I  shall  have  this  and  the 
following  week  to  give  to  it.  .  .  ,  Too  many  cares  of  philanthro- 
py, dear,  are  as  seductive  as  any  other  cares ;  it  is  divinity  which 
alone  can  sustain  philanthropy.  But  a  divine  is  become  like  a 
phcenix.  We  know  one,  but  he  is  near  in  ashes,  and  who  is  to 
arise  in  his  stead,  I  know  not.  .  .  .  After  leaving  the  study,  Mr. 

P and  I  walked  together.  ...  At  six,  I  had  the  visit  of 

another  child  of  my  ministry.  Miss  Miller,  in  whom  I  found  a  very 
humble  and  sweet  spirit,  thoroughly,  as  I  trust,  convinced  of  sin, 
and  purged  of  her  sin.  After  conversing  and  praying  with  her, 
I  went  out  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hall,  at  their  own  request,  to  open  the 
subject  of  the  communion  to  their  souls,  when  I  set  it  forth  by 
the  parable  of  the  prodigal  son.  That  at  baptism  we  had  obtain- 
ed our  freedom  in  our  Father's  house,  who  ever  since  had  divided 
to  us  our  portion  of  gifts,  graces,  and  opportunities,  which  we  had 
prodigally  squandered ;  but,  taking  pity  on  us.  He  doth  keep  open 
table  in  His  house,  in  order  to  welcome  every  one  who  hath  a 
longing  to  return.  He  breaketh  bread  and  poureth  out  wine,  the 
body  and  blood  of  His  Son's  sacrifice,  for  every  one  who  will 
come,  as  the  prodigal  came,  heartily  repenting,  and  humbly  con- 
fessing his  sin.  This,  therefore,  is  what  I  desire — the  sense  of  sin, 
and  the  faith  that  it  is  to  be  forgiven  only  through  the  blood  of 
Christ.  For  the  enlightening  of  the  mind,  for  the  convincing  of 
the  heart,  and  the  converting  of  the  whole  soul,  it  is  the  work  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  who  is  the  gift  of  Christ  to  His  weak  but  faithful 
disciples.  Oh,  dearest,  how  profitable  is  that  mystery  of  the  Trin- 
ity to  my  soul !  The  husband  and  wife  heard  me  with  tears.  I 
trust  these  are  tokens  for  good.  The  Lord  enable  them  to  retain 
upon  their  souls  those  feelings  toward  Him  which  they  this  night 
expressed  to  me.  By  these  exercises  my  spirit  was  restored. 
The  Lord  hath  restored  my  soul,  and  I  was  able  to  comfort  the 
family  with  the  42d  Psalm,  and  I  trust  to  encourage  my  own 


220  THE  KEW  COVENANT. 

spirit.  .  .  .  Now,  the  blessing  of  the  Lord  rest  upon  my  wife,  and 
child,  and  servant  this  night,  who  have  not  separated,  I  know, 
without  commending  me  to  the  Lord !  Thus  do  we  unite  our  in- 
terests on  high,  and  lay  in  our  proofs  and  pledges  of  mutual  love 
with  our  heavenly  Father.  .  .  .  Farewell ! 

"  Thursday^  10th  November,  1825.  I  pray  the  Lord  so  to  quicken 
my  love  to  my  dear  wife,  and  so  to  move  my  soul  with  the  spirit 
of  truth  and  wisdom,  as  that  I  shall  much  comfort  and  edify  her 
by  the  words  which  I  am  about  to  write.  Yesterday  I  so  wore 
myself  out  with  the  various  duties  I  had  to  discharge,  that  I  was 
hardly  able  to  do  the  offices  of  family  worship,  and,  in  utter  ina- 
bility, forewent  my  sweet  interview  of  faith  with  my  Isabella ;  no, 
not  of  faith,  but  of  these  visible  emblems  of  faith,  for  the  inter- 
view of  the  spirit  I  truly  had  with  you.  ...  I  have  fulfilled  your 
commission  to  Mrs.  Hall,  who  received  your  gift  with  much  thank- 
fulness. Our  maid  is  now  gone,  and  we  are  a  very  happy,  and,  I 
trust,  contented  household.  In  the  church  last  night  I  opened  the 
real  contents  of  the  new  covenant  (Hebrews,  viii.,  10,  to  the  end) 
to  the  young  communicants,  who  are  about  to  enter  by  the  prop- 
er form  to  the  renewal  of  it ;  for  you  will  observe,  dearest,  that 
there  was  a  renewal  of  the  covenant  when  the  children  of  Israel  en- 
tered into  the  land  of  promise,  as  there  is^to  us :  first,  the  granting 
it  at  baptism  to  the  faith  of  our  parents ;  and,  again,  the  renewal 
of  it  over  the  sacrifice  of  our  own  faith.  Now  these  contracts  are, 
1st,  the  law  within,  and  no  longer  without,  that  is,  liberty  of  soul 
to  obey  God,  instead  of  restraint  of  fear ;  2d,  the  ruling  of  God 
over  us,  and  our  subjection  to  Him  in  all  willingness;  Sd,  the 
teaching  of  His  spirit  in  all  His  revelations ;  4,  the  absolution  of 
all  our  sinfulness  through  Christ's  atonement.  The  first  being  the 
conversion  of  our  will ;  the  second,  the  maintenance  of  our  weak- 
ness ;  the  third,  the  enlightening  of  our  knowledge ;  the  fourth, 
the  purging  of  our  conscience  from  all  fear.  What  an  inherit- 
ance, my  dear  wife,  is  this  to  which  you,  and  I,  and  all  believers 
are  admitted !  Let  us  enter  it,  let  us  enter  into  it.  Why  can  we 
not  enter  into  the  willingness,  the  confirmation,  the  enlightening, 
the  peace  of  it?  We  can  not  enter  in  by  reason  of  unbelief. 
Now  encourage  one  another,  I  pray  you,  for  the  time  is  short. 

"  This  morning  we  mustered  a  goodly  company,  though  it  was 
the  stormiest  morning  almost  I  remember;  three  missionaries 
from  the  Mission  House,  our  broad-fiiced  Wiirtemberg  friend,  so 
dear  to  us  all,  and  a  countryman,  and  an  East  Indian,  half-caste/ 


READINGS  IN  HEBREW.  221 

preparing  for  his  return  to  preacli  to  the  Hindoos.  They  tell  me 
there  are  at  present  two  of  their  countrymen  at  St.  Petersburg 
fulfilling  to  the  letter  our  Lord's  instructions  to  his  disciples.  I 
have  a  very  strong  purpose  of  sending  over  to  all  the  Mission 
Houses  copies  of  my  Orations  for  the  sake  of  the  youth ;  and  to 
this  effect  of  ordering  Hamilton  to  send  me  all  that  are  not  sold, 
and  desiring  him  to  transmit  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  which  there 
has  been  to  the  widow  of  Smith.  Tell  me  what  you  think  of  this. 
The  Grerman  missionaries  at  Karass  soon  found  out  the  unpro- 
ductiveness of  Scottish  prudence  when  applied  to  propagate  the 
Gospel,  and  are  fast  recurring  to  the  primitive  method  on  the  con- 
fines of  Persia,  where  they  at  present  labor.  They  speak  of  a 
great  revival  in  the  Prussian  kingdom;  more  than  a  hundred 
young  preachers  have  gone  forth  from  the  Universities  to  preach 
the  Gospel.  The  Lord  prosper  his  work !  To-morrow  a  number 
of  young  missionaries  are  to  receive  their  instructions  at  a  public 
meeting  in  Freemason's  Hall,  and  they  are  to  set  out  for  Malta 
some  time  this  month.  The  Lord  is  their  helper.  I  took  occa- 
sion, from  the  51st  Psalm,  to  speak  to  them  of  the  qualifications 
there  referred  to.  .  .  .  After  their  departure,  I  addressed  myself 
to  my  sweet  studies  of  reading  the  lessons  of  the  day,  and  medi- 
tating the  lessons  of  Sabbath  in  the  original  tongues.  .  .  .  After- 
ward I  betook  myself  to  my  lecture  on  Christ's  attendants  and 
sustenance  in  his  ministry,  Luke,  viii.,  2,  3,  which  is  a  subject  of 
great  importance  and  fruitfulness,  if  the  Lord  see  it  good  to  open 
it  to  me  by  His  Spirit,  which  I  do  now  earnestly  pray.  James 
and  I,  after  dinner  (we  have  now  got  the  wine-cellar  open,  and  I 
have  ordered  Hall  a  bottle  of  Madeira  to  strengthen  him),  went 
down  to  Bedford  Square,  where  I  had  a  good  deal  of  profitable 
conversation  with  our  dear  friends.  But  before  I  went  out  I  re- 
ceived a  parcel,  ...  in  which  was  a  fine  lace  cap  and  wrought 
robe  for  our  dear  departed  boy;  ,  .  .  our  darling  hath  now  a 
more  precious  robe  than  can  be  wrought  by  the  daughters  of  a 
duke ;  yet  it  is  a  sweet  and  honorable  token  of  their  love.  I 
have  written  to  tell  them  whither  the  object  of  their  love  is  gone. 
.  .  .  Our  little  boy !  thou  art  incorporated  with  my  memory  dear- 
ly, with  my  hope  thou  art  incorporated  still  more  dearly.  We 
will  come,  when  our  Lord  doth  call,  to  thee  and  to  the  general  as- 
sembly of  the  first-born.  Oh,  Isabella,  I  exhort  thee  to  be  diligent 
in  thy  prayers  for  thee  and  me ! 

"  Friday^  11th  November,  I  have  just  dismissed  Mrs.  Hall,  my 


222  THE  CHURCH  AS  A  HOUSE. 

dear  Isabella,  to  set  into  tlie  study  to-morrow  morning  a  slice  of 
bread  and  glass  of  water,  purposing  to  keep  myself  alone  for  med- 
itation, and  I  pray  the  Lord  that  he  would  give  us  both  a  heart 
full  of  divine  thoughts  and  holy  purposes.  .  .  .  Mr.  Hamilton  is 
a  great  comfort  to  me ;  I  may  say  of  him,  as  Paul  says  of  Mark, 
that  he  is  helpful  to  me  for  the  ministry,  literally  delivering  me 
of  all  secular  cares.     But  I  must  proceed  in  order.     When  we 

were  at  our  morning  worship,  Mr.  0 slipped  in,  with  his  slow 

and  canny  foot,  in  order  to  seek  introductions  to  Scotland,  which 
I  would  not  give ;  for,  though  I  am  enough  satisfied  with  him  for 
the  rule  of  charity,  I  have  no  sufficient  evidence  upon  which  to 
commend  him  to  another.  Indeed,  I  would  be  suspicious  of  his 
favor-seeking  and  power-hunting  if  I  were  not  satisfied  it  is  uni- 
versal, and  that  he  may  have  caught  it  by  infection,  not  generated 
it  in  his  own  constitution;  but,  ah!  it  is  a  weakening  disease, 
however  caught.  "When  I  had  dismissed  him,  I  read  the  3d  chap- 
ter of  John  in  the  original,  and  studied  the  latter  half  of  the  8d 
chapter  of  the  Hebrews  with  a  diligent  reference  to  the  parallel 
scriptures ;  and  in  studying  that  chapter  it  will  help  you  to  know 
that  'even  as  Moses  in  all  his  house'  is  not  to  be  understood 
Mbses,^  but  God^s  house,  the  house  of  '  Him  who  appointed  him,' 
as  you  will  see  by  referring  to  the  passage  in  Numbers,  of  which 
it  is  the  quotation ;  the  whole  argument  being  to  set  Moses  forth, 
not  as  having  a  house  of  his  own,  but  as  a  servant  in  the  house 
which  Christ  had  ordered,  and  to  which,  in  due  time.  He  came  as 
the  heir  to  claim  and  inherit  His  own.  That  idea  of  the  Church, 
under  the  similitude  of  a  house,  is  constant  in  the  New  Testament, 
derived,  I  take  it,  from  the  Temple,  which  was  a  type  of  the 
Church ;  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  '  In  my  Father's  house  are 
many  mansions,'  means  the  Church  in  which  he  prepared  a  place 
for  his  apostles,  by  sending  to  them  His  Holy  Spirit,  so  that 
thenceforth  they  became  its  foundation  stones.  'We  are  made 
partakers  with  Christ  if  we  hold  fast  the  beginning  of  our  confi- 
dence steadfast  unto  the  end,'  refers  to  Christ's  coming  in  the  end 
to  occupy  His  house,  when  all  His  people  shall  share  with  Him  in 
His  kingdom,  which  He  himself  sets  forth  by  the  same  similitude 
of  a  householder  who  went  into  a  far  country,  and  in  the  mean 
time  gave  his  servants  their  several  charges.  We  are  these  serv- 
ants; let  us  be  found  faithful,  and  when  He  comes  we  shall  be 
made  partakers  or  sharers  with  Him.  After  these  studies  in  di- 
vinity I  relieved  my  mind  by  reading  a  portion  of  the  Convocor 


SIMPLE  AND  UNPROVIDED  FAITH.  223 

tion  Book  which  treated  of  our  Lord's  respect  to  those  who  sat  in 
Moses'  seat,  presenting  this  feature  of  His  obedience  in  very  meek 
and  true  colors.  Oh,  how  I  have  offended  herein,  making  myself 
a  judge  instead  of  a  minister  of  the  Church !  and  yet  I  know  not 
how  otherwise  to  proceed  when  all  things  are  manifestly  so  out 
of  square.  I  do  pray  earnestly  that  the  Lord  would  keep  me  man- 
ly in  the  regulation  of  the  censorious  part  of  my  spirit ;  for  I  have 
this  day,  and  immediately  after  the  perusal  of  the  above,  written 
a  lecture  upon  the  simple  and  unprovided  faith  in  which  our 
Lord  made  His  rounds  of  the  ministry,  arguing  thence  the  spirit 
in  which  His  ministers  should  stand  affected  toward  the  provis- 
ions of  this  life,  and  should  receive  them ;  wherein  I  have  not 
scrupled  to  declare  the  whole  counsel  of  God,  but  I  know  not 
whether  in  the  right  spirit. 

"  This  also  has  occupied  me  since  dinner  up  to  the  time  of  even- 
ing prayer,  when  the  Lord  opened  my  mouth  to  speak  of  His  love 
to  our  souls,  so  that  I  could  see  the  tears  gather  in  the  eyes  of  my 
little  company.  I  do  hope  there  is  a  work  of  Divine  grace  pro- 
ceeding in  these  servants'  hearts.  .  .  .  Oh,  Isabella,  I  have  a  strong 
persuasion  of  the  power  of  a  holy  walk  and  conversation,  in  which, 
if  we  continue,  we  shall  save  not  only  our  own  souls,  but  the  souls 
of  those  that  hear  us ;  even  now  there  is  a  strong  conviction  of 
that  truth  brought  home  to  my  spirit.  For  yourself,  dear,  when 
you  are  in  darkness  and  distress,  then  do  not  fret,  but  clothe  your 
spirit  in  sackcloth,  and  sit  down  and  take  counsel  with  your  soul 
before  the  Lord,  and  study  all  its  deformity,  and  search  into  the 
hidden  recesses  of  its  u.nbelief.  It  is  a  rich  lesson  for  humility ; 
it  is  a  season  of  sowing  seed  in  tears.  The  Lord  permitteth  such 
temptations,  that  we  may  the  more  thoroughly  see  our  depravity ; 
and  in  the  midst  of  our  seasons  of  brightness,  they  come  like 
clouds  threatening  a  deluge,  which  the  rainbow  covenant  averts 
from  the  soul  of  God's  chosen  ones.  .  .  .  My  dearest,  we  must 
soon  go  to  our  rest,  and  our  sweet  infant  al3o ;  and  perhaps  the 
Lord  may  not  see  us  worthy  to  leave  any  seed  on  the  earth.  His 
will  be  done.  I  pray  only  to  be  conformed  to  His  will.  Now 
rest  in  peace,  my  other  part,  and  thou,  sweet  link  of  being  betwixt 
us!  The  Lord  make  our  souls  one!  And  may  He  bless  with 
the  inheritance  of  our  domestic  blessings,  spiritual  and  temporal, 
our  faithful  servant,  who  has  joined  herself  to  our  house.  Fare 
you  all  well.  The  Lord  compose  your  souls  to  sweet  and  quiet 
sleep ! 


224  FUNERAL  SERVICE. 

^^ Saturday,  llth  November.  .  .  .  I  am  left  to  my  sweet  occupa- 
tion of  making  my  dear  Isabella  a  sharer  of  the  actions  of  my  life 
and  the  secrets  of  fny  heart ;  would  that  they  were  more  valuable 
for  thy  sake,  my  dearest  love !  This  day  was  devoted  to  pious 
ofl&ces  connected  with  the  memory  of  our  dear  boy,  that  it  might 
be  made  profitable  to  the  living.  But  I  found  not  the  satisfaction 
which  I  expected.  I  began  by  reading  the  15th  chapter  of  1st 
Corinthians  in  the  original,  hoping  to  be  somewhat  raised  in  my 
thoughts ;  but  whether  I  fell  away  into  the  criticism  and  scJwlke, 
from  tlie  old  Greek  fathers,  which  are  in  my  noble  Greek  Testa- 
ment, I  know  not ;  but  I  think  I  missed  the  edification  of  the 
spirit.  Satan  is  never  absent  from  us ;  he  can  slay  as  effectually 
from  the  letter  of  God's  word  as  from  the  lightest  and  vainest 
pleasures  of  the  world.  After  which  I  studied  the  funeral  service 
of  the  Church,  in  which  office  I  found  some  movements  of  the 
spirit  which  I  sought.  Then  I  girt  myself  to  my  duties,  and 
wrote,  first,  a  letter  to  my  father's  house,  exhorting  them  against 
formality,  and  testifying  to  them  the  nature  of  a  spiritual  conver- 
sation ;  then  I  wrote  to  M^ ,  manifesting,  according  to  my  abil- 
ity, the  evils  of  self-communion  and  self-will,  and  the  blessings  of 
communion  with  the  Father  and  with  His  Son  Jesus  Christ.  I 
know  not  how  it  may  be  felt  by  her,  but  if  she  should  speak  of  it, 
assure  her  it  was  done  faithfully  and  in  love.  .  .  .  Thereafter  I 
addressed  myself  to  some  reading  in  my  Convocation  Book  and 
Eoman  History.  .  .  .  Since  tea  I  have  been  busy  preparing  my 
discourses,  and  I  do  pray  that  He  would  bless  them.  I  had  much 
liberty  in  exhorting  my  little  evening  congregation  and  opening 
to  them  the  comfortable  doctrine  of  the  Divine  Providence,  and 
in  praying  for  our  souls,  and  the  souls  of  all  men ;  and  now,  dear- 
est, twelve  o'clock  hath  rung  in  my  ears,  and  having  exhorted  the 
household  to  timeous  hours  on  the  Sabbath  morning,  I  must  not 
be  slack  to  give  the  example ;  and  that  I  may  leave  room  for  to- 
morrow's work,  which  I  trust  will  be  holy  and  blessed,  I  part  from 
you  with  few  words,  praying  the  Lord  to  haVe  you  all  in  His  holy 
keeping.  But  let  me  not  forget  that  this  day,  which  I  have  im- 
proved to  others,  I  ought  of  all  to  improve  the  most  carefully  to 
Edward's  mother.  Every  twelfth  day  of  the  month,  my  loving 
and  beloved  wife,  let  it  be  your  first  thought  that  your  babe  is 
mortal,  and  that  the  father  of  your  babe  is  mortal,  and  that  you 
yourself  are  mortal ;  and  every  twelfth  day  of  the  month,  my  lov- 
ing and  beloved  wife,  let  it  be  your  last  thought  that  your  babe 


SUNDAY  MORNING.— PKESENTIMENTS.  225 

is  mortal,  and  that  the  father  of  your  babe  is  mortal,  and  that  you 
yourself  are  mortal.  Do  this,  that  you  may  swallow  up  our  mor- 
tality in  the  glorious  faith  of  our  immortality  in  the  heavens. 
Farewell,  my  wife.  Dwell  forever  with  the  Lord,  my  sister  saint 
in  Christ ;  dwell  forever  with  the  Lord,  my  tender  babe,  and  be 
blessed  of  Him,  as  He  was  wont  to  bless  such  as  thee.  I  pray 
the  Lord  to  bless  all  with  whom  you  dwell,  thou  daughter  of 
Abraham  and  heir  of  the  promise ! 

"  Sabbath,  ISth  November.  My  dear  Isabella,  I  have  finished  the 
labors  of  another  Sabbath,  w^th  much  of  the  presence  of  the  Lord 
in  the  former  part  of  the  day,  and  not  so  much  in  the  evening. 
There  must  have  been  some  want  of  faith  either  in  the  writing  or 
delivery  of  my  discourse,  and  I  have  besought  the  Lord  that  he 
would  preserve  me  during  this  week  in  a  spiritual  frame  of  mind, 
and  move  within  my  soul  right  thoughts  and  feelings  for  the  sal- 
vation of  my  people ;  and  I  desire  that  you  would  ever  on  a  Sab- 
bath morning  pray  the  Lord  to  preserve  my  soul  in  a  spirit  of 
faith  and  love  all  the  day,  and  in  the  evening  pray  that  He  would 
direct  my  mind  to  such  subjects  of  meditation  and  methods  of 
handling  them  as  He  will  bless.  ...  I  have  been  much  exercised 
this  last  week  with  the  possibility  of  some  trial  coming  to  me  from 
the  resolute  stand  which  I  have  taken,  and  will  maintain,  upon 
the  subject  of  the  liberty  of  my  ministry.  For  the  spirit  of  au- 
thority and  rule  in  the  Church  begins  to  grow  upon  me,  and  I 
fear  much  there  is  not  enough  of  the  spirit  of  obedience  in  our 
city  churches  to  bear  it.  But  I  am  resolved,  according  as  I  am 
taught  the  duty  of  a  minister  of  the  Gospel,  to  discharge  it,  and 
consider  every  thing  that  may  befall  as  the  will  of  the  Lord.  I 
was  telling  this  to  Mr.  Dinwiddle  this  morning;  for  I  find,  good 
men,  they  have  all  their  little  schemes,  after  which  they  would 
like  to  see  me  play  my  part,  instead  of  looking  to  me,  as  one  un- 
der Christ's  authority,  to  watch  over  the  Church,  and  to  be  hon- 
ored of  the  Church.  The  church  was  crowded  both  morning  and 
evening ;  but  I  am  prepared,  if  the  Lord  should  see  it  meet  to  try 
me  here  also,  and  I  sometimes  think  I  shall  be  tried  here  at  some 
time  or  other.  Now,  my  notion  is,  that  the  Lord  is  very  gracious 
to  me  at  present,  permitting  me  to  be  strengthened ;  that  then 
Satan  will  have  power  against  me  for  a  season  by  every  form  of 
trial — and,  alas !  there  are  too  many  open  rivets  in  my  armor — 
but  that  in  the  end  the  Lord,  if  I  abide  faithful,  will  increase  me 
with  much  honor.  ...  I  thank  God  that  I  am  very  strong ;  and 

P 


226  TRUE  BROTHERHOOD. 

even  now  (ten  o'clock)  sleep  begins  to  loose  the  curtains  of  my 
conception,  and  twilight  is  settling  in  my  mind.  .  .  ,  And  now, 
dearest,  I  commend  you  and  our  little  one  unto  the  Lord,  and 
pray  that  the  Lord  may  bless  you  and  preserve  you  for  a  blessing 
to  these  eyes. 

^^  Mondaf/,  14:th  November.  My  dear  wife,  this  has  been  a  day 
sweetly  varied  with  the  good  mercies  of  God,  who  in  various 
ways  hath  used  His  servant  to  minister  unto  the  comfort  of  His 
people,  which  I  shall  now  set  forth  to  you  in  order,  being  full  of 
gladness  and  thankfulness.  In  the  morning  we  had  the  Psalm 
of  our  Lord's  humiliations — (Ixix.),  and  the  chapter  of  Job's  most 
pathetic  lamentation  and  divine  confidence  in  his  Eedeemer  (xix.), 
upon  which  I  have  been  able  to  reflect  more  during  the  day  by 
what  I  have  seen  than  I  was  able  to  reflect  unto  my  family,  though 
I  sought  for  words  of  exhortation.     "We  were,  besides  our  own, 

Mr..  J ,  a  friend  introduced  by  Pears ;  Eev.  Mr.  Cox,  of  the 

Church  of  England,  a  calm,  pious,  and  charitable  man,  whom  I 
met  at  Brighton ;  and  Sottomayor,  the  soldier.  I  had  to  with- 
stand the  radicalism  and  village-town  conceit  of  the  first,  who  cut 
all  questions  with  a  keen  blade  of  self-conceit,  but  neither  of  wit 
lior  understanding,  in  which  I  was  greatly  assisted  by  the  wisdom 
of  Mr.  Cox,  who,  having  traveled,  was  able  to  speak  with  author- 
ity ;  and  he  delighted  me  with  one  declaration,  that  in  the  Cath- 
olic churches  of  Italy  he  had  never  heard  a  sermon  (though  he 
had  heard  many)  which  breathed  of  saints'  days  and  other  mum- 
meries, but  always  of  solid  theology,  deep  piety,  and  much  unc- 
tion, and  that  he  had  met  with  many  whom  he  believed  most  spir- 
itual. My  dear,  I  have  often  more  concern  about  the  issue  of  the 
intellectual  forms  of  our  own  Church,  which  tend  to  practical  and 
theoretical  infidelity,  than  of  the  sensual  forms  of  the  Eomish 
Church,  which  do  tend  to  superstition,  and  still  preserve  a  faith, 
though  it  be  of  the  sense.  Anyway,  I  give  God  praise  that  either 
with  us  or  with  them  He  preserveth  a  seed.  When  they  depart- 
ed, poor  Sarah  Evans  came  to  me,  troubled  in  her  conscience, 
poor  girl,  that  she  had  not  confessed  to  me  all  her  sins ;  and  she 
was  about  to  open  all  her  history  in  time  past,  when  I  interrupted 
her,  and  would  not  allow  her  to  proceed.  Poor  thing!  I  pity 
much  her  wandering  mind,  still  timorous  and  startled  like  one 
that  had  been  lost,  and  not  sure  of  having  found  the  way.  I  think 
I  must  consult  the  elders  about  her.  It  is  a  hard  case ;  she  is  truly 
spiritual,  but  has  a  certain  instability  and  flutter  in  her  judgment. 


THE  PRODIGAL  WIDOW.  227 

After  her  came  a  poor  woman,  the  sister  of  Mr.  M'W 


(formerly  of  Dumfriesshire),  who  had  been  a  prodigal  for  the  last 
twenty-one  years  in  a  far  distant  land  of  the  West  Indies,  having 
followed  into  dissipation  a  dissipated  husband,  buried  ten  chil- 
dren, left  one,  and  now  returned  in  forma  pauperis — left  upon  the 
shore  by  the  good  Samaritan,  who  provided  her  in  a  fortnight's 
lodging,  expecting  that  in  that  time  her  brother,  to  whom  he 
wrote,  would  be  eager  to  relieve  her.  But  her  brother  seems 
more  ashamed  of  her  than  sorry  for  her,  and  dreads  her  return  to 
Scotland,  and  had  written  a  letter  entreating  me  to  get  her  into 
a  hospital,  which  I  found  on  my  arrival.  I  liked  its  spirit  ill, 
even  before  I  had  seen  her,  and  wrote  that  I  would  not  recom- 
mend to  any  hospital  the  sister  of  a  Scotch  clergyman  in  good 
circumstances,  except  she  should  be  wholly  abandoned.  Still  he 
writes  me,  inclining  to  the  finding  an  asylum  for  her  in  London, 
and  wishing  me  to  see  her,  which  this  day  I  appointed  by  letter, 
for  she  lives  all  the  way  at  Shadwell,  and  is  disabled  of  her  side 
by  a  palsy.  And  she  came — a  poor  picture  of  the  prodigal,  hum- 
bled and  penitent,  and  longing  for  her  brother's  bosom  as  ever  the 
prodigal  did  for  his  father's.  '  I  should  never  be  off  my  knees,  I 
think,  if  I  could  but  see  John,  and  partake  of  his  prayers  and 
counsels;  the  Lord  would  bring  peace  to  my  soul.'  And  she 
wept ;  and  she  very  sorely  wept  when  I  read  her  parts  of  her 
brother's  letter,  but  confessed  to  her  past  sinfulness ;  and  before 
she  went  away  her  last  words  were,  with  many  tears,  '  And  tell 
him  I  am  an  altered  woman.'  ...  So  I  sat  down  and  wrote  for 
the  widow,  and  rebuked  my  brother  sharply,  and  told  him  he 
ought  to  make  for  her  a  room  around  his  fireside.  "What  may 
be  the  issue  I  know  not ;  but  my  part,  God  helping  me,  is  to  help 
the  prodigal  widow.  .  .  . 

"  Then  I  went  forth  to  visit  Mrs.  P ,  as  I  set  down  in  my 

letter;  but  be  thankful  that  letter  went  not  to  the  dead  office, 
for  giving  a  glance  to  tho  object  of  my  affections,  whose  name  I 
thought  fairly  inscribed,  I  found  that  it  was  fairly  blank,  and  had 

to  get  pen  and  ink  at  the  receiving-house,     James  P (who  is 

very  great  in  the  highest  mathematics,  and  reads  La  Place's  Cal- 
culus of  Generating  Functions,  which  that  greatest  of  calculators 
has  applied  to  probabilities),  immediately  told  me  that  La  Place 
observed,  to  show  how  constant  causes  are,  that  the  number  of 
such  undirected  letters  put  into  the  Paris  post-office  was  year  by 
year,  as  nearly  as  possible,  the  same.    When  I  went  up  to  Mr. 


228  A  DEBTOK  IN  PEISON. 

P 's  sliop  I  found  liis  sister  standing  in  it,  and  slie  took  me 

up  to  her  mother's  sick-room,  saying  little  or  nothing  by  the 
way.  And  her  mother  took  me  by  the  hand,  and  said,  'The 
Lord  hath  sent  you  this  day,  for  my  Andrew  is  cast  into  prison.' 
.  .  .  Andrew,  you  must  know,  is  betrothed  to  a  young  lady  whom 
he  has  been  the  instrument  of  converting  to  the  Lord,  and  when 
he  left  S 's,  being  unresolved  what  to  do  with  his  little  capi- 
tal, which  could  not  meet  his  present  business,  his  betrothed's  un- 
cle said,  '  Get  your  bills  discounted,  and  you  shall  not  want  for 
money ;'  for  they  had  always  said  that  he  was  to  have  £500  on 
the  wedding-day,  and  £500  afterward.  To  this  the  servant  of  the 
Lord  trusting,  sunk  his  money  in  his  lease,  trusting  to  have  his 
floating  bills  met  by  his  friend,  who,  growing  cool  because  An- 
drew did  not  instantly  succeed,  withdraws  his  promises,  and  leaves 
our  friend  in  deep  waters ;  and  deals  with  his  niece  to  send  j)oor 
Andrew  all  his  letters,  and  to  request  hers  in  return.  This  took 
place  on  Friday,  and  this  day,  at  breakfast,  two  of  the  of&cers  of 
justice,  at  the  instance  of  a  creditor,  came,  and  he  went  with  them. 
Thus  was  his  mother  left,  and  thus  I  found  her  all  but  overcome. 
I  comforted  her  as  I  could,  and  prayed  with  her  as  I  could,  and  saw 
that  something  was  to  be  done  as  well  as  said.  So  coming  down, 
I  sat  down  to  write  in  the  back  shop,  while  his  sister  sought  some 
clew  to  the  creditor's  address,  that  I  might  find  the  prison.  .  .  . 
So  I  proceeded  by  Gary  Street,  and,  after  diligent  search,  found 
Andrew  in  a  house  of  which  the  door  is  kept  always  locked,  seat- 
ed with  three  men  who  seemed  doleful  enough — one  resting  his 
forehead  on  his  hands,  another  reclining  on  a  sofa,  and  the  third 
contemplating,  half  miserably,  half  sottishly,  a  pint  of  porter.  An- 
drew was  close  by  the  chimney  corner.  We  communed  togeth- 
er, and  he  was  as  calm  and  cheerful  as  Joseph,  having  Joseph's 
trust ;  and  of  a  truth,  yesterday,  he  seemed  to  his  own  household 
lifted  above  himself.  And  he  had  tasted  my  evening  discourse 
upon  the  minister's  wayfaring,  raven-brood  life  to  be  very  good. 
And  it  is  marvelous,  we  concluded  our  service  with  the  84-37 
verses  of  the  37th  Psalm,  as  if  the  Lord  would  encourage  me  with 
respect  to  that  service  of  which  I  desponded  to  you  last  night. 
While  I  talked  with  dear  Andrew,  not  knowing  but  the  others 
were  the  watchful  ofi&cers  of  justice,  he  upon  the  sofa  struck  his 
forehead  and  started  to  his  feet  with  a  maniac  air,  crying,  '  Oh 
God,  the  horrors  are  coming  upon  me !'  and  wildly,  very  wildly 
strode  through  the  room,  so  that  I  was  standing  to  my  arms,  lest 


JOSEPH  IN  PRISON.  229 

he  might  be  moved  of  Satan  against  me  for  the  words  which  I 
was  speaking  to  Andrew.  And  he  with  his  hand  upon  his  head 
wept,  and  the  other  man  would  comfort  with  '  patience' — '  philos- 
ophy.' But  the  wounded  man  continued  to  burst  out,  and  stride 
on,  and  beat  his  forehead,  whence  we  gathered  that  he  had  been 
there  for  a  whole  month,  daily  expecting  releasement,  but  none 
came,  every  message  worse  than  another ;  and  ever  and  anon  he 
spoke  of  his  wife.  Then,  when  his  fit  was  over,  in  which  he  talk- 
ed of  people  putting  an  end  to  themselves,  and  of  the  fits  of  hor- 
ror which  broke  his  sleep,  I  addressed  words  of  comfort  to  him, 
and  prevailed  to  soothe  him ;  so  that,  when  I  came  away,  he  said, 
'  It  were  well  for  us  to  receive  many  such  visits,  sir,'  But  I  must 
break  off;  the  night  wears  very  late,  and  I  am  getting  too  much 
moved.  The  Lord  bless,  for  the  night,  my  loving  and  beloved 
wife,  and  the  Lord  bless  our  baptized  babe — our  little  daughter 
of  the  Lord ! 

"  Tuesday^  loth.  Andrew,  who  realized  to  me  the  idea  of  Jo- 
seph in  prison,  had  come  away  in  great  haste,  and  omitted  to  take 
his  Bible  with  him,  which  I  supplied  with  my  far-traveled  and 
dear  companion,  now  bound  firmly  as  at  the  first.  Those  storms 
which  I  encountered  upon  the  Yarrow  mountains  melted  the  cov- 
er of  my  writing-desk,  and  firmly  bound  the  loose  back  of  my 
Bible.     Leaving  Andrew,  I  proceeded  to  my  engagement  at  six 

o'clock  in  Fleet  Market,  which  was  to  visit  Miss  M ,  and  her 

brother  and  sister,  who  live  with  her.  Their  father  dead,  their 
mother  in  Essex,  and  two  married  brothers  in  town,  so  estranged 
from  her  by  selfishness  and  worldliness  that,  'if  five  shillings 
would  save  me  from  death,  I  hardly  think  I  could  muster  it  among 
all  my  relations.'  Oh,  what  a  blessing  to  Scotland  are  her  family 
ties !  Families  here  are  only  associations  under  one  roof  for  a  few 
years,  to  issue  in  alienation  and  estrangement :  I  am  grieved  at 
my  heart  to  witness  it;  but  she  abides  strong  in  the  Lord.  .  .  . 
Her  brother  gave  wonderful  ear  to  me.  My  words  entered  deep, 
for  he  wept  almost  continually,  and  was  much  overpowered ;  and 
I  do  trust  in  the  Lord  that  the  lad  may  be  brought  to  a  more  obe- 
dient and  loving  spirit  toward  his  sister.  Having  finished  a  very 
sweet  visitation,  to  which  there  came  in  an  old  woman,  and  a  boy 
about  to  proceed  to  North  America,  whom  I  also  exhorted,  I  hast- 
ened to  Mrs.  P 's,  in  order  to  set  her  mind,  and  especially  her 

imagination,  at  rest,  which  would  be  conjuring  a  thousand  ideal 
frights  about  a  prison ;  which  having  done  with  much  consola- 


230  CHKISTIAN  INTERCOURSE. 

tion  to  my  own  spirit,  I  called  as  I  passed  at  Bedford  Square  to 
see  if  any  thing  had  happened  untoward,  but  found  that  all  was 
well.  .  .  .  Mr.  Scoresby  was  still  sitting,  and  after  I  had  taken  a 
cup  of  tea,  we  came  on  our  ways  together,  enjoying  much  delight- 
ful discourse.  The  Lord  is  opening  his  mind  wonderfully  to  the 
right  apprehension  of  the  ministerial  office.  I  arrived  not  at  home 
till  about  ten  o'clock,  and  assembled  the  family  for  worship ;  and 
after  writing  the  above,  I  went  to  bed  and  dreamt  a  dream  of 
sweet  thoughts — that  I  was  sitting  at  Jesus's  feet,  and  learning 
the  way  to  discharge  my  office,  having  only  six  days  to  hear  from 
the  Divine  Instructor,  at  which  time  He  was  to  remove  from  the 
earth. 

"  I  was  much  refreshed  by  the  sweet  thoughts  of  the  night,  and 
arose  very  cheerful;  and  while  the  family  was  at  worship,  Mr. 
Scoresby  and  Mr.  Hamilton  came  in,  whom  I  had  invited  on  pur- 
pose to  meet  one  another.  Our  morning  was  passed  in  sweet  dis- 
course, and  afterward  I  opened  to  Mr.  Scoresby,  in  my  own  study, 
many  of  my  views  concerning  the  Church :  into  some  he  could 
enter,  and  into  others  not.  But  he  is  growing  richly  in  divine 
knowledge,  and  I  praise  the  Lord  for  his  sake.  We  prayed  to- 
gether before  he  w^ent  away,  and  I  invited  him,  when  he  came 
back,  to  make  his  home  with  us.  .  .  .  Then  I  addressed  myself 
to  my  discourse  on  the  bondage  of  law,  and  having  wrought  that 
vein  till  I  was  wearied,  I  betook  myself  to  the  correcting  of  anoth- 
er proof,  and  had  gone  over  it  once,  and  was  about  concluding  the 
second  reading,  when  a  letter  from  Wm.  Hamilton  announced  that 
Mr.  David  was  much  worse,  and  a  few  hours  might  terminate  his 
life.  Thereupon  I  left  all,  and  proceeded  to  the  house  of  death. 
On  my  way  I  met  Mr.  Simon  proceeding  to  Bath  in  order  to  build 
up  certain  churches  there  who  have  besought  his  presence.  We 
commended  each  other  to  the  Lord,  and  took  our  several  ways.  I 
found  Mr.  David  still  living,  and  some  faint  hopes  of  amendment ; 
but  I  am  prepared  for  the  worst^  which  I  doubt  not  is  the  best.  .  .  . 
I  wrote  a  letter  to  Willie,  who  is  at  Norwich  at  school,  opening 
the  afflicting  intelligence  to  him  as  best  I  could.  ...  I  returned 
in  time  to  get  my  proof-sheet  finished  for  the  post,  since  which  I 
have  been  laboring  up  the  hill  with  my  lecture  upon  the  pious 
women  who  ministered  unto  Christ ;  when  at  nine  o'clock  a  lady 
came  in  to  enjoy  the  privilege  of  our  prayers.  At  the  church  on 
Wednesday  evening  a  sorrowful  lady  asked  me  if  it  was  true  that 
I  read  prayers  at  my  own  house  and  permitted  people  to  come. 


DOMESTIC  WORSHIP.— A  DEATH-BED.  231 

I  said,  at  family  worsliip  I  delight  to  comfort  and  encourage  the 
hearts  of  all  who  are  present,  and  if  you  come  on  a  spiritual  er- 
rand you  shall  be  welcome.  So  this  night  she  came,  and  hath 
opened  to  me  her  sorrows.  Three  months  ago  she  lost  her  only 
boy,  after  three  years'  illness,  during  which  she  watched  him  con- 
tinually ;  and  now  she  is  alone  in  the  world,  with  a  memory 
haunted  and  a  heart  stunned  and  broken,  knowing  little  of  the 
spiritual,  and  dwelling  much  in  the  imagination.  His  sufferings 
had  been  extreme,  and  his  death  frightful ;  and  his  poor  mother, 
not  more  than  your  years,  is  now  alone  in  this  great  city,  which  to 
her  is  a  great  desert.  .  .  .  Her  husband  was  a  Sicilian,  and  died 
before  the  boy  was  born.  .  .  .  She  wanted  to  know  if  she  would 
know  her  son  in  heaven.  I  could  have  wept  for  her,  but  I  saw 
she  needed  another  treatment,  and  therefore  rebuked,  but  with 
kindness,  her  imaginations,  and  showed  her  the  way  to  the  spirit- 
ual world,  whither  I  pray  the  Lord  to  lead  her.  .  .  .  The  Lord 
enable  me  to  direct  her  in  the  way  of  peace.  .  .  .  Thus  another 
day  has  passed  with  its  various  incidents  and  various  blessings. 
I  have  been  oft  in  it  enjoying  near  communion  with  God,  and  oft 
I  have  been  cold  and  lifeless.  When  shall  I  be  wholly  with  the 
Lord  ?  I  do  desire  His  abiding  presence — the  light  of  his  counte- 
nance. .  .  .  Now  may  the  Lord  be  the  canopy  over  your  head, 
and  over  the  head  of  the  babe,  this  night,  and  over  mine,  envelop- 
ing us  in  the  everlasting  arms ! 

"  Wednesday^  16th  November.  Our  dear,  dear  friend  is  no  more. 
He  departed  about  five  o'clock,  in  exactly  that  frame  of  spirit 
which,  above  all  others,  I  would  wish  to  die  myself  in.  .  .  .  In 
the  five  weeks  of  his  sore  affliction  his  robust  and  zealous  spirit 
has  had  the  meekness  of  a  little  child,  and  as  a  little  child  he  was 
taught  of  the  Spirit  in  a  wonderful  way.  .  .  ,  The  propitiation  of 
Christ  and  his  own  unworthiness  were  his  chief  meditations,  and 
continued  so  to  the  last.  During  that  time  a  worldly  care  has  not 
crossed  his  lips.  His  soul  has  been  full  of  love  to  all,  and  of  great, 
great  affection  to  me.  I  know  not  that  I  have  one  left  who  loved 
me  as  he  did.  .  .  .  He  accompanied  me  to  the  ship,  with  Mr. 
Hamilton,  when  I  came  to  see  you  and  little  Edward;  now  he  is 
gone  in  London,  and  Edward  lies  in  his  cold  grave  in  Scotland ; 
and  I  am  left,  and  you  are  left,  whom  I  feared  lest  1  should  lose ; 
and  left  we  are,  dearest,  to  bear  fruit  unto  God,  and  fruit  we  will 
bear  unto  God,  being  cleansed  by  the  word  of  Christ,  and  support- 
ed by  the  juices  and  nourishment  of  the  vine,  and  dressed  by  the 


232  A  GOOD  VOYAGE. 

hands  of  our  heavenly  Father.  Let  us  watch  and  exhort  one  an- 
other, as  I  now  do  you,  my  dearest  wife,  to  much  frequent  private 
communion  with  God.  This  was  what  our  friend  had  resolved  to 
apply  himself  to  with  more  diligence  than  ever  if  it  had  been  the 
will  of  the  Father  to  spare  him.  About  three  o'clock  I  received 
a  message  from  Wm.  Hamilton  that  he  was  fast  fading  away,  and 
had  expressed  a  wish  to  see  me.  I  had  proposed  going  about  two 
hours  after;  these  two  hours  would  have  lost  me  the  sweetest 
parting  in  my  life — my  child  first  born  unto  Christ,  at  least  who 
is  known  to  me.  I  found  him  far  gone  in  breathlessness,  but  live- 
ly in  hearing,  quick  in  understanding,  and  full  of  the  Spirit  of  life. 
He  stretched  out  his  hand  to  me ;  his  other  was  stretched  to  his 
wife  on  the  other  side  of  the  bed.  ...  I  prayed  with  him,  and 
afterward  continued,  at  intervals,  to  supply  his  thoughts  with  preg- 
nant scriptures.  I  repeated  to  him  the  23d  Psalm,  in  which  he 
was  wont  to  have  such  delight.  This  revived  him  very  much, 
and  he  uttered  several  things  with  a  grave,  full,  deep  voice,  inter- 
rupted by  his  want  of  breath.  'My  whole  hope,  trust,  and  de- 
pendence is  in  the  mercy  of  God,  who  sent  His  Son  to  save  the 
meanest.'  ...  I  saw  death  close  at  hand,  and  drew  near  and  took 
his  hand.  His  breathing  deepened,  and  became  more  like  distinct 
gasps.  And  it  failed  and  failed,  until  his  lungs  did  their  office  no 
more,  and  he  died  without  a  struggle  of  a  limb  or  the  discompos- 
ure of  a  muscle — ^his  mouth  open  as  it  had  drawn  its  last  breath 
— his  eye  fixed  still  on  me;  and  we  stood  silent,  silent  around 
him.  Then  Mr.  Bedome  closed  his  eyelids.  I  know  not  why 
they  do  so.  I  loved  to  look  on  Edward's.  Dear,  lovely  corpse 
of  Edward,  what  a  sweet  tabernacle  was  that  over  which  thy 
mother  and  I  wept  so  sadly  I  My  much-beloved  child,  my  much- 
cherished,  much-beloved  child,  dwell  in  the  mercies  of  my  God, 
and  the  God  of  thy  mother !  We  will  follow  thee  betimes,  God 
strengthening  us  for  the  journey.  I  had  still  an  hour  to  sit  with 
Mrs.  David,  and  to  write  sweet  William  and  his  grandfather.  She 
was  comforted,  and  I  left  her  tranquil.  Mr.  Hamilton,  who  is 
much  affected,  was  seated  below,  in  the  dining-room,  and  we  came 
to  the  church  together,  when  I  discoursed  from  the  24th  and  25th 
verses  of  the  14th  chapter  of  John,  and  made  known  to  them  the 
good  intelligence  that  our  brother  had  had  a  good  voyage  so  far 
as  we  could  follow  him  or  hear  tidings  from  him.  Every  one 
seemed  deeply  affected,  and  all  whom  I  talked  with  were  sensibly 
rejoiced.  .  .  .    Thus  another  of  my  flock  has  gone  to  the  Chief 


\    THE  THEOLOGY  OF  MEDICINE.  233 

Shepherd.  .  .  .  Andrew  P brought  me  up  my  Bible,  having 

been  delivered  last  night,  and  giving  thanks  unto  God.  I  love 
him  much ;  his  mother,  also,  is  better ;  so  that  the  Lord  hath 

shincd  from  behind  the  cloud.  .  .  .  James  P is  a  very  sweet 

companion.  Hall  is  still  weakly.  The  rest  are  well.  I  fight  a 
hard  fight,  but  let  me  never  forsake  private  communion  or  I  per- 
ish. The  Lord  bless  you  and  our  dear  babe.  I  wish  I  were  re- 
freshed with  a  sight  of  you  both. 

"  Tkursday^  2  o'clock.  I  have  had  such  a  conversation  with  one 
of  my  congregation,  a  medical  man,  upon  the  subject  of  what  I 
would  call '  the  theology  of  medicine,'  as  made  me  sorry  you  were 
not  present  to  hear  it.  But  in  good  time,  when  you  are  restored 
to  me,  you  shall  hear  him  often ;  for  he  is  both  a  gentleman,  a 
man  of  science — the  true  science  of  nature — and  a  Christian.  He 
discoursed  upon  infants,  and  the  treatment  of  infants,  so  well  and 
wisely,  that  I  could  not  let  this  letter  go  without  noting  to  you 
one  or  two  things.*.  .  . 

"  Thursday,  17th  Nov.  My  dear  Isabella,  nothing  is  of  such  im- 
portance as  to  have  a  distinct  view  of  the  end  of  all  our  labors  un- 
der the  sun — our  studies,  our  conversations,  our  cares,  our  desires, 
and  whatever  else  constitutes  our  being;  for,  though  many  of 
these  seem  to  come  by  hazard,  without  any  end  in  view,  believe 
me,  my  dear,  that  every  habit  arose  out  of  an  end,  either  of  our 
own  good  or  some  other  good  desirable  in  our  eyes,  and  that  the 
several  acts  contained  under  that  label  go  to  strengthen  that  end 
which  it  carried  with  it  from  the  beginning.  Now,  dearest,  our 
one,  only  end  should  be  the  glory  of  God,  and  our  one,  only  way 
of  attaining  that  end  by  the  fulfillment  of  His  will ;  and  the  only 
means  of  knowing  that  will  is  by  the  faith  of  His  word ;  and  the 
only  strength  for  possessing  it  is  the  love,  desire,  and  joy  which 
are  begotten  in  us  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  Therefore  be  careful,  my 
dear  sister  in-  Christ,  to  occupy  your  thoughts  and  cares  with  some 
form  of  the  divine  revelation,  and  to  have  before  the  eye  of  your 
faith  some  divine  end  present  or  distant — yea,  both  present  and 
distant ;  and  then  shall  you  have  communion  with  the  Father  and 
with  his  Son  Jesus  Christ  from  morning  to  evening.  This  at- 
tempt, this  succeed  in,  not  by  the  force  of  natural  will,  whiph  will 

*  Here  follows  a  minute  record  of  the  advice  he  had  just  received,  reported  with 
the  most  grave  and  anxious  particularity,  but  concluding  thus:  "To  these  rules 
give  no  more  confidence  than  seems  to  your  own  miud  good,  and  put  your  trust  iu 
the  providence  and  blessing  of  Almighty  God." 


23-i  HUSKINESS  AEOUT  THE  HEAET. 

make  such  a  hirpling,  hobbling  gait  of  it,  but  by  the  practical  re- 
demption of  your  Savior,  which  will  by  degrees  clear  you  of  the 
former  slough,  and  feather  your  callow  nakedness,  and  give  you 
wings  with  which  to  mount  up  into  the  exalted  region  of  life. 
Have  ever  in  view  the  glory  of  God,  and  ever  seek  help  to  it  by 
prayer,  and  the  Lord  himself  will  lead  you  into  the  way.  These 
thoughts  occurred  to  me  as  I  came  home  from  Bedford  Square, 
where  I  took  dinner  with  our  dear  friends,  and  I  resolved  I  would 
write  them  for  your  sake.  I  spent  the  morning  in  study  upon 
the  help  which  women  may  afford  and  have  afforded  in  the 
Church,  and  have  brought  my  lecture  nearly  to  a  close ;  so  that  I 
have  to-morrow  and  next  day  for  the  great  theme  of  legal  bond- 
•  age  on  which  I  have  entered.  I  would,  and  earnestly  pray  that 
I  might,  keep  my  thoughts  during  study  intent  upon  the  glory  of 
God  and  the  promotion  of  Christ's  kingdom.  And  it  were  not 
dutiful  if  I  did  not  acknowledge  that  the  Lord  is  bringing  me  into 
a  region  of  nearer  communion.  But  I  can  not  tell  what  huski- 
ness  there  is  about  my  heart,  and  in  my  discourse  what  seeking 
after  intellectual  or  imaginary  forms.  Oh  that  I  could  feel  the 
/'  very  truth,  and  rejoice  with  the  free  joy  of  its  inheritance.  Dur- 
ing my  study,  Dr.  Wilkins  came  in,  and  discoursed  to  me  for 
about  an  hour  with  a  simplicity  and  beauty  which  ravished  me. 
If  he  do  not  prove  visionary  upon  further  acquaintance — if  his 
practical  understanding  be  j)erfectly  sound,  then  he  is  the  greatest 
accession  to  my  acquaintance  since  I  became  acquainted  with  Mr. 
Frere,  and  will  prove  to  me,  in  all  that  respects  the  chemistry  of 
the  bodily  constitution,  what  other  leaders  have  been  to  me  in  re- 
spect to  the  mental  and  the  spiritual.  The  Lord  hath  showed  me 
such  marvelous  kindness  in  respect  of  teachers  that  I  can  not 
enough  praise  Him.  .  .  .  The  object  of  his  discourse  was  to  prove 
that  nature  had  no  tendency  to  any  disease,  but  wholly  the  re- 
verse ;  and  that,  were  it  not  our  ignorance  and  perversity,  we 
would  come  to  our  full  age,  and  drop  into  the  grave  as  a  shock 
of  corn  in  its  season ;  and  he  began  his  demonstration  from  the 
condition  of  the  child.  .  .  .  There  was  much  more  he  had  to  dis- 
course of,  but  I  told  him  I  had  enough  for  the  present,  and  would 
hear  him  another  time.  He  is  a  man  of  fine  manners  and  a  sweet 
nature — of  continued  acknowledgment  of  God  and  blame  of  man. 
.  .  .  Now,  dearest,  I  have  put  all  this  down  for  your  sake,  that 
you  might  meditate  upon  it,  and  make  the  use  of  it  which  you 
judge  best.     The  man  you  will  like  exceedingly,  that  I  know  full 


THE  SPIKIT  OF  A  MAN.  235 

well,  because  we  are  of  one  spirit  now,  or  fast  growing  into  one 
spirit — praised  be  the  mercy  of  our  God.  .  .  .  The  Lord  be  gra- 
cious to  you  and  all  in  the  house.  I  pray  for  you  and  baby,  I  oft 
think,  with  more  earnestness  than  for  myself,  which  is  sentiment, 
and  not  faith.  The  Lord  edify  us  in  one  most  holy  faith ;  and 
Mary  also,  whose  salvation  I  earnestly  desire.     Amen. 

"  Friday^  18th.  My  dear  Isabella,  there  is  no  point  of  wisdom, 
human  or  divine,  so  carefully  to  be  attended  to,  for  one's  own 
good,  or  for  the  knowledge  and  good  of  others,  as  the  sj^irit  which 
men  are  of  For  the  spirit  draws  after  it  the  understanding,  and 
determines  the  views  which  men  take  of  every  subject,  in  the 
world  of  sight  or  in  the  world  of  faith.  Some  people  remain  un- 
der the  spirit  of  their  minds,  and  become  intensely  selfish.  But 
the  social  principle  leads  the  several  spirits  to  congregate  together 
for  mutual  defense  and  encouragement.  First  of  all  there  is  the 
Holy  Spirit,  whose  communion  constitutes  the  true  Church  of 
Christ,  and  you  may  be  sure  their  opinions  will  be  orthodox  doc- 
trine, charitable  sentiment,  sweet,  patient  temper,  and,  in  short, 
transcripts  of  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord.  Then  there  is  the  worldly 
spirit,  which  is  one  in  respect  of  its  opposition  to  the  former,  and 
intolerance  of  all  its  opinions ;  but  in  respect  to  itself  is  divided 
into  many,  its  name  being  Legion.  Of  these  I  find  to  prevail  at 
present  the  following :  1st.  Around  j'-ou  in  Scotland  there  is  the 
spirit  of  the  human  understanding^  of  which  skepticism  of  all 
things  that  can  not  be  expressed  with  logical  precision  is  the  char- 
acteristic, and  an  utter  abhorrence  of  all  mystery ;  whereas,  as  you 
know,  to  the  Holy  Spirit  of  simplicity  every  thing  is  a  mystery 
unfolding  itself  more  and  more.  There  is  also  the  spirit  of  self- 
sufficiency,  which  characterizes  our  countrymen  above  measure. 
With  us  we  have  the  spirit  of  expediency,  which  calculates  what 
it  can  foresee,  and  accounts  all  beyond  to  be  void  and  unreclaim- 
ed chaos ;  it  is  utterly  fruitless  of  any  principle  self-directing  in 
the  human  soul,  and  would  make  man  wholly  under  the  influence 
of  outward  things.  Of  this  class  Owen  is  the  fool.  About  the 
Universities  of  England  is  the  spirit  of  antiquity,  which  prizes 
what  is  recondite  and  difficult  of  discovery,  and  runs  out  into 
Egyptian  expeditions  to  the  Pyramids  and  the  Tombs.  And 
among  the  common  people  there  is,  in  direct  opposition  to  this, 
the  spirit  of  radicalism,  which  hath  no  reverence  for  antiquity,  or, 
indeed,  for  any  thing  but  its  own  projections.  In  the  Church 
here  there  is  the  spirit  of  formality,  which  often  ascends  into  very 


236  TRY  THE  SPIRITS. 

high  regions  of  beauty  and  comeliness,  but  wants  the  living,  act- 
ing, confirming  principle — is  but  an  Apollo  Belvidere  or  a  Venus 
de'  Medici  after  all — not  a  living,  acting,  self-directing  principle. 
I  have  not  time  nor  strength  to  open  the  subject  philosophically, 
but  I  have  said  enough  to  lead  your  meditations  to  it,  which  is  all 
that  I  desire.  For  observe  you,  my  dear,  that  if  you  be  of  the 
right  spirit,  all  things  will  right  themselves  in  the  eyesight  of  your 
mind.  Hence  the  Holy  Spirit  is  called  also  the  spirit  of  truth. 
We  do  not  get  right  by  conning  our  opinions  back  over  again, 
but  we  change  our  opinions,  as  we  do  our  dress,  from  a  change  in 
our  spirit.  Therefore  these  are  often  not  hypocrites,  but  rash 
men,  who  are  seen  so  suddenly  to  change  their  sides.  And  true 
conversion  draws  with  it  an  alteration  of  all  our  opinions ;  and 
conversion  is  properly  defined  as  a  change  of  spirit.  How  often 
do  people  say.  It  was  all  true  he  said,  but  spoken  in  a  bad  spirit. 
Now  if  you  wish  to  be  right,  seek  communion  with  the  Holy  Spir- 
it; and  if  you  wish  to  know  whom  you  ought  to  listen  to,  by 
what  manner  of  spirit  he  is  of,  try  the  spirits  whether  they  be  of 
God.  Milton  could  not  say,  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God,  because  he 
would  not  yield  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  but  preferred  the  spirit  of 
radicalism ;  and  as  no  one  can  know  the  Father  but  he  to  whom 
the  Son  revealeth  Him,  so  no  one  knoweth  the  Son  but  he  to 
whom  the  Spirit  revealeth  Him.  And  what  is  meant  by  having 
right  opinions,  or  being  wise,  but  to  know  the  Son  who  is  truth  ? 
And  much  more  remains,  which  I  may  perhaps  write  hereafter. 

"I  gave  God  thanks  for  your  letter,  and  for  the  answer  of  my 
prayers  that  you  continued  to  stand  fast  in  the  Lord.  With  re- 
spect to  your  journey,  you  will  easily  reach  Dumfries  by  posting 
it ;  and  I  think  you  ought  to  take  the  road  by  Biggar,  Thornhill, 
and  the  Nith,  as  being  the  more  pleasant,  and  I  think,  if  any  thing, 
the  more  sheltered  of  the  two ;  although,  in  that  respect,  both  are 
bleak  enough ;  .  .  .  from  Annan  you  had  better  take  the  way  by 
Newcastle,  and  thence  to  Mr.  Bell's,  of  Boswell,  which  I  under- 
stand to  be  within  seven  miles  of  York,  and  I  would  meet  you 
there.  .  .  .  From  Annan  you  will  bring  me  two  or  three  pairs  of 
a  shoe  of  a  passing  good  form  for  my  foot.  Nothing  has  occurred 
to  me  to-day  worth  mentioning.     I  have  enjoyed  the  presence  of 

God  beyond  my  deservings.     I  preached  to  Mr.  N 's  people, 

and  recognized  in  them  improvement,  as  I  hope ;  much  in  him. 
There  was  one  idea  which  occurred  to  me  worth  writing.  How 
vain  is  it  for  man  to  trust  in  God's  mercy,  when  His  own  Son, 


A  BENEDICTION  TO  THE  ABSENT.  237 

tliougli  He  cried  hard  for  it,  could  find  none,  but  bad  to  drink  the 
cup  of  justice !     I  am  weary.     The  Lord  be  with  you  all ! 

"  Saturday,  l^th  November.  I  am  so  fatigued,  dear  Isabella,  that 
I  dare  not  venture  to  write,  but  will  not  retire  to  rest  without  in- 
serting upon  this  record  of  my  dearest  thoughts  a  husband's  and 
a  father's  blessing  upon  his  dear  wife  and  child. 

"  Sabbath,  20th  November.  I  have  reason  this  night  again  to  bless 
the  Lord  for  His  goodness  to  His  unworthy  servant,  for  I  have  been 
much  supported,  and  have  had  great  liberty  given  me  to  wrestle 
with  the  souls  of  the  people ;  but  I  want  much  the  grace  of  wrest- 
ling with  the  Lord  for  their  sake.  I  feel  daily  drawn,  like  the 
Prophet  Daniel,  to  some  great  and  continued  act  of  humiliation  and 
earnest  suj)plication  for  the  Church,  but  Satan  hindereth  me.  And 
yet  I  doubt  not  the  Lord  will  work  in  me  this  victory,  and  that  by 
your  help  I  shall  yet  be  able  to  wait  upon  the  Lord  night  and 
day,  and  to  weep  between  the  altar  and  tabernacle  for  the  souls 
of  the  people.  Indeed,  I  have  already  planned  that  when  the 
Lord  restore  you  to  my  sight  (in  spirit  we  are  never  parted),  we 
shall  pass  an  hour  of  every  day,  from  four  till  five,  in  our  own 
room,  with  no  presence  but  the  presence  of  God,  which  we  will 
earnestly  entreat ;  and  we  will  rest  from  our  great  labors  that 
hour,  and  meditate  of  our  everlasting  rest.  Before  entering  upon 
this  day's  labors  I  will  look  back  upon  yesterday,  that  you  may 
be  informed  of  one  or  two  things  which  will  be  pleasant  to  your 
ear.  The  death  of  our  friend  David  hath  wrought  wonderfully 
for  good  with  us  all,  so  that  men  busy  with  the  world  have  wept 
like  children ;  and  all  have,  I  think,  had  the  spiritual  seasoning 
intermingled  w-ith  the  natural  feeling.  It  wrought  upon  me  in 
the  way  of  greater  earnestness  of  spiritual  communion;  and  I 
think  yesterday  morning,  in  the  visions  of  the  night,  I  was  con- 
scious of  the  sweetest  enjoyments  of  the  soul  I  ever  knew.  There 
was  no  vision  presented  to  my  sight  in  my  dream,  but  there  was 
a  sense  of  deeper  meaning  and  clearer  understanding  given  to  our 
Lord's  parting  discourse,  which  filled  me  with  a  spiritual  delight 
— a  light  of  spiritual  glory  that  was  unspeakably  mild  and  de- 
lightful. I  awoke  full  of  thanksgiving  and  praise,  and  bowed  my- 
self upon  my  bed,  and  gave  thanks,  and  arose  to  my  labors.  I 
break  off  for  worship.     The  Lord  be  in  the  midst  of  us ! 

"In  reading  the  last  half  of  the  16th  chapter  of  John,  I  was 
struck  with  the  23d  and  24th  verses,  which  show  us  why  the 
Lord's  prayer  was  not  concluded  in  Christ's  name — because  he 


238  SUNDAY. 

was  not  Intercessor  and  High-Priest  till  after  His  death.  He  was 
perfected,  that  is,  consecrated  (for  the  word  for  consecration  was 
then  perfecting)  by  sufferings.  In  the  days  of  His  flesh  He  had 
no  mediatorial  power,  but  was  conquering  it  to  Himself  and  His 
Church,  and  therefore  He  called  upon  them  to  rejoice  that  He 
was  to  go  away.  Now  to  return.  All  the  day  long  I  continued 
in  study,  with  walks  in  the  garden  and  relaxations  of  history,  un- 
til after  two  o'clock,  when  I  bore  Mr.  P company  to  Bedford 

Square.  .  .  .  Thence  I  proceeded  to  the  house  of  affliction.  .  .  . 
Now  I  come  to  the  labors,  the  blessed  labors  of  the  Sabbath. 
This  morning  I  awoke  at  six,  but  was  too  weary  to  rise  till  eight; 
and  having  gone  over  my  sermon,  with  my  pen  in  my  band,  to 
bring  it  to  very  truth  as  nearly  as  I  know  it,  I  went  to  church 
with  Mr.  Dinwiddle,  who  enters  cordially  with  me  into  prayer, 
and  is  desirous  of  a  more  spiritual  discourse  than  when  you  used 
to  walk  with  him.  After  Psalms  and  prayer,  in  which  I  had  no 
small  communion,  we  perused  the  4th  of  Hebrews.  .  .  .  Then  I 
commenced  my  discourse  on  Gal.,  ii.,  14,  upon  the  bondage  of 
law,  opening  the  whole  subject  of  justification  by  faith,  upon 
which  I  intend  to  discourse  at  large ;  and  I  presented  them  first 
with  a  view  of  the  dignity  of  the  law,  both  outward  in  the  state 
and  inward  in  the  soul.  .  .  .  (But  it  has  struck  twelve ;  the  Lord 
bless  thee  and  the  child,  and  rest  us  this  night  in  the  arms  of  His 
love  and  mercy,  so  as  we  may  arise  as  to  a  resurrection  of  life 
against  to-morrow !  Amen.)  To-morrow  is  come,  and  I  am  still 
in  the  land  of  the  living  to  praise  and  glorify  my  Creator  and 
Eedeemer ;  which  having  done  according  to  my  weakness,  I  sit 
down  to  my  pleasant  labor,  after  many  incidents  which  must  form 
part  of  my  next  dispatch.  Then  showing  them  the  Charybdis  of 
licentiousness  upon  the  other  side  of  the  fair  way,  into  which  An- 
tinomians  and  other  loose  declaimers  against  the  law  did  carry 
miserable  souls,  and  where  also  superstition  and  Methodism  did 
bind  them  in  bare  bondage  after  they  had  seduced  them  from  the 
wholesome  restraints  of  law,  into  which  law  they  ought  to  have 
breathed  the  spirit  of  true  obedience,  I  concluded  by  entreating 
their  prayers  that  I  might  be  enabled  to  handle  this  vast  subject 
with  power,  and  love,  and  a  sound  mind  (which  I  again  beseech 
of  you  also).  .  .  . 

"  In  the  evening  I  was  feeble  in  prayer  to  begin  with,  no  doubt 
from  want  of  faith ;  but  the  Lord  strengthened  me  toward  the 
close,  otherwise  I  think  I  should  not  have  had  heart  to  go  on  with 


VN 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  WOJIEN.  239 

the  service,  I  felt  so  spirit-stricken.  .  .  .  My  lecture  was  upon  the 
ministry  of  women  in  their  proper  sphere  in  the  Church,  which  I 
drew  out  of  the  Scriptures  by  authority ;  and  by  the  same  author- 
ity limited  and  restrained  from  authority,  either  in  word  or  in  dis- 
cipline, to  the  gentle  and  tender  ministry  of  love,  and  devotion  of 
goods  and  personal  services,  which  afforded  me  a  sweet  and  gra- 
cious topic  to  descant  upon,  in  defense  of  female  libert}^,  and  eman- 
cipation from  worldly  and  fashionable  prudential  laws  and  tyran- 
nies of  decorum,  false  delicacy,  and  other  base  bondages ;  all  which 
I  set  off  with  the  historical  illustrations  of  woman's  vast  services, 
martyrdoms,  shelter  of  the  persecuted,  care  of  the  poor,  to  the 
seeming  conviction  of  the  people,  and  concluded  with  a  summary 
of  a  Christian  woman's  duties  in  her  various  relations ;  and  in- 
sisted upon  them,  as  they  were  members  of  my  church,  to  be  heljD- 
ful  to  me,  or  else  I  saw  no  prospect  of  any  growth  of  communion 
in  the  midst  of  us.  .  .  .  Dearest,  I  have  set  forth  many  things  in 
this  letter  for  your  meditation.  They  are  seeds  of  thought  (rather) 
than  thoughts ;  the  spirit  of  truth  (rather)  than  the  doctrines  of 
truth.  Think  on  these  things,  and  meditate  them  much,  and  the 
Lord  give  you  understanding  in  all  things.  For  our  babe  we  can 
do  nothing  but  pray  unto  the  Lord,  and  cease  from  anxiety,  living 
in  faith  ;  imdi  cease  from  anxiety,  living  in  faith.  .  ,  . 

"  Monday,  21st  November,  1825.  May  the  Lord  of  His  great  mer- 
cy fill  my  soul  with  the  fullness  of  love  to  my  dear  wife ;  that,  as 
Christ  loved  the  Church,  I  may  love  her,  and  in  like  manner  mani- 
fest with  all  gracious  words  my  unity  of  soul  with  her  soul ;  that  we 
may  be  one  as  Thou,  our  Creator,  didst  intend  man  and  woman  to 
be  from  the  beginning.  This  day,  dearest,  hath  been  to  me  a  day 
of  much  and  varied  activity,  which,  being  full  of  reflection  and 
conflict,  I  shall  recount  in  order.  After  good  rest,  which,  by  the 
blessing  of  God,  my  wearied  head  doth  constantly  enjoy,  I  arose 
about  eight,  and,  being  outwardly  and  inwardly  appareled,  I  came 
down  to  fulfill  the  will  of  God,  whatever  it  might  be,  and  found 

Mr.  M ,  the  artist,  and  Mr.  S ,  also  an  artist,  of  whom  I 

wrote  to  you  as  being  one  of  my  communicants,  with  whom  and 
the  family,  having  worshiped  the  God  of  our  salvation,  while 
breakfast  was  arranging  in  the  other  room  by  good  Mrs.  Hall, 

Miss  W and  another  lady  came  to  wait  upon  me,  whom  I 

went  to  see.     The  lady  is  a  Mrs.  S ,  dwelling  in  the  city,  who 

has  been  much  blessed  by  my  ministry,  and  was  brought  to  it  in 
this  wonderful  way,  as  she  told  it  me  from  her  own  lips.    She  had 


240  A  DREAM. 

been  much  tried  by  a  Tvortliless  husband,  of  whom  you  know 
there  are  so  many  in  this  tie-dissolving  city ;  and  in  the  midst  of 
her  sorrowful  ni2;hts  she  dreamed  a  dream :  that  she  was  carried 
to  a  church,  of  which  the  form  and  court,  even  to  two  trees  which 
grew  over  the  wall,  were  impressed  upon  her  mind ;  and  there 
she  heard  a  minister,  whose  form  and  dress,  to  the  very  shape  of 
his  gown,  was  also  impressed  upon  her,  who  preached  to  her  from 
these  words:  'Blessed  are  ye  poor,  for  yours  is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.'  This  she  communicated  to  one  of  her  comforting  friends, 
to  whom,  describing  the  gown,  she  answered  that  he  must  be  a 
Scotch  minister  who  was  intended  by  the  vision,  for  they  are  the 
only  people  who  wear  that  kind  of  gown.  She  had  already  heard 
Dr.  Manuel  and  Dr.  Waugh,  but  was  sure  they  answered  not  to 
the  figure  of  the  vision ;  but,  as  she  passed  a  window,  she  saw  a 
print  of  me,  and  was  impressed  with  the  resemblance.  Heretofore 
she  had  been  deterred  from  coming  near  me  by  the  crowd,  but 
now  she  resolved  some  evening  to  come;  and,  having  taken  a 
friend's  house  by  the  way,  they  strongly  gainsayed  her  j)urpose, 
and  would  have  taken  her  elsewhere  with  them,  and  all  but  pre- 
vailed. This  detained  her  beyond  the  hour,  and  when  she  re- 
turned our  psalm  and  prayer  were  over,  and  I  was  naming  the  sub- 
ject of  lecture,  and  the  first  words  that  fell  upon  her  ears  were 
the  words  of  her  dream :  '  Blessed  are  ye  poor,  for  yours  is  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.'  She  stood  in  the  midst  of  a  crowd  hardly 
able  to  stand,  and  beheld  and  heard  all  which  had  been  revealed 
to  her  in  the  visions  of  the  night.  ...  Is  not  this  very  marvel- 
ous, dear  Isabella,  and  very  gracious,  that  the  Lord  should  comfort 
His  people  by  such  a  worm  as  I  am?  I  exhorted  her  to  abide 
steadfast,  and  to  come  again  and  see  me. 

"  When  breakfast  was  over  I  brought  Mr.  S with  me  into  the 

library,  whose  heart,  I  perceived,  was  full  of  some  matter,  who  told 
me,  with  an  artlessness  and  alarm  which  showed  his  happy  igno- 
rance of  our  town  infidelity,  that  a  cousin  of  his  had,  in  the  course 
of  religious  conversation,  declared  his  disbelief  of  Jesus  being  the 
son  of  David,  and  disputed  the  genealogies,  and  had  maintained 
that  in  Joshua's  time  they  were  but  poor  geographers,  otherwise 
they  would  never  have  alleged  that  the  sun  stood  still.  I  was  at 
pains  to  instruct  him,  and  to  teach  him  the  subtle  arts  of  the  tempt- 
er, but  he  concluded  by  saying  that  it  was  not  for  himself,  but  for 
his  cousin,  that  he  was  concerned,  and  the  big  tear  filled  his  eye 
when  he  said  it.     I  entreated  him  to  bring  his  cousin  some  night 


THE  FOUR  SPIRITS.  241 

at  our  hour  of  prayer,  and  I  would  do  my  endeavor  to  set  him 
right.  Now  I  had  received  this  very  morning  a  letter  from  one 
Gavin  H ,  a  poor  infidel,  craving  that  I  would  preach  a  dis- 
course upon  the  character  of  God,  which  he  could  not  understand 
to  be  both  merciful  and  vindictive ;  and  I  had  received  two  other 
letters,  one  with  a  pamphlet,  craving  help  of  me  against  the  infidel 
Taylor,  who  is  poisoning  the  city  at  such  a  rate ;  and  having  like- 
wise been  entreated  by  two  men  to  attend  a  meeting  in  John  Street 
Chapel  upon  the  subject  of  the  District  Society  for  Evangelizing 
the  Poor,  I  resolved  to  attend,  though  somewhat  against  my  in- 
tention, considering  that  these  things,  put  together,  were  a  sort  of 
call  of  Providence.  Having  dismissed  Mr.  S ,  I  had  commu- 
nion with  Mr.  M ,  whom  Mr.  A had  been  in  much -fear 

about  lately,  lest  he  should  be  falling  back,  through  the  love  of 
a  young  woman  and  the  companionship  of  her  family,  who  were 
not  spiritual.  To  this  subject,  introducing  myself  gently,  modest- 
ly, and  tenderly,  I  came,  and  spoke  upon  it  with  feeling,  as  hav- 
ing been  in  like  manner  tried ;  for  in  what  way  have  I  not  been 
tempted,  and,  alas !  overcome  in  all  ?  .  .  . 

"  Then,  being  left  alone,  I  sought  to  relieve  my  mind  by  perus- 
ing the  history  of  those  wonderful  instruments  of  God,  the  Eoman 
people,  not  without  prayer  that  the  Lord  would  interpret  the  rec- 
ord of  His  providence  to  my  soul.  And  I  think  that  I  was  edi- 
fied in  it  until  I  had  gathered  strength  to  finish  your  letter,  which 
Brightwell  interrupted  me  in,  to  whom  I  revealed  all  my  convic- 
tions of  the  spirits  that  were  abroad  in  the  world,  and  which  were 
defacing  the  glory  of  the  Church :  the  radical  spirit  among  the 
Dissenters,  the  intellectual  spirit  in  the  Scottish  churches,  the  spir- 
it of  expediency  among  the  Evangelicals.  He  could  not  see  along 
with  me  throughout,  but  he  saw  more  than  most  men  I  converse 
with.  Do  pray  that  the  Lord  may  enable  me  clearly  to  discern 
truth,  and  steadfastly  to  bear  testimony  to  it !  It  is  a  Jesuitical 
spirit  that  is  opposing  Christ  among  the  Methodists.  And  these 
four  spirits  are  so  weakening  the  being  of  the  Church,  and  cor- 
rupting the  life  which  is  faith,  that,  though  their  numbers  may 
increase,  it  will  still  be  true,  '  When  the  Son  of  Man  cometh  shall 
He  find  faith  on  the  earth?'  .  .  . 

"I  had  engaged  to  dine  with  Mr,  H at  four  o'clock.  .  .  . 

I  knew  not  that  any  thing  was  waiting  me  there.  But  where  is 
not  the  minister  of  the  Lord  wanted  in  this  distressed,  imprisoned, 
and  rebellious  earth  ?     The  old  man  was  ill,  and  they  had  been 

Q 


242  RELIGIOUS  BELIEFS. 

forced  to  bleed  him.  I  went  in  to  see  him  on  his  bed,  and  would 
have  prayed  with  him,  but  he  professed  he  was  not  able  to  hear 
me.  Ah !  Isabella,  I  fear  for  that  old  man ;  I  greatly  fear  his 
soul  is  asleep  and  will  not  awake.  Make  your  prayer  for  him, 
for  he  also  shall  be  required  at  your  husband's  hand.  There  are 
two  Miss  F 's,  cousins  of  the  family,  come  to  spend  the  win- 
ter, who  talked  much  like  the  young  women  of  Edinburgh,  chat- 
terino-  a  vain  palaver  about  ministers,  and  music,  and  organs,  with 
which  I  would  have  nothing  to  do.  But  after  tea  I  began  to  talk 
to  them  all  concerning  the  things  of  their  peace,  and  was  led  by 

j^frs.  H 's  questions  to  unfold  the  judicial  blindness  to  which 

men  are  at  length  shut  up,  and  to  open  the  whole  matter  of  our 
dependence  upon  the  Father,  which  was  mightily  confirmed  by 
the  first  half  of  the  17th  chapter  of  John,  which  is  a  marvelous 
acknowledgment  of  the  Father's  sovereignty.  I  pray  you  to  read 
it  and  learn  humility,  self-emptying  humility,  and  profound  noth- 
ingness in  your  prayers.  They  all  wept,  the  religious  belles  as 
well  as  the  rest ;  and  a  young  nephew,  half-caste,  about  to  sail  for 
India,  wept  with  a  very  full  heart  after  I  had  prayed  with  them 
all.  I  trust  that  family  is  growing  in  grace,  and  I  fear  they  have 
long  abidden  formalists.  Eemember  this  one  thing,  my  Isabella, 
that  we  who  have  believed  are  by  covenant  to  be  brought  into 
the  full  inheritance,  but  according  to  the  Lord's  time  and  propor- 
tion; but  surely  as  He  hath  sworn  we  shall  inherit,  therefore 
abide  waiting,  abide  waiting  (how  long  did  He  wait  for  us?), 
waiting  in  perfect  faith  of  being  led  in. 

"  I  took  the  John  Street  Church  by  the  way,  and  heard  them 
deliberating  about  an  expedient  to  meet  Taylor's  blasphemous 
tract  that  is  soon  to  be  published.  They  are  very  busy,  these 
enemies  of  the  Lord.  He  can  not  bear  it  long.  They  are  carry- 
ing the  people  like  a  stream  away  from  God.  But  I  told  them  it 
was  not  by  the  expedient  of  tract-writing  or  circulating,  or  con- 
troversial work,  but  by  manifestation  of  the  truth  to  the  conscience, 
that  they  were  to  prevail ;  and  that,  when  they  found  the  people 
upon  that  ground,  they  should  answer  them  with  a  caveat  that 
the  matter  at  issue  was  not  there,  still  giving  them  a  reason  with 
meekness  and  fear,  but  shift  the  ground  as  fast  as  possible,  not  be- 
cause the  ground  was  not  tenable,  but  because  the  kingdom  was 
to  be  contended  for  elsewhere.  That  the  teachers  ought  to  assem- 
ble to  make  themselves  masters  of  the  infidel's  fence,  in  order  to 
interpose  their  shield  against  his  poisoned  arrows,  but  with  the 


A  SUBTLE  CANTAB.  243 

Other  hand  they  should  feed  the  poor  captive,  and  nourish  him 
into  strength  to  fight  himself.  They  heard  and  believed  me.  But 
I  came  away  entreating  the  Lord  to  make  me  a  man  in  the  breach 
against  these  sons  of  Belial,  and  that  I  was  willing  to  die  if  He 
would  spare  His  inheritance  from  these  fiery  flying  serpents  of 
infidel  notions,  which  have  fallen  in  upon  this  central  congrega- 
tion of  Israel.  Tell  your  father  to  be  on  his  post,  and  to  tell  his 
brethren  to  look  to  their  arms,  they  know  not  how  insecure  their 
citadel  is.  Henry  Drummond  was  in  the  chair ;  he  is  in  all  chairs 
— I  fear  for  him.  His  words  are  more  witty  than  spiritual;  his 
manner  is  spirituel,  not  grave.  .  ,  .  Then  I  came  home,  and  im- 
mediately there  gathered  a  pleasant  congregation  ....  to  whom, 
with  my  family,  I  addressed  the  word  of  exhortation,  and  opened 
the  103d  Psalm,  that  psalm  of  psalms,  and  our  passage  in  order 
was  Luke,  xiv.,  verse  25.  How  appropriate  to  these  communi- 
cants, but  oh,  Isabella,  how  sublime !  None  but  God  durst  have 
uttered  such  an  abrupt  apostrophe  to  a  multitude  of  men,  and  no 
multitude  of  men  would  have  borne  it  but  from  a  manifest  God. 
But  how  contemptible  a  comparison  of  unresolved  professors — sa- 
vorless salt,  neither  good  for  the  field  of  the  Church  nor  for  the 
dunghill  of  the  world !  I  pray  you  to  consider  this  passage ;  it 
was  more  fertile  to  my  soul  than  I  have  now  strength  to  tell. 
The  ladies  went  their  ways,  and  left  the  two  young  men,  with 
whom  having  conversed  in  the  study,  I  found  to  be  of  a  righteous 
spirit,  and  pressing  into  the  kingdom.  .  .  .  These  things  rejoice 
me.  The  Lord  enriches  me  with  comfort.  Blessed  be  His  name ! 
Blessed  be  His  holy  name !  His  thrice  holy  name  be  blessed  for- 
ever and  ever ! 

"And  now,  dear,  I  am  wearied,  having  fulfilled  many  gracious 
offices,  and  having  had  a  breathing  of  the  Spirit  on  them  all,  and 
on  this  not  less  than  the  others,  my  worthy  wife — that  thou  and 
ours,  and  the  house  where  thou  dwellest,  may  be  blessed  of  our 
God  forever  and  ever ! 

"  Tuesday^  22d.  That  subtle  Cantab,  with  his  logic,  has  almost 
robbed  my  Isabella  of  her  tribute  of  love,  he  has  so  exhausted 
me.  In  the  morning  we  were  alone,  and  I  arose  much  refreshed 
with  sleep,  and,  after  worship  and  breakfast,  addressed  myself  to 
the  work  of  meditating  the  5th  chapter  of  the  Hebrews  in  the  orig- 
inal, which  is  so  full  of  tender  humanity.  To  this  I  added,  in  the 
garden,  some  reading  on  the  high-priest's  office  in  Godwin's  '  Mo- 
ses and  Aaron.'    And  as  I  walked  I  had  much  elevation  of  soul 


244  A  CIRCLE  OF  KINSFOLK. 

to  the  heavenly  thrones,  with  certain  cogitations  of  God's  neigh- 
borhood to  very  holy  men,  so  that  to  me  it  seemed  not  possible 
to  say  whether  He  might  not  still  work  manifest  wonders  by  their 
hand ;  not  to  convince  them  with  visible  demonstrations,  for  that 
is  the  Catholic  solicitation  for  an  idol,  but  to  work  spiritual  won- 
ders by  their  means.  Thereafter  I  set  myself  to  rough-hew  my 
discourse,  of  which  more  when  it  takes  shape ;  taking  among  hands 
the  'Koman  History,'  not  without  prayer  that  the  Lord  would 
open  to  me  the  mystery  of  his  Providence,  when,  for  the  first  time 
(oh  unbelief!),  it  occurred  to  me  that  I  was  reading  the  rise  of  the 
fourth  great  monarchy  into  whose  hands  God  had  given  the  earth. 
The  works  of  the  Lord  are  wonderful — sought  out  are  they  of  all 
those  who  take  pleasure  therein ;  so  wonderful  was  the  rise  of 
Macedon  and  of  Persia,  for  Babylon  I  have  forgot.  .  .  .  Another 

letter  from  Henry  Paul,  commending  a  Miss  M to  me  as  one 

of  the  people  of  God  who  wished  to  join  our  fold.  She  is  wel- 
come in  the  Lord's  name.     I  could  not  see  her,  being  occupied 

with  a  little  circle  of  kinsfolk,  who  were  Peter  F 's  wife,  and 

daughter,  and  mother.  .  .  .  They  are  on  their  way  to  join  him 
at  Dover  (how  full  of  painful  interest  that  place  is  now  become  1 
My  Edward!  oh  my  Edward!).  The  mother  wishes  to  get  a 
housekeeper's  situation,  for  which  she  is  qualified,  and  desires 
your  countenance ;  so,  while  you  are  at  Dumfries  and  Annan,  I 
pray  you  to  satisfy  yourself  of  her  character  and  ability,  that  we 
may  help  her  if  we  can.  I  commended  them  to  the  Lord  after 
they  had  eaten  bread  with  me.  Thereafter  I  addressed  myself  to 
reading,  being  broke  up  for  the  day  by  this  welcome  interruption, 

until  toward  three,  when  I  bore  James  P on  his  way  to  the 

inn,  and  returned  to  my  own  solitary  meal ;  and  after  it  I  took 
myself  much  to  task  for  want  of  temperance,  which,  after  all,  I 
have  not  yet  attained  to.  It  is  a  saying  of  one  of  the  Fathers, '  In 
a  full  belly  all  the  devils  dance ;'  and  Luther  used  to  say  '  he  loved 
music  after  dinner,  because  it  kept  the  devils  out.'  But  I  believe 
the  truth  is,  that  temperance  wrought  by  the  Spirit  is  the  only 
defense,  of  which  I  felt  this  day  the  lack,  although  my  dinner  was 
wholly  of  pea  soup  and  potatoes;  but  I  took  too  much,  and  was 
ashamed  of  the  evil  thoughts  which  have  dared  to  show  face  in 
the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

"  I  prayed  the  Lord  to  strengthen  me  in  all  time  coming  for 
His  greater  glory,  and  proceeded,  about  five,  on  my  way  to  Mr. 
Barclay's,  Fleet  Market,  taking  by  the  way  a  brother  of  Hall's, 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  A  FORMER  AGE.  245 

whose  house  joins  by  the  back  of  the  church.  Oh,  Isabella,  how 
frail  we  are !  There  was  a  sweet  boy  of  nine  years,  who  had  nev- 
er ailed  any  thing  in  his  life,  brought  in  one  day  to  the  jaws  of 
death,  if  he  be  not  already  consumed  of  it,  by  the  croup ;  and  a 
poor  family,  and,  I  fear,  an  ignorant  one,  with  whom,  having  left 
my  prayers  and  help,  I  proceeded  on  my  way.  The  boy  had  said, 
'  Mother,  do  not  fret ;  I  must  die  some  time,  and  I  will  go  to  heav- 
en,' So  would  patient  Edward  have  said  if  he  could  have  spoken 
any  thing.  Love  not  Margaret  after  the  flesh,  but  after  the  spir- 
it, my  dearest  wife.  I  went  with  fear  and  trembling  to  Mr.  Bar- 
clay's, but  with  self- rebuke  that  I  had  not  made  it  a  day  of  prayer 
and  humiliation  for  their  sakes.  I  had  besought  the  Lord,  but  I 
did  not  feel  that  He  was  found  of  me ;  and  I  had  meditated  by  the 
way  this  one  thought,  kindred  to  what  I  set  forth  in  my  last  let- 
ler, '  That  when  the  Holy  Ghost  departs  from  any  set  of  opinions 
or  form  of  character,  they  wither  like  a  sapless  tree.'  Witness 
the  preaching  of  Scotland,  the  voice  of  the  Spirit  of  a  former  age ; 
witness  the  high-flying  Whigs  of  the  Assembly,  the  armor-bearers 
of  the  covenanting  Whigs  of  the  Claim  of  Eights;  witness  the 
radical  and  political  dissenters  of  England,  the  mocking-birds  of 
the  Nonconformists ;  witness  the  High-Churchmen  of  England, 
who  pretend  to  maintain  what  Eidley,  and  Latimer,  and  Hooper 
embodied.  Ay,  there  is  the  figure ;  the  doctrine  is  the  vainest 
when  the  Spirit  is  gone.  Meditate,  Isabella,  this  deep  mystery  of 
the  spirit  in  man  quickened  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  I  had  one  med- 
itation at  home,  '  That  immortal  souls,  not  written  compositions, 
nor  printed  books,  were  the  primiLm  mobile  of  a  minister's  activi- 
ty.'   I  found  father,  and  mother,  and  two  sisters,  and  from  the  first 

Mr.  B opened  his  doubts  and  difficulties  to  me,  by  telling  me 

that  he  hoped  to  be  able  to  enter  better  into  my  new  subject  than 
into  my  former,  but  declaring  that  he  had  seen  new  views  of  his 
sinfulness,  and  brought  to  look  to  Christ  alone  for  salvation,  whom 
he  looked  upon  as  his  Mediator,  Intercessor,  and  Redeemer,  but 
could  not  see  as  equal  with  God,  though  he  was  God's  representa- 
tive. I  opened  the  great  mystery  as  I  could,  telling  him  at  the 
same  time  it  was  only  to  be  opened  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  upon 
whose  offices  I  enlarged,  and  went  over  a  large  field  of  demon- 
stration with  much  satisfaction  to  them  all,  and  deep  emotion 
with  the  two  daughters,  whom  I  think  the  Lord  our  God  is  call- 
ing. Then  we  came  to  speak  of  dear  David's  death,  by  my  recit- 
al of  which  they  were  very  much  moved,  as  also  by  my  unfolding 


246  THE  LOST  SHEEP. 

the  blessed  fruits  of  our  Edward's  removal.  He  has  been  much 
upon  ray  mind  this  day.  Dearest,  I  think  light  is  breaking  upon 
Mr.  Barclay's  mind.  Pray  for  him  ;  he  is  to  mark  his  difficulties, 
which  I  am  to  do  my  endeavor  to  clear  up.     When  I  returned, 

here  waited  Miss  W and  a  Mr.M'Nicol,  from  Oban,  who,  with 

his  wife,  desired  the  ordinance.  .  .  .  Our  chapter  was  the  first 
seven  verses  of  the  fourteenth  of  Luke.  What  a  touching  appeal 
that  parable  of  the  sheep  was  for  the  poor  publican  to  the  Phari- 
sees; how  delicately  reproved  they  were,  themselves  being  al- 
lowed to  be  as  men  who  needed  no  repentance  compared  with 
these  sinners !  Grant  that  ye  are  the  unoffending,  unstrayed  chil- 
dren of  the  house ;  but  here  is  one  that  has  shipwrecked.  May  I 
not  go  and  seek  him  as  ye  would  a  strayed  sheep,  and,  if  he  re- 
turn, will  not  the  family  forget  their  every-day  blessedness  in  a 
tumult  of  joy?  The  Lord  strengthened  me  in  prayer,  and  now 
He  hath  strengthened  me  in  this  writing  beyond  my  expectations. 
Kiss  our  beloved  child  for  her  father's  sake.  I  heard  of  you  both 
by  those  airy  tongues  that  syllable  men's  names.  .  .  .  Fear  the 
Lord,  my  wife,  always ;  fear  the  Lord !  .  .  . 

"  Wednesday^  22>d.  This  has  been  to  me  a  day  of  temptation 
from  dullness  and  deadness  in  the  divine  life.  I  know  not 
whence  arising,  if  it  be  not  from  want  of  more  patient  commun- 
ion with  God  in  secret,  and  more  frequent  meditation  of  His  holy 
Word.  Oh,  Isabella,  there  is  no  abiding  in  the  truth  but  by  the 
indwelling  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  is  not  reasoning,  or  knowledge, 
or  admonition,  or  council,  or  watchfulness,  or  any  other  form  of 
spiritual  carefulness  and  ability,  but  His  own  presence — His  own 
Spirit,  quick  and  lively,  which  maketh  us  tender,  ready,  discern- 
ing in  the  ways  of  righteousness  and  iniquity.  The  Spirit  search- 
eth  all  things,  yea,  the  deep  things  of  God.  Dearest,  mistrust  rea- 
sonings, mistrust  examples,  mistrust  prudential  views,  mistrust 
motives,  and  seek  for  an  abiding,  a  constant  spirit  of  holiness, 
which  shall  breathe  of  God,  and  feel  of  God,  and  watch  in  God, 
and  care  in  God,  and  in  all  things  reveal  God  to  be  with  us  and 
in  us.  A  child  possessed  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  wiser  to  know 
righteousness  from  iniquity  than  the  most  refined  casuist  or  the 
most  enlightened  divine.  It  is  truly  a  spiritual  administration, 
the  present  administration  of  our  souls,  and  we  see  but  as  through 
a  glass,  but  afterward  face  to  face.  When  Christ,  who  is  our  life, 
shall  appear,  we  shall  know  as  we  are  known.  Oh,  seek  a  pres- 
ence, an  ever-abiding  presence  of  the  Holy  One,  for  yourself  and 


NEW  TESTAMENT  IIISTOKY  OF  THE  CHUKCH.  247 

your  husband !  Yet,  tbougli  heavy  in  soul,  I  cried  to  the  Lord 
very  often,  and  He  has  heard  my  prayer.  I  know  that  we  shall 
be  tried  with  various  tribulations,  but  we  shall  not  be  prevailed 
against.  While  I  was  occupied  constructing  my  morning  dis- 
course, Mr.  N came  in,  and  we  had  a  season  of  brotherly  com- 
munion. His  sisters  go  forward,  all  the  three,  with  one  consent, 
and  bear  a  loving  heart  to  us  and  to  all  the  people  of  God.  They 
wished  books  to  peruse,  and  I  recommended  to  them  Edwards' 
History  of  Redemption^  to  read  along  with  the  Old  Testament  his- 
tory of  the  Church,  and  to  prepare  them  for  reading  the  New 
Testament  history  of  the  Church.  Oh,  that  this  was  drawn  up  by 
one  possessed  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  not  the  spirit  of  history, 
who,  in  a  short  space  and  with  a  round  pen,  would  draw  it  out 
after  the  manner  of  the  books  of  Samuel  and  the  Chronicles,  ad- 
joining to  it  specimens  of  the  most  pious  writings  of  the  Fathers, 
which  might  answer  to  the  history,  as  the  prophets  answer  to  the 
Old  Testament  history.  ...  I  also  opened  my  lecture,  which  is  to 
treat  of  the  duty  of  the  Church  to  support  its  ministers ;  for  I  per- 
ceive that,  from  want  of  being  discoursed  of,  these  great  rudiment- 
al  ideas  of  the  Church  have  changed  into  convenient  and  expedi- 
ent arrangements  of  human  wisdom. 

"  I  dined  alone,  and  after  dinner  kept  on  with  the  History  of 
Rome,  whose  age  of  tumults  and  domestic  seditions  I  have  arrived 
at,  the  condition  of  the  people,  with  plebeian  institutions,  who  have 
lost  the  bond  of  religion,  and  the  domestic  and  moral  obligations 
resting  on  it.  That  tradition  is  remarkable  of  Julius  Caesar's  hav- 
ing the  vision  of  a  man  of  great  stature  and  remarkable  appear- 
ance inviting  him  to  cross  the  Rubicon,  which  paved  the  way  to 
the  empire,  in  which  form  it  becomes  a  prophetic  object,  and  has 
a  prophetic  character.  I  have  resolved,  nevertheless,  to  throw 
that  part  of  my  book*  which  derived  its  materials  from  the  book 
of  Esdras  into  a  note,  lest  I  should  give  encouragement  to  the  pru- 
dential advocates  of  the  Apocrypha.  It  is  there  that  Julius  Ceesar 
is  a  prophetic  character,  .  .  .  When  we  came, to  Mrs.  David's,  I 
had  such  a  desire  to  deliver  Brightwell  from  political  leaning  in 
the  Slavery  Abolition  question,  for  I  find  they  are  to  a  man  gone 
into  the  idea  that  Christianity  must  have  the  effect  of  making  the 
slaves  disquiet ;  that  is,  they  lean  so  much  to  the  political  ques- 
tion, that  even  themselves  say,  until  they  are  emancipated,  it  is 
vain  that  you  seek  to  Christianize  them.     This  is  turning  round 

*  Babylon  and  Infidelity  Foredoomed. 


248  WISDOM. 

with  a  vengeance ;  but  it  is  so  every  where.  Oh,  my  Isabella, 
bow  the  sons  of  God  are  intermarrying  with  the  daughters  of 
men !  Every  where  some  evil  spirit  is  seeking  alliance  with  the 
Holy  Spirit.  This  is  to  me  an  evidence  that  the  Deluge  is  at 
hand.  Every  day  I  feel  more  and  more  alone,  and  more  and  more 
rooted  and  grounded  in  the  truth.  The  Lord  make  me  faithful, 
though  it  were  by  the  hating  of  father,  and  mother,  and  brother, 
and  my  own  life.     William  Hamilton  sees  this  matter  as  I  do,  and 

I  found  Dr.  M saw  the  question  of  liberty  as  I  do :  these  are 

the  only  two  concurrences  I  have  had  in  these  broad  and  general 
questions  since  I  came  to  visit  you.  But  I  thank  God,  in  other 
matters  of  a  private  and  personal  kind,  I  am  at  one  with  all  the 
children  of  God.  Oh,  out  of  what  a  pit  the  Lord  hath  brought 
me !  How  I  abhor  my  former  self  and  all  my  former  notions !  I 
was  an  idolater  of  the  understanding  and  its  clear  conceptions ;  of 
the  spirit,  the  paralyzed,  dull,  and  benighted  spirit,  with  its  mys- 
terious dawnings  of  infinite  and  everlasting  truth,  I  was  no  better 
than  a  blasphemer.  Now  the  Lord  give  me  grace  to  bear  with 
those  who  are  what  I  lately  was.  This  discourse  wore  me  out, 
and  when  I  came  to  church  I  was  more  fit  for  a  couch  and  silence ; 
but  I  sought  strength,  and,  though  I  could  not  reach  the  subject 
in  all  its  extent — '  the  prince  of  this  world  cometh,  and  hath  noth- 
ing in  me' — I  trust  I  was  able  somewhat  to  put  the  people  on 
their  guard  against  Satan's  temptations,  and  estabhsh  the  Church 
in  Christ,  their  everlasting  strength.  .  .  . 

"  Thursday^  24:th.  ...  In  this  record,  which  I  make  daily  for 
the  comfort  and  edification  of  my  dear  wife,  I  desire  God  to  be  my 
witness  and  constant  guide,  lest  I  should  at  any  time  consult  for 
the  gratification  of  my  own  vanity,  or  warp  truth  from  the  great 
end  of  His  glory  and  the  comfort  of  His  saint.  And  may  He  not 
sufier  the  method  which  I  pursue,  of  personal  narrative,  to  betray 
me  into  any  egotism  or  self-preference  to  the  prejudice  of  holy 
truth !  In  the  morning  our  dear  friend  B.  M came  to  break- 
fast, bringing  (diligent  man !)  the  sheets  of  the  third  volume  of 
Bacon  with  him.  He  preferred  to  be  with  us  during  worship,  and 
was  very  much  affected,  as  I  judge,  by  our  simple  service.  We 
read  that  sublime  evaluation  of  wisdom  in  the  Book  of  Job 
(xxviii.),  which  was  so  appropriate  to  our  dear  friend's  mind, 
though  it  came  in  course,  and  I  was  so  stupid  and  dull,  or  over- 
awed by  his  presence,  as  not  to  be  able  personally  to  apply  it. 
Dearest  Isabella,  what  a  passage  of  Holy  Writ  that  is !     What  a 


FAREWELL  COUNSELS.  249 

climax  of  sublimity,  ranging  througli  tlie  profound  mysteries  of 
the  bowels  of  the  earth,  and  the  knowledge  of  man  and  all  his 
most  valuable  possessions,  and  through  the  earth  and  the  hoary 
deep,  and  through  death  and  the  grave,  till  at  length  he  finds  it  in 
the  simplicity  of  spiritual  truth :  '  The  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  be- 
ginning of  wisdom,  and  to  depart  from  evil,  that  is  understand- 
ing.' It  is  equaled  by  the  nineteenth  chapter,  which  is  in  the  pa- 
thetic what  the  other  is  in  the  sublime ;  expressing  the  uttermost 
dejection  and  desolation,  and  from  the  depths  of  it  all  piercing 
through  gloomy  time,  and  hoary  ruin  and  waste,  to  the  resurrec- 
tion, when  he  should  meet  the  Eedeemer  from  all  these  troubles, 
and  stand  before  Him  in  immortal  being.  My  dear  companion  of 
thought,  meditate  these  two  chapters  of  inspiration ;  they  will  re- 
pay you  well. 

"The  four  German  missionaries  came  in  during  prayer,  and  I 
think  I  had  a  spirit  of  supplication  granted  to  me  in  interceding 
for  their  sakes.  "We  had  sweet  discourse  during  breakfast.  I 
think  our  dear  friend  is  melting  into  sweeter  moods,  and  over- 
coming himself  not  a  little.  I  trust,  by  the  grace  of  God,  to  see 
him  a  disciple  of  the  Lord,  humble  and  meek.  His  manner  to  me 
is  utterly  changed,  permitting  me  to  follow  my  own  manner  of 
discourse  in  things  spiritual  and  divine.  When  breakfast  was 
finished,  I  left  him  and  James  together,  and  brought  the  mission- 
aries into  the  library,  for  they  came  to  take  leave.  Then  I  opened 
to  them  the  condition  of  the  world  as  presented  to  us  in  the  proph- 
ecy, and  the  hopes  to  which  they  had  to  look  forward ;  of  the  fall- 
ing '  of  the  cities  of  the  nations,'  that  is,  the  superstitions  of  the 
world.  Then,  as  their  constant  encouragement,  I  read  them  the 
seventeentli  chapter  of  John :  their  Lord's  intercession  for  their 
sakes,  which  now  He  hath  power  also  to  accomplish,  if  they  have 
faith  in  him.  Oh,  Isabella,  it  seemed  to  me  a  rich  reward  of  all 
their  labors  that  they  would  be  brought  to  a  nearer  acquaintance 
with  these  most  precious  apostolic  consolations,  the  14th,  15th, 
16th,  and  17th  chapters  of  John.  Then  I  recounted  to  them  my 
own  missionary  success  in  London,  the  hinderances  of  Satan,  the 
enmities  of  my  countrymen  and  their  evil  reports,  the  enemies  in 
this  place,  and  whatever  else  was  raised  up  against  me,  in  order 
to  acquaint  them  with  the  wonderful  works  of  God  on  my  behalf, 
unworthy  sinner,  headstrong  rebel  as  I  am.  Then  we  joined  in 
prayer,  and  I  besought  the  Lord  to  be  for  home  and  friends,  and 
wisdom  and  strength  to  these  defenseless  sheep,  which  were  about 


250  THE  JOY  OF  GRIEF. 

to  go  forth  among  wolves.  I  made  them  write  their  names  and 
nativities  in  my  book,  chiefly  for  your  eyes,  seeing  you  are  not 
permitted  to  see  them  before  they  go.  I  do  again  pray  the  Lord 
to  be  their  guide  and  their  prosperity. 

"  By  this  time  the  mourning  coach  had  arrived  to  carry  me  to 
the  funeral  of  my  beloved  son  in  the  Gospel,  which  took  up,  by 

Clerkenwell  church,  a  Mr.  T ,  who,  with  his  wife,  are  hearers 

in  my  church ;  with  whom  also  I  returned,  and  was  enabled  to 
speak  clearly  to  his  soul,  without  any  shamefacedness,  and,  I  trust, 
with  pastoral  love  and  fidelity.  The  truth  drew  tears  from  his 
eyes ;  whether  the  Lord  may  bless  it  to  his  spirit.  He  who  is  wise 
will  witness.  When  we  arrived  there  were  several  assembled  of 
her  trusty  friends  and  nearest  kindred,  and  among  others  Mr. 

A ,  the  counselor.     He  began  to  remind  me,  in  a  voice  little 

apt  to  mourning,  or  mindful  of  the  sacredness  of  the  house  of 
mourning,  that  the  last  time  we  had  met  was  at  the  house  of  feast- 
ing, dining  with  the  lords  at  the  Old  Bailey ;  upon  which  I  felt  it 
my  duty,  in  order  to  overawe  worldly  intrusions,  to  take  up  that 
word,  and  say  that  my  friend  had  reminded  me  of  our  last  meet- 
ing at  the  house  of  feasting,  and  that,  as  it  would  have  been  thought 
very  indecorous  then  to  have  obtruded  the  face  or  feeling  of  sor- 
row, so  this  house  of  sorrow  and  death  had  also  its  rights,  which 
did  not  bear  with  the  conversation  of  lively  (minds)  and  worldli- 
ness ;  but  with  humble  moods  and  downcast  spirits,  and  mourn- 
ing before  the  Lord,  and  other  afflictive  conditions  of  the  soul ; 
and  when  it  was  a  Christian  who  was  taken,  and  from  Christians 
that  he  was  taken,  there  should  shine  upon  the  troubled  waters  a 
gleam  of  light,  and  a  hope  of  glory,  and  thankfulness,  and  joy: 
the  joy  of  grief  that  he  had  escaped  the  troublous  and  chastening 
deep.  This  led  to  discourse  that  was  profitable.  .  .  .  Poor  Wil- 
liam wept  very  sore,  but  always  sorest  when  I  mingled  religious 
warnings  to  him  and  counsels;  then  he  turned  his  face  and  his 
eyes  to  me,  as  we  walked  together  in  the  church-yard,  and  wept 
without  restraint,  as  if  he  had  said.  Oh,  forsake  me  not,  forsake  me 
not !  And  I  will  not  forsake  thee,  my  orphan  boy,  God  not  for- 
saking me.  It  drizzled  and  rained ;  several  of  the  congregation 
were  waiting  there,  to  walk  behind  the  company ;  and  when  he 
was  lowered  into  the  grave,  I  stood  forth  to  declare  the  conquest 
of  death  and  the  grace  of  God  in  the  faith  of  our  brother,  and  ex- 
horted the  people  to  be  of  a  good  and  constant  faith,  after  which 
we  prayed  and  departed  to  our  homes  and  occupations,  I  trust  not 


"MANAGEMENT."  251 

without  motions  of  tlie  Holy  Spirit  to  a  better  life.  Then  apply- 
ing myself  to  study  what  short  interval  was  left  me,  I  proceeded 

to  Bedford  Square.  ...  On  my  way  I  called  at  Mr.  H 's,  and 

found  the  old  man  growing  worse ;  but  he  would  not  see  me. 
That  is  very  remarkable.  I  gather  that  he  sees  his  partner. 
Dare  he  not  bear  my  probe  ?  It  is  wont  to  be  very  gentle ;  but 
she  is  a  saint  growing  fast.  .  .  . 

"  Friday^  2bth  November.  This  morning  I  arose  rather  worn  and 
weary.  ...  I  have  all  day  experienced  that  trial  which  many 
have  continually,  of  a  troublous  body,  but  am  better  now  at  night. 
This  condition  of  my  body  and  mind  was  not  relieved  by  many 
interruptions,  while  I  had  upon  me  the  weight  of  two  discourses. 
First,  Mr.  Hamilton  bringing  me  the  tidings  of  Mr.  H 's  ill- 
ness ;  then  Mr,  Whyte,  who  called  by  appointment;  then  Mr.  Din- 

widdie  posting  with  the  same  account  of  Mr.  H .     I  would 

they  would  help  me,  not  beat  me  up  as  if  I  were  slothful,  when 
my  poor  soul  is  like  to  languish  with  too  much  exertion.  But 
formality,  formality,  thou  art  man's  scourge !  and  thou,  spirit  of 
truth  and  duty,  thou  art  man's  comforter !  My  elders  have  a 
nice  idea  of  things  being  rightly  managed ;  I  wish  they  had  the 
spirit  of  it ;  and  I  think  that  also  is  growing.     Then  came  Miss 

D with  the  same  tidings ;  and  though  I  was  in  the  midst  of 

weakness  with  such  a  load  on  my  mind,  I  went  my  ways  with  my 
papers  in  my  pocket,  having  to  meet  Mr.  W at  Mr.  Dinwid- 
dle's at  dinner.  I  found  Mr.  H shut  himself  up  from  my  vis- 
its, although  he  saw  both  his  medical  man  and  his  mercantile  part- 
ner. I  pray  the  Lord  to  be  his  Shepherd  and  comfort  in  my 
stead ;  and  we  prayed  in  the  adjoining  room,  and  afterward  I 
came  down  stairs  to  study,  being  purposed  to  wait  as  long  as  I 

could.     Toward  four  Mrs.  H came  to  me,  and  we  had  much 

discourse  with  one  another.     She  told  me  of  the  saintly  character 

of  her  father,  and  of  Mr.  H 's  grandfather.  .  .  .  "Why  are  there 

no  such  saints  in  Scotland  now  ?  Because  their  wine  is  mingled 
with  water — their  food  is  debased.  It  will  nourish  men  no  longer, 
but  dwarflings.  Oh,  Scotland !  oh,  Scotland !  how  I  groan  over 
thee,  thou,  and  thy  children,  and  thy  poverty-stricken  Church ! 
Thy  Humes  are  thy  Knoxes,  thy  Thomsons  are  thy  Melvilles,  thy 
public  dinners  are  thy  sacraments,  and  the  speeches  which  attend 
them  are  the  ministrations  of  their  idol.  And  the  misfortune, 
dearest,  is  that  the  scale  is  falling  everywhere  in  proportion,  min- 
isters and  people,  cities  and  lonely  places,  so  that  it  is  like  going 


252  THE  NEW  CHUKCH. 

into  the  Shetland  Islands,  where,  though  you  have  the  same  plants, 
they  are  all  dwarfed,  and  the  very  animals  dwarfed,  and  the  men 
also.  So  valuable  is  pure  unadulterated  doctrine ;  so  valuable  is 
pure  faithful  preaching ;  so  .valuable  is  simple  faith,  and  a  single 
eye  to  the  glory  of  God.  How  well  the  state  of  our  Church,  nay, 
of  the  Christian  Church  in  general,  is  described  by  the  account  of 
the  Laodicean  Church.  It  almost  tempts  me  to  think  more  of  the 
idea  that  these  seven  Churches  are  emblems  of  the  seven  ages  of 
the  Christian  Church,  to  the  last  of  which  men  are  now  arrived. 
My  dear,  if  this  is  to  be  reformed,  if  it  is  to  be  withstood,  and  I 
have  faith  to  undertake  it,  I  think  I  must  stand  alone,  for  I  can 
get  no  sympathy  among  my  brethren.  Dr.  Gordon  even  has  not 
had  this  revealed  to  him ;  and  for  Dr.  Chalmers,  he  is  immersed 
in  civil  polity  and  political  economy,  a  kind  of  purse-keeper  to  the 
Church  Apostolic.  And  for  Andrew  Thomson,  he  is  a  gladiator 
of  the  intellect,  his  weapons  being  never  spiritual,  but  intellectual 
merely,  and  these  of  an  inferior  order — nothing  equal  to  those 
that  are  in  the  field  against  him.  Of  these  things  I  am  calmly 
convinced ;  for  these  things  I  am  truly  troubled ;  and  to  be  help- 
ful to  the  removal  of  these  things,  I  pray  God  for  strength  con- 
tinually. You  must  be  a  help-meet  for  me  in  this  matter  as  in 
other  matters,  and,  I  pray  you,  for  that  as  well  as  for  your  own 
blessedness,  seek  the  purity  of  the  faith,  the  sincere  milk  of  the 
Word,  that  you  may  grow  thereby.     So  I  counseled  dear  Mrs. 

H ,  when  she  looked  out  from  those  eyes  so  full  of  sorrow,  so 

full  of  doubt,  so  full  of  supplication,  and  gave  me  her  cold  hand 
again  and  again,  and  often  asking  that  I  would  remember  them 
in  my  prayer. 

"I  walked  melancholy  enough  along  Burton  Crescent  to  see 
the  church  for  the  second  time,  which  is  now  up  to  the  level  of 
the  first  windows — indeed  above  it ;  and  in  front  the  yellow  stones 
are  showing  themselves  above  the  ground,  and  when  it  is  finished 
I  doubt  not  it  will  be  a  seemly  building.  But  may  the  Lord  fill 
it.  with  the  glory  of  His  own  spiritual  presence,  and  endow  me 
with  gifts  to  watch  over  the  thousands  who  are  to  assemble  there- 
in !  or  raise  up  some  other  more  worthy,  and  take  me  to  His  rest. 
Ah !  how  formality  hath  worn  out  the  excellent  faculties  of  the 
females  at  Burton  Crescent,  and  the  continual  longing  for  that 
state  and  rank  whence  they  have  fallen !  Oh,  how  thou  dost 
skillfully  take  thy  game,  thou  spirit  of  delusion !  O  Lord,  deliver 
Thou  their  feet  out  of  the  net,  I  do  humbly  pray  Thee ;  and  give 


MINISTERIAL  LIBERTY.  253 

me  grace  to  be  found  faithful  in  this  citj  of  the  dead.  After  din- 
ner I  opened  my  mouth  to  them  all — Mr.  Woodrow,  Hamilton, 
Yirtue,  Aitchison — expounding  to  them  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  the  withered  trunk  of  form,  ceremony,  and  Inere  doc- 
trine which  remained  when  He  was  gone;  illustrating  it  by  all 
things  in  which  there  was  once  a  spirit  of  holiness,  and  which, 
during  the  last  century,  the  most  unspiritual,  I  think,  we  ever 
have  had,  faded  away  out  of  every  thing,  whereby  we  are  become 
these  meagre  skeletons  of  saints  and  ministers  which  I  lamented 
over.  They  had  nothing  to  say  in  reply,  and,  if  I  might  judge, 
were  a  good  deal  impressed  with  what  I  had  testified.  The  Lord 
give  it  fruit !  Mr.  Woodrow  and  I  came  away  at  eight  o'clock, 
and  I  bore  him  company  through  Eussell  Square.  I  think  he  is 
likely  to  be  elected,*  but  it  is  by  no  means  certain  yet.  The  el- 
ders have  been  telling  him  that  he  must  be  more  plain,  as  they 
are  plain  people ;  that  is,  he  must  not  leave  their  beaten  track ; 
and  that  he  must  be  shorter ;  that  is,  not  interrupt  their  family 
arrangements  of  dinner,  etc. ;  and  that  he  must  be  more  explicit 
in  discourse,  in  order  to  gratify  their  desire  of  mere  fragments  of 
knowledge,  instead  of  receiving  the  living  continuity  of  spirit  and 
soul  which  a  discourse  ought  to  be.  Oh,  that  cutting  of  truth  into 
bits  is  like  dividing  the  body  into  fragments !  death,  death  unto 
it!  The  truth  should  breathe  continuous;  the  spirit  of  truth 
should  inspire  every  member  of  a  discourse,  instead  of  our  hav- 
ing it  in  those  cold,  lifeless  limbs  of  abstract  intellectual  propor- 
tions. How  your  father  would  laugh  at  this !  Nevertheless,  tell 
him  it  is  truth,  though  ill-expressed  in  my  present  feebleness  of 
conception.  I  told  Woodrow  if  he  yielded  a  scruple  of  his  minis- 
terial liberty  I  would  call  him  brother  no  more,  but  impeach  him 
of  treason  to  the  Great  Prophet.  Nevertheless,  I  encouraged  him 
to  be  of  good  cheer,  for  he  was  a  little  cast  down.     I  came  home 

by  Mr.  H 's,  and  found  him  as  I  had  left  him ;  but  saw  her 

not — only  comforted  poor  Agnes,  whom  I  met  in  the  passage. 

Miss  W came  to  prayers,  and  I  trust  the  Lord  was  with  us. 

The  greater  part  of  the  afternoon  I  devoted  to  your  ear,  Tibby, 
which  is  to  me  more  sweet  audience  than  the  ear  of  princes  or  of 
learned  men.     Fare  thee  well ! 

"  Saturday,  2Qth  November.  Yesterday  and  yesternight,  dearest 
wife,  I  had  many  thoughts  of  our  departed  son,  our  first-born,  and 
I  was  able  to  use  David's  words  in  the  Psalm  of  that  night, '  Thy 

*  As  minister  of  one  of  the  Scotch  churches  in  London. 


254  THE  SPIRIT  OF  PRAYER. 

judgments,  0  Lord,  are  just,  and  in  righteousness  hast  thou  afflict- 
ed me.'  My  dreams  brought  you  and  little  Margaret  before  me, 
and  I  said,  Dear  Isabella,  it  is  little  Edward ;  and  was  not  unde- 
ceived till  I  saw  her  small  black  eyes  instead  of  his  full-orbed 
blue,  whose  loving  kindness  was  so  dear  to  me  even  in  death. 
But  my  dreams  withal  were  very  pleasant,  and  not  afflicted  with 
evil  suggestions.  This  morning  I  have  arisen  fresh  and  lively, 
and  have  already  nearly  finished  my  discourses ;  and  now,  at  three 
o'clock,  am  hastening  to  cover  this  sheet  with  sweet  thoughts  for 
your  dear  mind,  that  you  may  receive  it  before  leaving  Fife.     Mr. 

n is  no  more  in  this  world.     He  died  about  eleven  o'clock, 

and  I  have  now  a  letter  from  dear  Agnes,  May  the  Lord  com- 
fort the  widow  and  the  fatherless.  I  think  I  shall  have  time, 
after  finishing  this,  to  hasten  down,  though  it  were  but  for  a  few 
minutes.  Oh,  Isabella !  put  nothing  off,  my  dearest,  put  nothing 
off;  have  nothing  to  do,  have  all  besought,  have  all  believed,  have 
all  done,  and  live  quietly  unto  eternity !  Say  so  to  your  dear 
father  and  mother,  and  all  the  family.  "We  know  not  what  a  day 
may  bring  forth.  If  you  be  languid,  then  cry  for  help ;  if  you  be 
under  bondage,  cry  for  deliverance ;  and  abide  believing,  abide 
believing,  opening  your  heart  to  the  admonitions  of  the  Holy  One, 
your  ear  to  admonitions  of  every  faithful  one.  Turn  aside  from 
lies,  from  flattery,  from  vanity  and  folly.  Be  earnest,  be  grave — 
always  ready.  There  will  be  no  folly,  nor  laughter,  nor  bedim- 
ming  of  truth  with  false  appearances,  nor  masquerading,  in  eter- 
nity. But  I  return.  After  prayer,  in  which  I  seek  the  spirit  of 
prayer  above  all  requests,  for  my  soul  wanders,  there  is  an  un- 
der-current of  feeling,  and  even  of  thinking.  It  is  very  amazing 
we  can  speak  to  God  so,  and  not  to  any  mortal.  I  am  oft  to  seek 
for  an  answer  to  man  when  I  am  thinking  of  another  matter  ;  but 
I  dare  speak  to  God,  though  I  am  thinking  of  another  matter. 
Oh  !  what  is  this,  my  dear  Isabella  ?  It  is  very  lamentable,  and 
I  lament  it  very  much.  The  Lord  doth  not  hear  us  because  we 
ask  amiss.  Now,  my  dear  wife,  make  it  for  yourself  and  myself 
a  constant  prayer  that  we  may  have  the  spirit  of  prayer  and  sup- 
plication bestowed  upon  us;  rather  pause  to  recover  the  soul, 
than  hurry  on  in  a  stream  of  words.  I  take  it  this  must  be  still 
more  felt  by  those  who  use  forms,  and  that  this  is  one  of  the  chief 
advantages  of  the  disuse  of  forms ;  but  no  means  will  charm  forth 
the  evil  heart  of  unbelief  He  only  who  hath  all  power  in  heaven 
and  earth  is  able — our  Savior  and  our  Lord.     Now  I  had  almost 


"MY  DUMFRIESSHIRE."  255 

forgotten  that  this  is  the  day  before  your  communion.  It  is  stormy 
here,  may  it  be  quiet  with  you  ;  and  to  the  saints  may  it  be  a  day 
of  much  refreshment!  .  .  . 

"  Now,  with  respect  to  your  journey,  if  you  set  out  on  Thurs- 
day, you  must  not  go  farther  than  Dumfries  that  week ;  and  then 
open  your  mind  to  Margaret  and  James  Fergusson  concerning  the 
things  of  the  Spirit.  Be  not  filled  with  apprehensions  about  ba- 
by. The  Lord  will  prove  your  shield  and  hers.  There  is  noth- 
ing will  interest  you  till  you  come  to  the  edge  of  my  Dumfries- 
shire. .  .  .  After  you  go  through  Thornhill  you  pass  the  Camp- 
bell "Water.  .  .  .  Then,  as  you  come  to  the  Shepherd's  bar,  you 
are  upon  Allan  Cunningham's  calf-ground,  and  in  the  midst  of  a 
scene  worthy  of  the  Trosachs.  .  .  .  Within  four  miles  of  Dum- 
fries you  pass  through  a  village.  That  village  my  uncle  Bryce 
founded  for  the  people  at  the  time  of  the  French  Ecvolution, 
when  he  wrote  a  book  on  Peace,  seeing  well  that  the  spirit  of  an- 
archy was  out ;  and  a  half  mile  farther  on  you  will  see  Holy  wood 
Manse,  a  bowshot  from  the  road,  and  the  church,  where  my  uncle 
and  aunt  lie  side  by  side.  .  .  .  Now,  for  the  rest,  you  will  find  a 
letter  waiting  for  you  at  Dumfries.  .  .  .  The  Lord  guard  you  on 
your  journe}'-,  and  temper  the  blast  to  the  little  darling.  ...  It  is 

now  past  four,  and  I  hasten  to  salute  Mrs.  H ,  widow,  with  the 

blessing  of  her  husband,  and  the  children,  orphans,  with  the  bless- 
ing of  their  father.     Be  at  peace,  full  of  faith  and  blessedness ! 

"  Saturday,  26th  November.  After  putting  your  letter  in  the  post- 
ofl&ce,  and  still  without  any  uplifting  of  the  soul  that  it  might  be 
safely  conveyed  to  you,  and  arrive  in  good  season  (so  doth  cus- 
tom eat  out  piety),  I  went  directly  to  the  II 's;  Mrs.  H , 

the  most  composed,  being  manifestly  full  of  faith,  and  by  faith 
supported ;  and  I  felt  moved  with  much  fellow-feeling.  She  spoke 
of  his  kindness  to  all — of  his  charity  to  the  poor — of  his  constant 
cheerfulness  in  a  most  perplexing  and  tried  life — of  his  faith  in 
Christ,  though  it  had  little  outward  appearance — of  all  which  I 
was  well  pleased  to  hear.  We  then  went  up  stairs,  and,  having 
assembled  the  family,  I  sought  to  apply  to  them  the  130th  Psalm 
and  the  4th  and  5th  of  1st  Thessalonians,  showing  them  that  the 
only  hope  was  in  Christ  Jesus  either  for  themselves  or  the  de- 
parted.    Then  I  proceeded  to  Mr.  W ,  and  received  Mr.  Bell's 

instructions  for  you.  The  place  is  Bossal,  near  York.  .  .  .  You 
must  go  to  the  George  Inn,  York,  which  is  the  posting-house,  and 
take  a  post-chaise  to  the  house,  where  you  are  expected  with  much 


256  THE  PKESENCE  OF  GOD. 

delight ;  and  may  it  be  delightful  to  us  all.  Mrs.  W is  bet- 
ter. We  had  very  sweet  discourse,  in  which  I  was  enabled  to 
maintain  faithfully  the  truth — I  fear,  not  so  much  in  the  love  of 
it  as  I  could  desire.  And,  oh !  I  am  pressed  with  the  desire  of 
nearer  communion  to  the  divine  throne !  There  is  something  in 
my  spirit  very  paralytic  there.  Oh  that  I  could  pray  unto  the 
Lord — even  with  what  affection  I  write  these  letters !  I  do  earn- 
estly pray  the  Lord  to  take  the  veil  off  my  heart,  and  I  believe 
in  good  time  He  will.  .  .  .  Now  I  go  to  seek  the  Lord  in  secret 
for  us  all.     Farewell ! 

"  jSunday,  27ih  November.  I  have  reason  to  bless  the  Lord,  my 
dear  Isabella,  for  His  strengthening  and  encouraging  presence  this 
day,  both  in  the  ministry  of  the  Word  and  of  prayer,  which  I  re- 
ceive as  His  wonderful  patience  with  my  unworthiness,  and  as  a 
sign  that  His  hand  is  toward  me  for  good.  In  the  morning  pray- 
er I  was  better  able  to  abstract  my  soul  from  under-thoughts,  and 
to  stand  with  my  people  before  the  Lord.  I  have  been  led  to 
think  more  concerning  that  under-current  of  thought  during  pray- 
er, and  I  perceived  it  to  be  owing  to  our  infidelity.  The  living 
and  true  God,  with  His  acts  and  attributes,  is  not  present  to  our 
spirit,  but  our  own  ideas  of  Him,  and  customs  of  discourse,  which, 
the  mind  presents  while  thinking  of  other  things,  as  it  doth  in 
many  other  cases.  .  .  .  Therefore  it  is  the  ^we  of  God's  presence 
— the  reality  of  His  presence — by  whicb  the  soul  is  to  be  cured 
of  this  evil — this  heinous  evil.  It  is  the  feeling  of  this  want  which 
has  introduced  pictures  and  statues  among  the  Catholics,  and  I 
take  it  to  be  the  same  whicli  makes  the  Episcopalian  attached  to 
forms.  But  nothing  will  do,  dear,  but  His  own  presence — the 
presence  of  His  own  invisible  Spirit  in  our  hearts,  crying  unto 
our  Father  which  is  in  heaven.  Prayer,  my  dearest,  is  the  com- 
plaint of  the  Holy  Spirit  under  His  incarnation  in  our  hearts. 
Our  chapter  in  the  morning  was  the  5th  of  Hebrews,  compre- 
hending Christ's  priesthood.  But  I  find  I  have  not  strength  for 
■unfolding  these  high  matters.  My  beloved,  fare  thee  well !  My 
baby,  the  blessing  of  the  Lord  upon  thee ! 

"  In  considering  the  priestly  office  of  Christ,  be  at  pains  to  sep- 
arate it  from  the  prophetic.  .  .  .  My  discourse  was  on  justifica- 
tion by  faith  alone.  .  .  .  And  I  concluded  with  exhortations  to 
humility,  and  an  abiding  sense  of  the  Savior's  righteousness,  and 
of  our  own  wickedness,  and  of  a  new  principle  derived  from  the 
former  which  should  be  generative  of  a  set  of  works  truly  good. 


LESSONS  IN  SPANISH.  257 

truly  holy,  truly  blessed.  In  the  evening  I  read  the  sweet  and 
picturesque  account  of  Isaac's  courting,  and  took  occasion  to  press 
the  fidelity  of  the  servant  in  all  points,  and  to  point  out  the  veri- 
similitude which  the  narrative  bore  with  the  manners  of  the  ages 
nearest  to  those  times.  I  discoursed  concerning  the  duty  of  the 
Church  to  their  ministers  in  respect  to  support,  yet  handling  the 
subject  largely  and  widely,  with  the  view  of  demonstrating  the 
total  disproportion  between  moral  and  spiritual  services  and  pe- 
cuniary rewards — showing  them  my  favorite  maxim,  that  money 
is  the  universal  falsehood  and  the  universal  corruption  when  we 
use  it  for  discharging  obligations  contracted  by  spiritual  or  moral 
services.  For  example,  if  you  think  the  wage  discharges  you  of 
your  obligation  to  Mary,  you  are  deceived  out  of  so  much  spirit- 
ual feeling  as  should  have  repaid  her,  and  corrupted  into  a  world- 
ling ;  and  so  if  Mary  were  to  think  her  obligations  discharged  by 
works ;  and  so  of  all  giving  of  gifts  to  express  sentiments.  They 
do  express  the  sentiment,  but  discharge  it  they  can  never.  This 
was  a  very  fertile  topic  of  discourse,  and  full  of  warning  to  the 
worldly  people.  There  were  very  large  congregations  to  hear,  and 
I  trust  they  were  edified.  Our  service  extended  to  three  hours  in 
the  morning,  and  two  hours  and  a  half  in  the  evening,  and  I  find 
I  can  not  relax.  .  .  . 

"  Monday^  28ih.  This  morning  Sottomayor  the  soldier  was  with 
us,  and  James  and  I,  partly  of  charity,  partly  of  veneration  to  the 
old  Spanish  character  and  literature,  have  agreed  to  take  lessons  i 
in  Spanish  at  seven  every  morning,  which  will  curtail  this  letter. 
So  we  have  provided  us  in  Bibles,  with  which  we  are  to  begin, 
and  afterward  we  shall  read  Don  Quixote.  .  .  .  Then  there  came 

Mr.  M to  read  with  me  the  Greek  Testament,  and  we  gave 

ourselves  to  the  6th  chapter,  which  I  will  open  to  you  in  some 
other  place.  I  think  the  Lord,  by  the  help  of  Father  Simon,  hath 
enabled  me  to  understand  it.     Oh,  I  thank  God  for  the  change 

upon  that  young  man !     Even  P ,  who  is  very  judicious,  and 

was  with  him  an  hour  alone,  could  discern  in  him  no  supercilious- 
ness nor  conceit.  He  is  very  docile,  and  is  to  come  every  Mon- 
day for  an  hour  or  two.  I  hope  to  do  for  him  what  others  have 
done  for  me.  .  .  . 

"  Tuesday^  29t7i.  Last  night  I  endured  the  temptation  of  many 
evil  thoughts  and  imaginations,  which  the  good  Spirit  of  God  en- 
abled me  to  overcome,  although  it  was  a  great  trouble  and  vexa- 
tion to  my  soul.  .  .  .  Such  an  almighty  and  infinite  work  is  the 

R 


258  THE  WINGS  OF  LOVE. 

sanctiiication  of  the  soul !  Our  Lord  hatla  said,  '  Satan  cometh 
and  findeth  nothing  in  me.'  Alas !  how  otherwise  with  us !  The 
Holy  Spirit  cometh  and  findeth  nothing  in  us !  .  .  ,  What  a  work 
is  the  sanctification  of  a  soul !  It  is  second  only  to  its  redemp- 
tion ;  and  to  that  second  only  in  place  and  order,  not  in  degree. 
In  the  morning  we  started  at  seven  o'clock  to  the  Book  of  Sam- 
uel, and  made  out  one  chapter  with  Giuseppe  Sottomayor,  who 
commends  himself  more  and  more  to  my  esteem  as  a  man  of  true 
principle  and  piety.  I  think  the  work  of  conviction  goes  on  in 
his  mind.  He  breakfasted  and  worshiped  with  us ;  after  which  I 
came  to  my  study,  and  did  not  rise,  except  to  snatch  a  portion  of, 
dinner,  till  five  o'clock.  In  that  time  I  did  little  else  than  study' 
a  chapter  in  the  Hebrew  Bible,  and  read  Poole's  Synopsis  upon  it, 
which  is  written  in  Latin,  with  abundant  Hebrew  and  Greek  quo- 
tations, that  occupy  me  well — insomuch  that,  if  my  time  will  al- 
low, I  purpose  doing  the  same  daily.  For  I  fell  in  with  a  diction- 
ary, which  I  can  consider  little  else  than  a  providential  gift,  in 
two  handy  little  quarto  volumes — a  Latin  dictionary,  which  ren- 
ders the  word  into  Hebrew,  Greek,  French,  Italian,  German,  Span- 
ish, Dutch,  so  that  it  is  to  me  a  continual  assistance  of  the  mem- 
ory, besides  affording  a  perpetual  delight  in  tracing  the  diversity 
and  analogy  of  languages,  in  which  I  had  always  great  pleasure. 
.  .  .  During  my  solitary  study  I  received  two  sweet  interruptions 
— one  in  the  shape  of  a  messenger  from  a  far  country,  coming 
from  one  dear  to  you,  but  dearer  to  me,  and  who  loves  me  too 
well  to  love  herself  well.  Now,  who  is  that  ?  and  who  is  that 
messenger?  A  riddle  which  I  take  you  to  resolve.  .  .  .  The 
messenger  was  from  yourself,  in  the  shape  of  a  letter,  laying  out 
your  plans  of  travel,  and  making  merry  with  my  scheme.  Now 
Kant's  Meiajyhysics  was  not  in  my  mind,  but  that  better  authority, 
the  road-book ;  for  you  must  know  that,  setting  off  on  Monday 
morning,  I  can  be  in  York,  you  at  Bossal,  to  breakfast  on  Tues- 
day. ...  So  that  you  see  there  is  neither  Kantian  negation  of 
space  and  time,  nor  the  wings  of  love,  in  the  matter,  but  simple, 
prosaic,  stage-coach  locomotion.  .  .  .  Being  so  far,  I  went  on  to 
Bedford  Square.  ...  But  there  is  no  getting  a  spiritual  discourse 
maintained :  you  can  but  set  it  forth  in  intellectual  parables, 
which  are  nothing  so  efi&cient  as  the  parables  for  the  sense  which 
our  Lord  was  accustomed  to  use.  But,  dearest,  we  must  either 
speak  in  parables  to  the  world,  or  we  must  be  silent,  or  we  must 
present  a  wry  and  deceptive  form  of  truth,  or  we  must  cast  our 


PA-RABLES.  259 

pearls  before  swine,  of  whicTa  choice  the  first  is  to  be  preferred, 
and  our  Lord  therefore  adopted  it ;  because  a  parable  is  truth  veil- 
ed, not  truth  dismembered ;  and  as  the  eye  of  the  understanding 
grows  more  piercing,  the  veil  is  seen  through,  and  the  truth  stands 
revealed.  Now  parables  are  infinite ;  besides  those  to  the  imag- 
ination, they  are  to  the  intellect  in  the  way  of  argument,  to  the 
heart  in  the  way  of  tender  expression  and  action,  and  to  the  eye 
in  the  way  of  a  pure  and  virtuous  carriage.  And  the  whole  visi- 
ble demonstration  of  Christian  life  is,  as  it  were,  an  allegorical 
way  of  preaching  truth  to  the  eyes  of  the  world,  whether  it  be 
wisdom  in  discourse,  or  charity  in  feeling,  or  holiness  in  action. 
But  I  wander.  I  returned  home  about  seven,  and  addressed  m}''- 
self  to  write  my  action  sermon,*  but  found  myself  too  fatigued  to 
conceive  or  express  aught  worthy  of  the  subject — 'Do  this  in  re- 
membrance of  me' — and  I  know  not  whether  any  thing  may  be 
yielded  to  me  this  night  worthy  of  it.  ...  I  trust  our  meeting 
may  be  blessed  to  add  gifts  to  us  mutually.  I  am  truly  happy  to 
anticipate  it  so  much  sooner. 

"  You  are  now  among  my  dear  kindred,  who  I  know  will  be 
very  kind  to  you,  for  your  own  sake  and  for  mine.  I  owe  them 
all  a  great  debt  of  love  and  affection,  which  I  shall  never  be  able 
to  repay.  I  look  to  you  to  drop  seasonable  words  into  their  ears, 
especially  concerning  their  salvation  and  their  little  ones;  for 
nothing  is  so  fatal  to  Scotland  as  lethargy.  I  trust  they  are  not 
nominal  Christians,  but  I  would  fain  have  deeper  convictions  of 
so  important  a  matter.  I  pray  you  not  to  yield  any  thing  to  your 
natural  kindness  at  the  expense  of  your  health  and  risk  of  the  in- 
fant, but  in  all  things,  as  before  the  Lord,  to  take  the  steps  which 
you  judge  the  best,  looking  to  His  blessing.  To  this  also  I  charge 
you  by  your  love  and  obedience  to  me.  This  day  is  very  fine. 
I  hope  you  are  on  your  journey ;  and  I  earnestly  pray  you  may 
travel  as  Abraham  did,  at  every  resting-place  setting  up  an  altar 
to  God  in  your  heart.  We  remember  you  night  and  morning  in 
our  prayers,  and  I  trust  that  the  Lord  will  graciously  hear  us. 
At  Annain  I  have  nothing  for  you  to  say  particularly  but  to  as- 
sure them  of  my  most  dutiful  love  and  constant  prayers,  and  to 
entreat  them  not  to  slumber.  .  .  .  The  Lord  bring  you  in  safety 
to  my  bosom  and  to  your  home.  I  know  you  will  care  for  Mary 
in  every  thing  as  one  of  the  family,  and  bound  to  us  by  many  acts 
of  faithfulness  and  love. 

*  The  name  usually  given  in  Scotland  to  the  sermon  preached  before  the  com- 


260  ANXIETY  ABOUT  MKS.  IRVING'S  JOURNEY. 

"  Wednesday,  30th  November.  My  dear  Isabella,  I  am  daily  load- 
ed with  the  tokens  of  the  Lord's  goodness,  which  I  regard  with 
the  more  wonder  and  gratitude,  as  I  have  been  this  week  more 
than  ordinarily  tried  with  inward  trials ;  and  to  receive  tokens  of 
love  from  a  friend  when  we  are  wavering  in  our  fealty  is  also  al- 
ways very  full  of  rebuke.  But  I  have  withstood  Satan  according 
to  my  ability,  and  he  hath  not  been  allowed  to  prevail  over  me, 
nor  will,  I  trust,  by  the  continuance  of  unfailing  prayers.  ...  So 
you  see,  my  dear,  what  tokens  I  have  of  the  Lord's  blessing :  there 
are  not  fewer  than  thirty -five  who  have  come  seeking  to  be  joined 
to  the  Church  at  this  time ;  and  no  other  season  have  I  observed 
the  same  zeal,  and  intelligence,  and  faith.  Oh  that  the  Lord,  for 
their  sakes,  would  furnish  me  with  good !  I  lament  much  that 
so  few  of  the  Scotch  youths  are  drawn.  I  think  there  is  not  much 
above  one  third  Scotchmen.  I  trust  the  Lord  will  draw  near  to 
them.  I  think  they  can  hardly  fail  either  to  leave  the  congrega- 
tion altogether,  or  to  join  the  Church,  my  preaching  has  been 
of  late  so  separating.  .  .  .  This  letter  will  reach  you  at  Annan, 
where,  individually  and  collectively,  I  pray  my  dutiful  affection 
and  ministerial  blessing  to  be  given  by  you.  Farewell !  and  may 
the  Lord  be  your  shade  to-morrow  in  your  journey  southward! 

^^ Thursday,  1st  December.  The  beginning  of  a  new  month,  my 
dearest,  wherein  let  us  stir  up  our  souls  to  more  lively  faith  in 
these  great  and  precious  promises  which  we  inherit  from  the  death 
of  our  Lord,  which  you  have  so  lately,  and  which  we  are  so  soon 
about  to  commemorate.  I  look  back  upon  the  last  month  as  one 
in  which  I  have- had  various  experiences  of  good  and  evil — en- 
couragements beyond  all  former  experience,  and  trials  of  Satan 
proportioned  thereto.  .  .  .  Ihavehadmany  revelations,  and  beck- 
onings,  and  overtures  to  enter  into  the  temple's  inmost  place,  which 
I  shall  yet  do,  if  the  Lord  permit.  If  I  allowed  anxiety  to  prey 
upon  me,  I  would  now  be  anxious  for  you  and  the  child,  having 
seen  by  the  papers  that  so  much  snow  is  fallen  in  the  North.  But 
the  Lord,  who  sendeth  His  ice  as  morsels,  and  giveth  the  snow 
like  wool,  and  scattereth  the  hoarfrost  like  ashes,  will  not  let  it 
alight  upon  jou  without  good  and  gracious  ends,  for  the  very 
hairs  of  your  head  are  numbered.  I  have  had  a  good  deal  of  con- 
versation this  night  with  Mr.  Hunter,  who  is  returned  from  the 
North,  concerning  the  comparative  fatigue  and  comfort  of  posting 
and  traveling  by  the  mail,  and  he  says  for  both  reasons,  but  es- 
pecially for  less  exposure  to  the  cold,  the  mail  is  to  be  preferred. 


A  "BENEDICT."  261 

.  ,  .  Take  wise  counsel  in  the  matter.     I  had  a  very  pleasant  call 

this  morning  from  Mr.  W ,  desiring,  by  conversation  with  me, 

to  express  his  forgiveness  of  his  friend,  and  to  purge  himself  of 
all  malice  and  revenge  before  bringing  his  gift  to  the  altar.  .  .  . 
After  he  was  gone  I  sought  to  continue  my  discourse,  and,  when 
I  had  laid  down  my  pen  to  enter  upon  my  Hebrew  studies,  I  was 
interrupted  by  the  call  of  a  young  lady,  who  had  stolen  to  me, 
having  heard  me  preach,  and  thinking  me  likely  to  listen  to  her. 
...  I  thought  the  struggle  between  shamefacedness  and  fear  on 
the  one  hand,  and  her  desire  of  counsel  on  the  other,  would  have 
wholly  overpowered  her.  I  found  she  had  been  taught  of  the 
Spirit  without  knowing  it,  and,  when  I  taught  her  by  the  Word, 
it  was  sweet  to  witness  the  response  of  her  soul  pronouncing  the 
Amen, '  That  I  know,' '  That  I  feel  is  true.'  She  is  one  in  a  fam- 
ily, and  the  rest  have  no  fellowship  with  her.  .  .    . 

"  A  proof-sheet  occupied  me  till  dinner,  and  after  dinner  I  read 
the  Eoman  History  till  toward  six,  when  I  had  to  meet  my  young 
communicants,  to  introduce  them  to  the  session.  There  was  a 
goodly  number  of  them  present,  to  whom  I  addressed  a  word  of 
instruction  concerning  the  infinite  honor  to  which  they  were  ad- 
mitted, and  the  duties  which  devolved  upon  them  in  their  Chris- 
tian calling.  ...  I  had  received  a  letter  from  Andrew  P. ,  de- 
siring that  his  mother  might  be  remembered  in  our  prayers  as'  one 
looking  for  death.  This  moved  me  to  go  and  see  the  afflicted 
servant  of  Christ,  whom  I  found  brought  very  low,  and  not  likely 
to  recover  again,  her  children  rejoicing  in  her  joy,  and  content  to 
part  with  her  to  the  joy  of  her  Lord.  So  the  arrows  of  the  Lord 
are  flying  on  all  sides  of  us.  This  made  it  past  eleven  when  I  got 
home,  and  I  found  Mr.  Murray  sitting  to  inform  me  that  he  was 
about  to  become  '  a  Benedict,'  which  means  blessed — which  means 
a  husband.  I  wish  them  all  happiness.  And  so  was  I  hindered 
from  fulfilling  this  duty,  being  overladen  with  sleep  and  worn  out 
with  labor.  ... 

^^Friday,  2d  December.  This  morning,  dearest,  I  felt,  when  call- 
ed at  seven,  the  effects  of  yesterday's  labor,  and  was  not  able  to 
arise  from  headache,  which  I  durst  not  brave,  having  such  a  weight 
of  thought  and  action  before  me ;  therefore  I  lay  still,  endeavoring 
to  sleep  it  off,  and  rose  not  till  half  past  nine,  when,  descending 
quietly,  I  sought  to  get  to  work  without  interruption,  and,  thank 
God,  have  made  out  a  good  day's  work,  being  well-nigh  finished 
with  my  action  sermon ;  and,  for  the  rest,  I  am  very  much  dis- 


262  EVILS  OF  FORMALITY. 

posed  to  depend  upon  the  Spirit  to  give  me  utterance ;  for  to-mor- 
row, all  the  morning  I  have  to  be  helpful  to  Mrs.  H ,  and  the 

evening  I  have  to  preach  to  the  people.  After  workmg  with  mj^ 
pen,  I  took  an  interlude  of  history,  walking  in  the  garden,  when 
my  thoughts  are  fullest  of  our  darling.  But,  indeed,  I  know  not 
how  it  is,  I  think  the  last  two  or  three  days  I  have  been  thinking 
of  him  too  much,  and  last  night  I  dreamed  he  was  in  life,  and, 
though  drooping  like  a  flower,  giving  hope  of  health  again.  He 
was  on  your  knee,  and  I  thought  I  caught  the  first  sign  of  hope 
to  seize  him  and  carry  him  into  the  fresh  air,  when  it  all  vanished 
before  me  into  the  sad  reality.  Then  I  addressed  myself  to  my 
Hebrew  studies,  at  which  I  continued  till  I  went  forth  to  minister 

comfort  to  Mrs.  H 's  family,  with  whom  I  worshiped,  opening 

to  them  that  Psalm  of  divine  sorrow  (the  xlii.)  where  the  Psalm- 
ist, in  all  his  sorrows,  sees  nothing  to  lament  but  his  distance  and 
separation  from  the  house  of  God  and  the  communion  of  His  peo- 
ple. I  came  back  at  half  past  eight,  having  several  appointments 
with  those  who  had  not  spoken  to  me  in  time,  yet  sought  with 
earnestness  to  approach  the  table  of  the  Lord.  And  now,  more 
briefly  and  less  feelingly  and  spiritually  than  I  would  have  de- 
sired, have  I  set  forth  to  you  the  incidents  of  Thursday,  which  to 
my  soul  hath  been  a  day  of  consolation.  Oh  that  the  Lord  would 
break  these  bands  of  sleep — these  heavy  eyelids  of  drowsiness, 
my  beloved  wife,  and  awake  us  to  the  full  vision  of  the  truth  and 
possession  of  the  things  of  faith !  You  are  now,  I  trust,  by  the 
mercy  of  God,  seated  beside  my  most  honored  parents,  to  whom 
I  present  my  dutiful  affection,  praying  the  Lord  to  compass  them 
with  His  grace ;  and  oh,  tell  them  to  press  inward  to  the  temple ; 
not  to  rest,  but  to  press  onward.  Exhort  them  from  me  to  have  no 
formality.  Tell  them  that,  until  religion  cease  to  be  a  burden,  it 
is  nothing — till  prayer  cease  to  be  a  weariness,  it  is  nothing.  How- 
ever difficult,  and  however  imperfect,  the  spirit  must  still  rejoice 
in  it,  after  the  inward  man.  ...  If  I  write  much  longer  you  will 
not  be  able  to  read,  for  there  is  a  great  combination  against  me — 
a  weary  hand,  a  heavy  eye,  a  pen  worn  to  the  quick,  a  dull  mind, 
and  a  late  hour,  and  a  day  before  me  of  much  occupation.  There- 
fore, farewell  to  all  that  are  with  you,  and  to  all  with  whom  you 
abide ! 

^^  Saturday.  I  thought,  my  dearest,  to  have  finished  this  before 
the  post,  but  have  been  taken  up  all  the  morning,  till  two  o'clock, 
doing  the  last  duties  to  our  beloved  friend  M.  H ;  and  hav- 


IRVING'S  ONLY  JOUENAL.  263 

ing  to  preach  to-niglit,  I  rather  choose  to  take  up  the  only  hour 
that  is  left  me  in  meditation  for  so  many  souls.  The  Lord  bless 
you,  and  the  house  in  which  you  dwell !  I  trust  in  the  grace  of 
God  to  sustain  me  to-morrow,  and  to  give  you  a  good  journey. 

"  The  Lord  bless  my  father's  house. 

"  Your  affectionate  husband,  Edward  Irving. 

"If  you  take  the  mail  from  Carlisle,  you  should  take  it  only  to 
Kattrick  Bridge,  or  perhaps  a  stage  farther.  I  think  it  is  but 
eighteen  miles  from  Kattrick  Bridge,  and  the  landlord  seemed  to 
me  a  very  pleasant  old  man.  If  the  time  of  leaving  Carlisle  be 
too  soon,  you  could  perhaps  go  on  a  stage  or  two  the  night  be- 
fore.    The  Lord  direct  you  in  all  things. 

"  Forget  not  the  shoes — I  care  not  how  many  pairs,  only  pay 
for  them ;  for  my  mother  will  always  make  herself  a  beggar  for 
her  children." 

Thus  concludes  a  journal  which,  perhaps,  has  no  parallel  in 
modern  days.  A  picture  so  minute,  yet  so  broad — a  self-revela- 
tion so  entire — a  witness  so  wonderful  of  that  household  love, 
deepened  by  mutual  suffering  and  sorrow,  which  so  far  transcends 
in  its  gravity  and  soberness  the  more  voluble  passions  of  youth, 
has  never,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  been  given  to  the  world.  It  is 
not  wonderful  that  over  the  vicissitudes  of  more  than  a  quarter 
of  a  century,  the  scattered  remnants  of  the  family,  once  admitted, 
even  in  part,  to  the  secret  soul  of  such  a  man,  should  remember 
these  letters  with  a  certain  tearful  exultation,  the  traces  of  the  de- 
parted glory ;  nor  that  the  wife,  to  whom  all  were  addressed, 
should  have  cherished  them  to  the  last  as  too  sacred  for  common 
sight.  This  is  the  first  and  only  journal  of  Irving's  life.  On  va- 
rious occasions  afterward  he  was  separated  from  his  wife  for  con- 
siderable periods,  but  never  again  produced  any  thing  like  the  af- 
fecting history,  at  which  he  labored  day  by  day  and  hour  b}^ 
hour,  to  cheer  the  mother  of  his  dead  baby,  as  she  lay,  weak  and 
sorrowful,  in  the  faintest  hour  of  a  woman's  life,  in  the  sad,  affec- 
tionate shelter  of  her  father's  house.  Few  men  or  heroes  have 
been  laid  in  their  grave  with  such  a  memorial  as  envelops  the 
baby  name  of  little  Edward,  and  I  think  few  wives  will  read  this 
record  without  envying  Isabella  Irving  that  hour  of  her  anguish 
and  consolation. 


264  KELIGIOUS  LIBERTY. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

1826,  1827.* 

Tlie  Headship  of  Christ. — A  Baptized  Christendom. — Expansion. — Ben-Ezra. — 
The  Spanish  Jesuit. — Irving's  Consistency. — A  Christian  Nation. — Political  Opin- 
ions.— Rest  and  IJelaxation. — Beckenham. — His  "Helper  meet  for  him." — The 
Hibernian  Bible  Society. — Albury. — Henry  Drummond. — Conference  for  the  Study 
of  Prophecy. — Concerning  the  Second  Advent. — A  School  of  Prophets. — Irving's 
Verses. — The  anti-Christ. — A  Herald  of  the  Lord's  Coming. — Signs  of  the  Times. 
— The  Fife  Bank. — Help  and  Consolation — Opening  of  National  Scotch  Church. 
— Unanimity  of  the  Congregation. — Dr.  Chalmers's  Diary. — Irving  keeps  Chal- 
mers waiting. — Dr.  Chalmers  shakes  his  Head. — Important  Crisis. — Fashion  went 
her  idle  Way. — In'ing's  own  Evidence  on  the  Subject. — Reality. — Cessation  of 
the  Crowd. — "The  Plate." — Irving's  Offering. — The  Bible  Society. — A  May 
Meeting. — A  Moment  of  Depression. — Projects  for  the  Future. — Lectures  on  Bap- 
tism.— Seed-time. — Ordination  Charge. — Vaughan  of  Leicester. — The  Light  that 
never  was  on  Sea  or  Shore. 

After  the  full  and  detailed  personal  portrait  whicli  Irving 
gives  of  himself  in  these  journal-letters,  a  period  of  comparative 
silence  follows.  This  was  the  silent  seed-time  of  the  exciting  and 
exhausting  years,  full  of  conflict  and  struggle,  upon  the  threshold 
of  which  he  stood.  The  full  flood  of  life  which  now  carried  him 
along  was  not  more  visible  in  his  actual  labors  than  it  was  in  the 
eager  progress  of  his  unresting  and  ever-active  spirit.  Whether 
his  mind  had  ever  been  content  with  the  sober  Presbyterian  ideal 
of  a  democratic  Church,  in  which  the  will  of  the  people  had  really, 
if  not  nominally,  a  distinct  and  apparent  sway,  and  in  which  the 
priests  were  subject  to  the  perpetual  criticism  of  a  community  too 
much  disposed  to  argument  and  individual  opinion  to  yield  much 
veneration  to  their  legitimate  leaders,  it  is  difficult  to  say ;  but 
the  Scotch  imagination  has  always  found  a  way  of  escaping  from 
those  prosaic  trammels.  That  which  the  outside  world  has  dis- 
tinguished as  religious  liberty,  and  recognized  as  the  object  of  the 
many  struggles  in  which  the  Church  of  Scotland  has  engaged,  has 
never  been  so  named  or  considered  among  the  champions  of  that 
Church.  Their  eyes,  throughout  the  long  and  eventful  drama, 
have  been  fixed,  not  upon  the  freedom  of  individual  worship  or 
the  rights  of  the  Christian  people,  but  upon  a  much  loftier, 
ineffable  principle,  often  converted  into  an  instrument  of  evil, 


THE  HEADSHIP  OF  CHRIST.  265 

yet  always  retaining,  to  some,  the  divinest  sunshine  of  ideal 
perfection.  Nowadays,  when  martyrdoms  are  no  longer  pos- 
sible, and  heretical  stakes  and  blocks  are  long  ago  out  of  fash- 
ion, it  is  more  difiicult  than  it  once  was  to  idealize,  out  of  a 
struggle  for  mere  ecclesiastical  authority,  that  conflict  which, 
in  the  days  of  blood  and  violence,  so  many  humble  heroes 
waged  for  the  headship  of  Christ.  To  many  a  Scotch  confessor 
this  doctrine  has  stood  instead  of  a  visible  general,  animating 
the  absolute  peasant-soul  to  so  distinct  a  conception  of  Christ's 
honor  and  authority,  as  the  object  for  which  it  contended,  that 
the  personal  ardor  of  the  conflict  puzzles  the  calm  observer, 
who  understands  as  nothing  but  a  dogma  this  inspiring  principle. 
The  events  which  made  the  great  crisis  in  the  existence  of  Scot- 
land a  struggle  for  her  faith,  drove  this  lofty,  visionary  concep- 
tion into  the  ideal  soul  of  the  nation,  where  it  has  ever  since  ex- 
isted, and  is  still  appealed  to,  as  the  experience  of  to-day  can  tes- 
tify. When,  according  to  the  evidence  of  facts,  the  Covenanters 
were  fighting  against  the  imposed  Liturgy  and  attempted  episco- 
pacy of  the  Charleses,  they  were,  to  their  own  fierce  conscious- 
ness, struggling  for  the  principle  that,  in  the  Church,  Charles  was 
nothing,  and  Christ  ail  in  all ;  nor  has  the  sentiment  failed  in 
more  recent  struggles.  Irving  had  received  this  national  creed 
along  with  his  earliest  impressions :  he  had  even  received  it  in  the 
still  closer  theocratic  model  well  known  in  ancient  Scotland, 
where  God  the  ruler  was  every  where  visible,  in  providence,  judg- 
ment, and  mercy.  But  his  impassioned  soul  led  him  to  recon- 
struct upon  these  sublime  elements  another  ideal  of  a  Church  than 
that  which  has  long  been  supreme  in  Scotland.  Unconsciously 
his  thoughts  elevated  themselves  and  grew  into  fuller  develop- 
ment ;  unconsciously  he  assumed  in  his  own  person  the  priestly 
attitude,  and  felt  himself  standing  between  God  and  the  people. 
Then  the  community  itself  rose  under  his  glowing  gaze  into  a 
baptized  world — a  Christendom  separated  by  the  initiatory  ordi- 
nance of  Christianity,  of  which  Christ  was  the  sole  head.  The 
longer  he  contemplated  this  world,  the  more  it  rose  out  of  the  re- 
gion of  doctrine  into  that  of  reality.  That  Lord  became  no  dis- 
tant Presence,  but  a  Person  so  intensely  realized  and  visible  that 
the  adoring  eye  perceived  the  human  pulses  throbbing  in  His 
veins ;  and  for  awe,  and  love  of  that  mysterious  union,  the  wor- 
shiper could  not  keep  silence.  That  faith  became  no  system  of 
words,  but  a  divine  evidence  and  substantial  proof  of  the  unutter- 


266  EXPANSION. 

able  glories;  that  baptism  grew  out  of  a  symbol  and  ceremony 
into  a  Thing — an  immortal  birth,  to  which  God  Himself  pledged 
His  word.  One  can  see  this  wonderful  process  going  on  in  the 
transparent,  vehement  spirit.  Every  thing  suffered  a  change  un- 
der those  shining  eyes  of  genius  and  passion.  From  impersonal 
regions  of  thought  they  rose  into  visible  revelations  of  reality. 
To  a  mind  instinct  with  this  realizing  principle,  the  conception  of 
a  Second  Advent  nearly  approaching  was  like  the  beginning  of  a 
new  life.  The  thought  of  seeing  His  Lord  in  the  flesh  cast  a  cer- 
tain ecstasy  upon  the  mind  of  Irving.  It  quickened  tenfold  his 
already  vivid  apprehension  of  spiritual  things.  The  burden  of 
the  prophetic  mysteries,  so  often  darkly  pondered,  so  often  inter- 
preted in  a  mistaken  sense,  seemed  to  him,  in  the  light  of  that 
expectation,  to  swell  into  divine  choruses  of  preparation  for  the 
splendid  event  which,  with  his  own  bodily  eyes,  undimmed  by 
death,  he  hoped  to  behold.  He  had  commenced  his  labors,  and 
the  studies  necessarily  involved  in  those  labors,  with  a  certain  ex- 
pansion of  spirit,  and  power  of  sublimating  whatever  truth  he 
touched,  but  no  apparent  divergence  from  ordinary  belief.  But 
years  of  close  dwelling  upon  the  sacred  subjects  which  it  was  his 
calling  to  expound  had  borne  their  natural  fruit.  Not  yet  had 
he  diverged;  but  he  had  expanded,  intensified,  opened  out  in  an 
almost  unprecedented  degree.  Special  truths,  as  he  came  to  con- 
sider them,  glowed  forth  upon  his  horizon  with  fuller  and  fuller 
radiance ;  life  and  human  affections  seemed  to  go  with  the  adven- 
turer into  those  worlds  of  believed  but  not  appreciated  divinity ; 
and,  as  he  himself  identified  one  by  one  those  wonderful  realiza- 
tions which  were  to  him  as  discoveries,  with  ever  a  warmer  and 
fuller  voice  he  declared  them  aloud. 

Such  was  his  state  of  mind  in  the  comparatively  silent,  and,  in 
some  respects,  transition  period  to  which  we  have  now  reached. 
His  first  sorrow 'did  but  strengthen  the  other  influences  at  work 
upon  him,  while,  at  the  same  time,  his  many  and  continual  labors, 
acting  upon  his  health,  obliged  him  to  withdraw  a  little  from  the 
din  and  excitement  of  his  battle-field,  and  left  him  fuller  scope  for 
his  thoughts.  In  his  winter  solitude,  while  his  wife  was  absent, 
he  had  begun,  more  from  benevolent  motives  than  with  any  idea 
of  making  use  of  the  accomplishment,  to  study  Spanish ;  but,  be- 
fore he  had  made  any  great  advances  in  the  language,  a  manner 
of  turning  the  new  gift  to  the  profit  of  the  Church  came,  by  a 
complication  of  causes — to  his  eyes  clearly  providential — in  his 


THE  SPANISH  JESUIT.  267 

way.  A  Spanish  work,  entitled  "  The  Coming  of  the  Messiah  inf 
Glory  and  Majesty,"  professedly  written  by  Juan  Josafat  Ben-j 
Ezra,  a  Hebrew  convert  to  Christianity,  but  in  reality,  according' 
to  the  facts  afterward  ascertained,  the  production  of  a  Jesuit  priest 
called  Lacunza,  was  brought  to  him,  as  he  describes  in  his  preface 
to  the  translation  of  that  work,  by  friends  who  had  been  specially 
impressed  by  his  own  views  on  the  same  subject.  He  found  in 
it,  as  he  declares,  "  the  hand  of  a  master,"  and  not  only  so,  but 
"  the  chief  work  of  a  master's  hand ;"  and  feeling  assured  that  his 
God  had  sent  this  "masterpiece  of  reasoning"  to  him  "at  such  a 
critical  time  for  the  love  of  His  Church,  which  He  hath  purchased 
with  His  blood,"  he  resolved  "to  weigh  well  how  I  might  turn 
the  gift  to  profit."  The  result  of  his  ponderings  was,  that  he  un- 
dertook the  translation  of  the  book,  concluding,  after  his  fashion, 
that  the  Church  was  as  open  to  receive  instruction,  wheresoever 
it  came  from,  as  he  himself  was.  Not  very  long  before  he  had 
stood  up  against  the  champions  of  Catholic  emancipation,  taking, 
without  a  moment's  hesitation,  the  unpopular  side  of  the  question, 
and  declaring  with  the  utmost  plainness  that,  "  though  it  expose 
me  to  odium  in  every  form,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  asserting  it  to 
be  my  belief  that  when  the  rulers  of  this  nation  shall  permit  to 
the  worshipers  of  the  Beast  the  same  honors,  immunities,  and 
trusts  which  they  permit  to  the  worshipers  of  the  true  God,  that 
day  will  be  the  blackest  in  the  history  of  our  fate."  But  in  the 
face  of  these  uncompromising  sentiments,  and  almost  in  a  breath 
with  the  expression  of  them,  he  comes,  with  characteristic  candor 
and  openness,  to  the  feet  of  the  Spanish  priest,  receives  his  book 
"as  a  voice  from  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,"  just  as  he  claims' 
for  his  own  preaching  to  be  "as  a  voice  from  the  Kirk  of  Scot-' 
land,"  and  finds  it  his  duty  to  interpret  between  the  Jesuit  preach- 
er and  the  English  world.  A  better  illustration  of  the  native  can- 
dor and  simplicity  of  his  mind  could  not  be.  Few  Protestant 
preachers  would  take  upon  themselves  such  an  office ;  and  those 
who  could  believe  their  own  views  enforced  and  supported  by  the 
concurrence  of  a  Catholic  writer,  would  be,  according  to  ordinary 
rules,  men  of  tolerant,  not  to  say  latitudinarian  principles — not 
rigid  upon  points  of  difference.  Of  a  very  different  kind  was  the 
toleration  of  Irving.  It  was  not  toleration  at  all,  indeed,  nor  any 
modern  convenience,  but  simple  love  for  all  who  loved  his  Mas- 
ter's appearing,  and  unfailing  belief  in  the  human  utterance  which 
speaks  out  of  the  abundance  of  men's  hearts.     The  same  voice 


268  IRVING'S  CONSISTENCY. 

whicli  had  just  declared  its  horror  at  the  thought  of  poHtical 
equality  for  the  Catholics,  and  doubtless  had  been  anathematized 
as  the  voice  of  a  bigot  in  consequence,  declares,  immediately  after, 
the  determination  of  the  speaker  to  give  no  Protestant  comment 
upon  the  Jesuit's  simple  words.  "The  doctrines  of  the  Koman 
Church,"  he  says,  "  which  now  and  then  appear,  are  brought  for- 
ward with  so  much  simplicity  and  sincerity  of  faith,  and  so  little 
in  the  spirit  of  obtrusion  or  controversy,  that  it  seemed  to  me  like 
taking  an  advantage  of  the  honest,  well-meaning  man  to  enter  the 
lists  against  him,  unaccoutred  as  he  was.  .  .  .  Oh  no ;  I  had  no 
heart  to  catch  him  tripping,  or  to  expose  the  weakness  of  so  dear 
a  teacher,  concerning  whom  I  was  continually  exclaiming  to  the 
companion  of  my  solitary  labors,  '  I  hope  yet,  in  some  of  my  fu- 
ture pilgrimages,  to  meet  this  grey -haired  saint  in  the  flesh,  and 
receive  his  blessing,  while  I  tell  him  how  much  I  love  him,  and 
have  profited  from  his  instructions.' " 

This  contrast  of  sentiment  will  possibly  puzzle  some  observers. 
'  Irving,  it  is  evident,  was  not  careful  to  preserve  his  consistency ; 
but  it  is  difficult  to  make  out  how  a  man  who  labored  so  lovingly 
over  this  priest's  book,  and  presented  him,  all  Jesuit  as  he  was,  to 
the  Protestant  world  as  a  teacher  to  whom  he  himself  looked  up, 
could  be  much  of  a  bigot,  even  though  he  took  the  most  uncom- 
promising and  decided  position  on  the  political  question  of  Cath- 
olic disabilities.  His  views  on  political  questions  generally  seem 
to  have  been  forming  at  this  time  into  a  more  decided  shape  than 
they  had  hitherto  possessed.  Out  of  the  eclectic  personal  creed 
of  a  professional  man,  to  whom  politics  were  secondary,  they  had 
consolidated  into  something  which,  from  the  outside,  looks  like 
iHigh  Toryism  in  its  most  superlative  and  despotic  development. 
|His  frequent  references  to  the  "  Convocation  Book,"  described  in 
this  letters,  and  the  conclusion  he  arrives  at,  that  subjects  are  not 
j  justifiable  in  taking  up  arms  against  their  lawful  governors,  seems, 
'at  the  first  glance,  a  singular  principle  for  the  descendant  and 
champion  of  the  Covenanters ;  but  it  belongs,  as  naturally  as  any 
other  development  of  doctrine,  to  the  elevation  and  growth  of  all 
his  thoughts.  To  him,  with  whom  the  limit  of  practicability  told 
for  nothing,  and  whose  business  was  with  the  far  more  generally 
forgotten  or  slighted  ideal  form  of  things,  the  consideration  of 
how  it  would  work  was  out  of  the  question ;  enough  men  there 
were  in  the  world  to  consider  that ;  his  work  was  entirely  of  an- 
other description.     To  his  eyes,  full  of  sublimating  light,  the  sec- 


POLITICAL  OPINIONS.  269 

ular  forms  of  government  stood  forth  like  the  spiritual,  in  all  the 
authority  of  Divine  origin.  The  nation  was  a  Christian  nation, 
periling  its  very  existence  by  the  admission  into  power  of  any 
who  did  not  recognize  the  principle  of  its  being.  The  powers 
that  be  were  ordained  of  God.  The  purity  of  the  national  faith 
was  the  safeguard  of  its  life,  and  the  ark  of  national  safety  was  in 
danger  the  moment  that  unhallowed  hands  touched  or  approach- 
ed it. 

Such  was  the  political  creed  of  the  fervid  Scotch  preacher  when 
the  world  was  palpitating  around  him  with  Catholic  struggles  and 
the  early  essays  of  Eeform.  Almost  all  the  strength  of  contem- 
porary genius  went  with  the  popular  stream.  He,  all  Old-world 
and  unprogressive,  stood  against  the  tide.  How  circumstances 
could  modify  belief,  or  individual  and  temporary  hardships  set 
aside  everlasting  truth,  it  was  not  in  him  to  understand,  nor  did 
he  enter  into  the  less  or  more  practicable  degrees  of  national  vir- 
tue. His  stand  was  taken  upon  the  absolute.  From  this  point 
of  view  he  protested  against  the  abolition  of  tests,  against  the  , 
emancipation  of  Catholics,  and,  most  of  all,  against  the  griat  athe-  j 
istical  principle,  as  he  held  it,  that  power  was  derived  from  the  ' 
people  instead  of  from  God.  Upon  this,  as  upon  the  antipodes 
of  those  lofty  politico-religious  principles  which  he  himself  held 
like  a  prophet  in  a  world  consciously  ruled  of  God,  he  looked 
with  horror.  Such  elevated  theories  of  government  are  not  al- 
ways necessary  to  disgust  thoughtful  men  with  the  doubtful  and 
unreliable  impulses  of  popular  supremacy.  But  Irving's  views 
were  not  founded  upon  any  calculation  of  results.  To  put  power 
into  the  hands  of  any  man  who  was  not  ready,  and,  indeed,  eager 
to  declare  himself  a  follower  of  Christ,  according  to  the  apparent 
means  of  Christ's  own  appointing,  was  dn  act  of  national  sacrilege 
to  him  who  considered  himself  bound  to  obey  that  power  when 
exercised  as  the  ordinance  of  God.  Thus  a  political  creed,  which 
time  and  the  hour  have  made  obsolete,  as  being  all  impracticable, 
flashed  forth  into  life  in  the  hands  of  a  champion  who  thought 
only  of  right  and  never  of  practicability.  Whatever  may  be  said 
of  those  doctrines  of  divine  right  and  religious  government,  which 
by  times  have  been  perverted  by  human  ingenuity  into  the  most 
horrible  instruments  of  cruelty  and  national  degradation,  the  grand 
idea  of  a  Christian  nation,  governed  by  Christians,  on  the  broad 
basis  of  that  law  which  is  good-will  to  man,  as  held  by  such  a 
mind  as  that  of  Irving,  must  always  remain  a  splendid  imagina- 


270  REST  AND  EELAXATION. 

tion :  no  vulgar  political  belief,  although  it  called  forth  frora  the 
Optimist  demonstrations  of  his  own  strenuous  sentiments,  which 
were  swept  off,  all  futile  and  unavailing,  before  the  inevitable  tide. 
j  Early  in  the  year  1826  the  work  of  Ben-Ezra  came  into  Irving's 
hands,  confirming  and  strengthening  his  heart  in  respect  to  the 
new  revelation  of  doctrine  which  had  already  illuminated  his  path. 
He  had  begun  his  Spanish  studies  only  a  few  months  before,  with 
the  view  of  helping  his  friend,  Griuseppe  Sottomayor;  and  it  was 
not  until  summer  that  he  undertook  the  translation  of  the  book 
which  had  impressed  him  so  deeply.  He  had,  by  this  period,  so 
exhausted  his  strength  in  his  ordinary  pastoral  labors  that  his 
congregation  became  anxious  about  his  health,  and  insisted  on 
the  necessary  rest  and  relaxation  which  alone  could  recruit  him. 
"  About  this  time,"  as  he  himself  says,  "  it  pleased  the  Lord  to 
stir  up  the  greater  part  of  my  flock  to  exhort  me  by  all  means,  as 
I  valued  my  own  health  and  their  well-being,  to  remove  a  little 
from  the  bustle  and  intrusion  of  this  great  city,  and  abide  in  the 
country  during  some  of  the  summer  months ;  and  two  of  the  breth- 
ren wh<5  loved  me  much-  engaged,  unknown  to  me,  a  place  in  the 
country,  where,  without  forsaking  my  charge,  I  might  reside  in 
peace  and  quietness  amid  the  beauty  and  bounty  with  which  God 
hath  covered  the  earth.  This  occurring  so  unexpectedly,  at  the 
time  when  all  concerned  were  soliciting  me  to  undertake  the  whole 
care  and  responsibihty  of  the  translation,  and  perceiving  that  the 
work  was  likely  to  suffer  from  a  divided  labor,  without  being  at 
all  hastened,  I  resolved  at  length,  insufficient  as  was  my  knowl- 
edge of  the  language  at  that  time,  to  conquer  all  difficulties,  and 
heartily  to  give  myself  to  the  Lord  and  to  His  Church  during 
these  weeks  of  retirement;  for  I  was  well  convinced  that  the 
health  which  I  most  needed  was  the  healing  waters  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  which  I  thus  made  bold  to  solicit,  by  devoting  myself  to 
His  service ;  and  certainly  the  laborer  was  not  disappointed  of 
his  hire.  I  prevented  the  dawning  of  the  morning,  and  I  envied 
the  setting  in  of  the  shades  of  evening  to  labor  in  my  work ;  and 
when  my  hands  and  my  eyes  failed  me  because  of  weakness,  the 
helper  whom  God  hath  given  meet  for  me  served  me  with  hers, 
and  so  we  labored  to  bring  this  labor  of  love  to  completion,  pur- 
posing to  offer  it  to  the  Church  as  our  Christmas  offering.  Oh 
that  my  brethren  in  Christ  might  have  the  same  divine  satisfac- 
tion and  unwearied  delight  in  reading  that  I  had  in  translating 
this  wonderful  work !" 


BECKENHAM.  271 

It  would  be  difficult  to  add  to,  without  impairing,  the  perfection 
of  this  beautiful  sketch  of  the  summer  leisure  which  Irving  "gave 
to  the  Lord."  .  The  retirement  of  the  pair,  so  wonderfully  united 
in  labor  and  sympathy,  was  at  Beckenham,  where,  with  that  child 
of  tears  over  whom  they  could  not  choose  but  watch  with  double 
solicitude,  they  lived  in  quiet,  at  least,  if  not  in  repose,  for  the 
greater  part  of  the  summer.  During  all  this  time  Irving  went  up 
to  London  every  Saturday,  remaining  until  Monday,  to  fulfill  his 
usual  laborious  ministerial  duties,  and  in  the  interval  labored,  as 
he  has  described,  at  the  work — ^perhaps,  of  all  literary  labors,  the 
most  tiresome  and  wearing  out — of  this  translation.  Such  was 
his  version  of  relaxation  and  ease.  He  worked  at  it  so  closely 
that  he  was  at  one  time  threatened  with  loss  of  sight  in  conse- 
quence, those  strong  out-of-doors  eyes  of  his  evidently  not  having 
been  adapted  by  nature  for  poring  perpetually  over  print  and  pa- 
per. However,  he  appears  to  have  known  the  true  medicine  for 
his  own  case.  The  village  quiet,  and  incidental  advantages,  pas- 
sively enjoyed,  of  fresh  air  and  summer  greenness,  comforted  and 
refreshed  his  heart  as  he  sat  laboring  with  his  imperfect  Spanish 
over  the  long  treatise  of  Lacunza ;  and,  in  the  calm  of  those  toils, 
his  health  returned  to  him.  The  defect  in  his  eyes  even  helped 
him  to  find  out  the  auxiliary  which  was  at  hand,  and  of  which,  in 
after  times,  he  largely  availed  himself.  "  I  rejoice  to  tell  you  that 
Edward  is  very  much  better,"  writes  Mrs.  Irving  to  her  sister. 
"  He  has  now  made  me  almost  entirely  his  amanuensis.  I  even 
write  his  discourses,  which  to  him  is  a  most  wonderful  relief. 
This  will  surprise  you  when  you  remember  he  could  bear  no  one 
in  the  room  with  him ;  still  he  can  bear  no  one  but  myself;  but 
he  can  stop  and  give  ear  to  my  observations."  .  .  .  And  the  anx- 
ious mother  diverges  from  this  description  into  expressions  of 
subdued  alarm  lest  baby  should  have  the  hooping-cough,  and  a 
wife's  tender  admiration  of  her  husband's  increasing  fondness  for 
the  child.  Once  more  the  strain  is  idyllic ;  but  the  fond  woman's 
letters,  in  which  "  dear  Edward"  appears  as  the  centre  of  every 
thing,  invested  with  a  certain  impersonal  perfection,  do  not  con- 
vey so  clear  a  picture  out  of  the  bosom  of  that  domestic  happi- 
ness, tranquillity,  anxiety,  love,  and  labor — the  sublime  but  com- 
mon course  of  life — as  the  brief  words  in  which  he  himself  com- 
memorates the  summer  scene.  It  was  a  halcyon  moment,  sub- 
dued by  the  touch  of  past  sorrow,  and  that  trembling  which  ex- 
perience so  soon  brings  into  all  mortal  enjoyment,  yet  sweet  with 


272  THE  HIBERNIAN  BIBLE  SOCIETY. 

the  more  exquisite  happiness  which  only  those  who  have  sorrowed 
and  trembled  together  can  snatch  out  of  the  midst  of  their  years. 

This  laborious  retirement  had  been  preceded  by  the  toils  and 
excitements  of  a  London  May,  with  all  its  calls  upon  the  powers 
and  the  patience  of  the  great  orator.  One  of  the  religious  meet- 
in  o-s  of  the  season  was  distinguished  by  an  oft- told  incident — one 
of  the  common  wonders  which  have  established  Irving's  charac- 
ter for  eccentricity  among  those  who  know  little  more  of  him 
than  is  conveyed  by  such  anecdotes.  This  was  the  meeting  of 
the  Hibernian  Bible  Society,  at  which,  the  previous  year,  he  had 
made  so  remarkable  an  appearance,  denouncing  and  resisting  the 
terror  or  complacency  with  which  its  members  yielded  to  a  pop- 
ular outcry.  This  year — probably,  as  one  of  his  friends  suggests, 
that  he  might  offer  his  support  as  openly  as  his  rebuke — he  gave 
his  watch,  till  he  should  be  able  to  redeem  it,  to  the  subscription 
in  aid  of  the  Society.  It  is  the  only  incident  standing  out  from 
this  tranquil  period  of  his  life. 

During  the  summer  of  1826,  while  Irving  was  busied  with  his 
translation,  the  expectation  conveyed  in  this  Spanish  book,  to 
which  his  own  mind  and  that  of  many  others  had  been  directed, 
with  special  force  and  clearness,  not  very  long  before,  seems  to 
have  swelled  within  the  minds  of  all  who  held  it  to  such  an 
amount  of  solemn  excitement  and  inquiring  interest  as  could  no 
longer  keep  silence.  If  the  advent  of  the  Lord  were  indeed  close 
at  hand ;  if  events  were  visibly  marching  forward  to  that  great 
visible  era  of  doom  and  triumph,  as  so  many  students  of  prophe- 
cy concurred  in  believing,  it  was  but  natural  that  a  hope  so  ex- 
traordinary should  bring  the  little  brotherhood  into  a  union  far 
more  intimate  than  that  of  mere  concurrence  in  belief.  The  bond 
between  them  was  rather  that  personal  and  exciting  one  which 
exists  among  a  party  full  of  anxiety  for  the  restoration  or  elec- 
tion of  a  king — a  patriotic  band  of  conspirators  furnished  with 
all  the  information  and  communications  in  cipher  which  can  not 
be  given  at  length  to  the  common  mass — than  the  calmer  link  be- 
tween theologians  united  in  doctrine ;  and,  indeed,  one  wonders 
more  at  the  steady  pertinacity  of  human  nature,  which  could  go 
on  in  all  the  ordinary  habitudes  of  the  flesh  under  the  solemn 
commotion  of  such  a  hope,  than  at  any  kind  of  conference  or  ex- 
traordinary consultation  which  might  be  held  under  the  circum- 
stances. "  A  desire  to  compare  their  views  with  respect  to,  the 
prospects  of  the  Church  at  this  present  crisis"  naturally  arose 


HENRY  DRUMMOND.  273 

among  them,  as  Irving  informs  us  in  the  preface  to  Ben-Ezra ; 
and  after  several  meetings  during  the  summer,  a  serious  and 
lengthened  conference  on  the  subject  was  arranged  to  take  place 
at  Albury,  the  residence  of  one  of  the  most  remarkable  of  the  lit- 
tle prophetic  Parliament,  the  late  Henry  Drummond. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  enter  into  any  history  of  this  remarkable 
man,  who  was  but  the  other  day,  in  the  full  force  of  his  wonder- 
ful individuality,  taking  his  part  in  all  the  affairs  of  the  world. 
That  individuality  was  too  marked  and  striking  to  permit  any 
calm,  general  opinion  of  the  merits  of  a  man  who  was  at  once  a 
religious  leader  and  the  patron  of  religious  distress  throughout 
the  world ;  an  independent  influence,  and  most  caustic  critic  in 
',  ,' ',  the  British  Parliament ;  a  believer  in  all  the  mysteries  of  faith, 
yet  a  contemptuous  denouncer  of  every  thing  beyond  the  shad- 
owy line  which  he  recognized  as  dividing  faith  from  superstition ; 
the  temporal  head,  in  some  respects,  of  a  band  of  religionists,  and 
yet  a  man  in  full  communion  with  the  busy  world,  keeping  the 
ear  of  society,  and  never  out  of  the  fullest  tide  of  life.  Such  a 
conjunction  of  character  had  never  been  witnessed  before  in  his 
generation,  and  has  given  occasion  for  estimates  as  different  as  are 
the  points  of  view  from  which  they  are  taken.  Such  as  he  was, 
all  impetuous  and  willful — with  an  arbitrary  magnificence  of  dis- 
position possible  only  to  a  man  born  to  great  riches,  and  uncon- 
scious of  many  of  those  natural  restraints  which  teach  most  men 
the  impossibility  of  putting  their  own  will  into  full  execution — 
Mr.  Drummond  had  from  his  youth  dedicated  his  wealth,  his  wit, 
his  unparalleled  activity,  his  social  position,  every  thing  he  had 
and  was,  to  the  service  of  God,  according  as  that  appeared  to  his 
vivid  but  peculiar  apprehension.  Before  this  time  he  had  ap- 
peared in  the  track  of  the  Haldanes  at  Geneva,  where  the  dead 
theological  lethargy  of  the  early  Keformed  Church  was  again  wak- 
ing into  life,  and  had  heard  the  Hebrew  Wolff  questioning  the 
Eoman  professors  in  the  chambers  of  the  Propaganda.  Not  very 
long  before,  Irving  himself,  a  very  different  mould  of  man,  had 
recorded  in  his  journal  a  certain  dissatisfaction  with  the  perpetu- 
al external  activity  of  the  restless  religious  potentate.  But  this 
warm  link  of  common  belief  awoke  closer  feelings  of  brotherhood. 
Henry  Drummond,  impatient,  fastidious,  and  arbitrary,  a  master 
of  contemptuous  expression,  acting  and  speaking  with  all  the  sud- 
denness of  an  irresponsible  agent,  was  as  unlike  a  man  as  could 
possibly  be  supposed  to  the  great  Scotch  preacher,  with  all  the 

S 


274  CONFEKENCE  EOE  THE  STUDY  OF  PROPHECY. 

grand  simplicity  of  his  assumptions  and  tender  brotlierliood  of 
his  heart.  But  "they  who  loved  His  appearing"  were  united  by 
a  spell  which  transcended  every  merely  human  sympathy ;  and 
from  this  time  Mr.  Drummond  appears  to  have  exercised  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  influence,  varying,  but  always  increasing,  over  the 
career  of  Irving.  Their  first  point  of  actual  conjunction  appears 
to  have  been  at  this  meeting  of  prophetical  students,  held  at  Al- 
bury.  When  the  summer  was  over,  with  all  its  restraints  of  la- 
bor and  fashion,  and  early  winter  whitened  the  gentle  hills  of  Sur- 
rey, the  grave  little  company  assembled  in  that  house,  which  has 
since  given  character  and  color  to  the  district  'round  it,  and  be- 
come for  one  division  of  Christians  a  kind  of  visible  Beth-El  in 
the  wilderness  of  men's  houses. 

1       "  One  of  our  number,"  says  Irving,  in  the  preface  already  quoted, 
•   "  well  known  for  his  princely  munificence,  thought  well  to  invite  by 
;  special  letter  all  the  men,  both  ministers  and  laymen,  of  any  orthodox 
j  communion  whom  he  knew  or  could  ascertain  to  be  interested  in 
prophetic  studies ;  that  they  should  assemble  at  his  house  of  Albury 
Park,  in  Surrey,  on  the  first  day  of  Advent,  that  we  might  deliberate 
for  a  full  week  upon  the  great  prophetic  questions  which  do  at  pres- 
ent most  intimately  concern  Christendom.     In  answer  to  this  honor- 
able summons,  there  assembled  about  twenty  men  of  every  rank,  and 
.  church,  and  orthodox  communion  in  these  realms ;  and  in  honor  of 
/  our  meeting,  God  so  ordered  it  that  JosephJVVolff,  the  Jewish  mis- 
/   sionary,  a  son  of  Abraham  and  brother  of  our  Loi'd,  both  according 
'    to  flesh  and  according  to  faith,  should  also  be  of  the  number.     And 
here,  for  eight  days,  under  the  roof  of  Henry  Drummond,  Esq.,  the 
j^  present  high  sherifli' of  the  county,  and  under  the  moderation  of  the 
Rev.  Hugh  M'Neil,  the  rector  of  the  parish  of  Albury,  we  spent  six 
full  days  in  close  and  laborious  examination  of  the  Scriptures.  .  .  . 
These  things  I  write  from  recollection,  not  caring  to  use  the  copious 
notes  which  I  took ;  for  it  was  a  mutual  understanding  that  nothing 
should  go  forth  from  the  meeting  with  any  stamp  of  authority,  that 
the  Church  might  not  take  offense,  as  if  we  had  assumed  to  ourselves 
any  name  or  right  in  the  Church.     But  there  was  such  a  sanction 
given  to  these  judgments  by  the  fullness,  freeness,  and  harmony  which 
prevailed  in  the  midst  of  partial  and  minor  diflTerences  of  opinion ;  by 
the  spirit  of  prayer,  and  love,  and  zeal  for  God's  glory  and  the  Church's 
good ;  by  the  sweet  temper  and  large  charity  which  were  spread 
abroad ;  and  by  the  common  consent  that  God  was  in  a  very  re- 
markable way  present  with  us,  that  I  deem  it  my  duty  to  make 
known  these  great  results  to  the  Christian  churches  which  I  have 
thus  so  early  an  opportunity  of  addressing. 

"  Having  said  so  miich,  I  think  it  to  be  my  duty  farther  to  state 
the  godly  order  and  arrangement  according  to  which  the  Albury 
conference,  concerning  the  second  Advent,  was  conducted ;  for  to 
this,  under  God,  I  attribute  in  no  small  degree  the  abundance  of  bless- 
ings with  which  our  souls  were  made  glad.     We  set  apart  a  day  for 


A  SCHOOL  OF  PROPHETS.  275 

each  subject,  and  resolved  to  give  no  more  than  one  day  to  each ; 
and  as  we  were  but  six  free  days  assembled,  having  met  on  the  Thurs- 
day and  parted  on  the  Friday  of  the  week  following,  we  joined  the 
fourth  and  seventh  subjects  together,  conceiving  them  to  be  closely 
connected  with  one  another ;  and  having  apportioned  a  separate  sub- 
ject to  each  day,  we  proceeded  to  each  day's  work  after  the  follow- 
ing method :  we  divided  the  labor  of  each  day  into  three  parts — a 
morning  diet  before  breakfast,  the  second  and  principal  diet  between 
breakfast  and  dinner,  and  the  third  in  the  evening.     The  object  of 
our  morning  diet,  to  which  we  assembled  at  eight  o'clock  precisely — 
as  early  as  we  could  well  see — was  two-fold :  first,  to  seek  the  Lord 
for  the  light,  wisdom,  patience,  devotion  to  His  glory,  communion  of 
saints,  and  every  other  gift  and  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit  which  was 
necessary  and  proper  to  the  labor  which  was  that  day  appointed  us 
in  God's  good  providence :  this  office  was  always  fulfilled  by  a  min- 
ister of  the  Gospel.    Secondly,  one  of  the  number  was  appointed  over 
night,  and  sometimes  several  nights  before,  to  open  the  subject  of  the 
day  in  an  orderly  and  regular  way,  taking  all  his  grounds  of  argu- 
ment, and  substantiating  all  his  conclusions  out  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures ;  and  while  he  thus  proceeded,  the  rest  of  the  brethren  took 
down  the  substance  of  what  he  said,  and  noted  down  the  texts  from 
which  he  reasoned ;  for  we  sat  in  the  library  around  a  large  table, 
provided  with  every  convenience  for  writing  and  for  consulting  the 
Holy  Scriptures.    When  the  outlines,  and  divisions,  and  whole  ground- 
work of  the  subject  were  thus  laid  out  by  the  brother,  strengthened 
by  our  prayers,  we  parted  without  at  that  time  declaring  any  thing, 
and  refreshed  ourselves  Avith  breakfast,  Avhere  we  met  the  jdIous  and 
honorable  lady  and  fiimily  of  our  worthy  host.     Two  full  hours  were 
allowed  from  the  breaking  up  of  the  morning  till  the  assembling  of 
the  midday  diet,  which  was  at  eleven  o'clock,  in  order  that  the  breth- 
ren might  each  one  try  and  jjrove  himself  before  the  Lord  upon  the 
great  questions  at  issue,  and  that  we  might  come  together  with  con- 
victions, not  Avith  uncertain  persuasions,  and  speak  from  the  con- 
science, not  from  present  impressions.     And  Avhen  Ave  assembled, 
and  had  shortly  sought  the  Divine  favor  to  continue  Avith  us,  an 
office  generally  performed  by  our  reverend  Moderator,  he  proceeded 
in  due  course  to  ask  each  man  for  his  convictions  upon  the  subject 
which  had  been  laid  before  ns  in  the  morning,  and  the  rest  diligently 
used  their  pen  in  catching  the  spirit  of  Avhat  dropped  from  each 
other's  lips.     No  appeal  Avas  allowed  but  to  the  Scriptures,  of  which 
the  originals  lay  before  us ;  in  the  interpretation  of  which,  if  any 
question  arose,  Ave  had  the  most  learned  Eastern  scholar  perhaps  in 
the  Avorld  to  appeal  to,  and  a  native  HebreAv — I  mean  Joseph  WolflT. 
In  this  way  did  every  man  jDroceed  to  lay  out  the  nature  and  ground 
of  his  convictions,  which  Avas  done  Avith  so  much  liberty,  and  plenti- 
fulness,  and  mutual  respect  and  reverence  of  the  Holy  Word  as  much 
to  delight  our  souls.     Now  this  diet  lasted  oft  four,  and  sometimes 
almost  five  hours,  our  aim  being  to  gather  the  opinions  of  every  one 
before  Ave  parted ;  and  Avhen  Ave  tired,  we  refreshed  ourselves  Avith 
prayer,  which  also  Ave  regarded  as  our  main  defense  against  Satan. 
This  diet  also  we  closed  with  an  offering  of  thanksgiving  by  any  of 


276  IRVING'S  VERSES. 

the  clerical  brethren  whom  the  Moderator  might  pitch  upon.  After 
dinner  we  again  proceeded,  about  seven  o'clock,  to  the  work  of  wind- 
ing up  and  concluding  the  whole  subject,  but  in  a  more  easy  and  fa- 
miliar manner,  as  being  seated  round  the  fire  of  the  great  library- 
room,  yet  still  looking  to  a  moderator,  and  with  the  same  diligent 
attention  to  order,  each  seeming  desirous  to  record  every  thing  that 
was  said.  This  went  on  by  the  propounding  of  any  question  or  diffi- 
culty which  had  occurred  during  the  day,  addressed  to  him  who  had 
opened  the  subject,  or  to  any  other  able  to  resolve  it;  and  so  we 
proceeded  till  toward  eleven  o'clock,  when  the  whole  duties  of  the 
day  were  concluded  by  the  singing  of  a  hymn  and  the  offering  up  of 
an  evening  prayer.  Such  were  the  six  days  we  spent  under  the  holy 
and  hospitable  roof  of  Albury  House,  Avithin  the  chime  of  the  church 
bell,  and  surrounded  by  the  most  picturesque  and  beautiful  forms  of 
nature.  But  the  sweetest  spot  Avas  that  council-room  where  I  met 
the  servants  of  the  Lord — the  wise  virgins  waiting  with  oil  in  their 
lamps  for  the  bridegroom ;  and  a  sweeter  still  was  that  secret  cham- 
ber where  I  met  in  the  spirit  my  Lord  and  Master,  whom  I  hope 
soon  to  meet  in  the  flesh." 

And  upon  tbis  the  warm  emotions  of  the  preacher  burst  forth 
into  verse — verse  less  melodious  and  full  of  poetry  than  his  or- 
dinary diction,  but  not  less  the  expression  of  those  high-pitched 
and  lyrical  climaxes  of  feeling  which  naturally  find  utterance  in 
rhythm  and  cadence.  The  narrative,  however,  which  Irving  gives 
in  such  detail,  redeems  the  singular  assembly  out  of  that  oblivion 
into  which  it  and  its  proceedings  have  since  fallen.  What  their 
deliberations  were,  or  the  results  of  them,  is  neither  important  to 
this  history,  nor  is  the  present  writer  qualified  to  enter  into  such 
a  subject.  They  who  had  set  their  chiefest  hopes  upon  the  per- 
sonal appearance  of  our  Lord,  at  a  period  which  some  actually 
fixed,  and  all  regarded  as  close  at  hand,  looked  also,  as  a  necessa- 
ry preliminary  of  that  appearance,  for  a  personal  development  of 
evil,  more  remarkable  and  decided  than  any  thing  that  had  pre- 
ceded it;  and  had  so  identified  and  concluded  upon  the  source 
from  which  this  anti-Christ  was  to  come,  that  the  ruin  of  the  First 
Napoleon,  and  the  death  of  his  harmless  and  unfortunate  son,  had 
so  much  effect  upon  one,  at  least,  of  the  disappointed  expounders 
of  prophecy,  as,  when  fact  could  no  longer  be  contradicted,  to 
bring  an  illness  upon  him.  This  gentleman,  as  common  rumor 
reports,  first  declared  that  it  could  not  be,  and  then  "  took  to  his 
bed"  in  dire  disappointment  and  distress. 

A  more  formal  account  of  the  deliberations  and  conclusions  of 
this  extraordinary  little  assembly  was  published  by  Mr.  Drum- 
mond  himself,  first  in  1827,  and  afterward  when  the  successive 


A  HERALD  OF  THE  LORD'S  COMING.         277 

meetings  took  place.  These  reports,  however,  being  given  in  the 
form  of  dialogues  conducted  by  Philalethes,  Anastasius,  &c.,  are 
by  that  masquerade  so  withdrawn  out  of  all  recognizable  individ- 
uality, that  neither  the  persons  who  took  part  in  the  conference, 
nor  the  historian  of  it  himself — piquant  and  characteristic  as  are 
his  other  writings — are  able  to  throw  any  perceptible  token  of 
their  presence  through  the  chaos  of  words  and  consultations.  The 
assembly  only  meets  again  in  Irving's  Preface^  and  in  a  lighter 
sketch  made  by  the  missionary  Wolff,  who,  about  this  time,  had 
come  over  to  England  under  the  patronage  of  the  pious  autocrat 
of  Albury.  "  Within  the  chime  of  the  church  bell,"  as  Irving 
says — looking  out  upon  the  woods  and  lawns  which  inclosed  that 
venerable  remnant  of  ancient  masonry,  within  the  walls  of  which 
another  ritual  and  a  fuller  worship  were  to  connect  and  commem- 
orate the  names  of  Irving  and  Drummond,  occurred  this  confer- 
ence— the  beginning  of  the  second  chapter  of  the  preacher's  ca- 
reer— a  prayerful  retreat  of  piety,  surrounded  by  all  the  genial  ob- 
servances of  hospitality  and  human  communion.  It  is  an  era  of 
no  small  importance  in  Irving's  life.  Doubtless  a  more  than  us- 
ual awakening  of  general  interest  on  the  subject  of  prophecy — so 
often  left  in  the  mystery  which  can  never  be  fully  cleared  up  un- 
til the  end  come — was  evidenced  by  a  consultation  so  remarkable. 
But  of  the  men  there  assembled,  there  was,  perhaps,  no  such  indi- 
visible man  as  Irving — none  so  liable  to  be  seized  upon  by  the 
splendid  expectation,  which  was  henceforward,  more  or  less,  to  ab- 
stract his  thoughts  from  things  more  earthly,  or  to  give  himself 
up,  with  such  ever-increasing  devotion,  as  a  herald  of  his  Lord's 
coming.  This  he  did  henceforth,  often  losing,  in  the  breathless  in- 
terest of  his  theme,  all  regard  to  those  necessary  boundaries  of 
time  and  space,  of  which  he  never  had  been  too  observant. 

His  companions  are  described  generally  as  ministers  and  mem- 
bers of  all  the  different  orthodox  churches — men  both  lay  and 
clerical ;  some  of  them  already  distinguished,  and  some  who  were 
hereafter  to  become  so.  Mr.  Hatley  Frere,  who,  according  to  his 
own  testimony,  was  the  first  to  turn  Irving's  thoughts  toward 
prophecy ;  Mr.  Lewis  Way,  whose  publications  on  the  Second 
Advent  Irving  cites,  along  with  his  own  and  that  of  Ben-Ezra^  as 
a  token  of  the  unity  of  three  churches  in  the  one  great  doctrine ; 
the  Rev.  Hugh  M'Neil,  since  so  notable  a  member  of  his  party  in 
the  Church ;  along  with  Wolff,  Drummond,  and  Irving,  are  the 
only  members  named  at  this  early  conference.     But  the  solemnity 


278  SIGNS  OF  THE  TIMES.— THE  FIFE  BANK. 

of  tlie  meeting,  the  importance  which  all  its  members  felt  to  at- 
tach to  it,  and  the  evident  curiosity  it  awakened,  make  it  of  itself 
a  remarkable  incident  in  the  history  of  its  time.  That  time  was 
clearly  a  time  of  expectation.  An  age  of  great  events  was  just 
over,  and  the  public  mind  had  not  yet  accustomed  itself  to  the  do- 
mestic calm.  At  home  the  internal  economy  of  the  country  was 
swelling  with  great  throes — agonies  in  which  many  people  saw 
prognostics  most  final  and  fatal.  Out  of  all  the  visible  chaos, 
what  a  joyful,  magnificent  deliverance,  to  believe — through  what- 
soever anguish  the  troubled  but  short  interval  might  pass — that 
the  Lord  was  coming  visibly  to  confound  his  enemies  and  vindi- 
cate his  people !  No  wonder  they  assembled  at  Albury  to  build 
themselves  up  in  that  splendid  hope ;  no  wonder  the  empire  thrill- 
ed, through  some  thoughtful  and  many  believing  minds,  at  the 
mere  name  of  such  an  expectation ;  least  wonder  of  all  that  a  mind 
always  so  lofty,  and  attuned  to  high  emotions  as  that  of  Irving, 
should  have  given  itself  over  to  the  contemplation,  or  should 
shortly  begin  to  cast  wistful  looks  over  all  the  world,  not  only  for 
prophecies  fulfilled,  but  for  signs  approaching  —  watching  the 
gleams  upon  the  horizon  which  should  herald  the  advent  of  the 
Lord. 

This  meeting,  he  tells  us,  delayed  the  completion  and  publica' 
tion  of  the  book  which  had  cost  him  so  much  toil ;  but  it  was, 
after  all,  only  the  January  of  1827  when  that  laborious  perform 
ance,  with  the  long  preface,  which  occupies  half  of  an  octavo  vol 
ume,  and  is  one  of  his  finest  and  most  characteristic  productions 
was  "offered  to  the  Church."  I  can  find  no  evidence  of  the 
amount  of  favor  which  Ben-Ezra  and  his  work  attained  in  the 
Church ;  but  the  translator's  preface  has  been  often  quoted,  and 
was  reprinted  in  a  separate  form,  along  with  some  other  of  Ir- 
ving's  shortest  and  least-known  publications,  a  few  years  ago,  by 
some  of  his  admirers  in  Glasgow. 

The  year  1826  contains  few  letters  and  little  domestic  incident. 
Once  only,  besides  that  picture  of  the  tender  seclusion  and  gener- 
ous labors  of  the  little  family  at  Beckenham,  which  I  have  already 
instanced,  the  clouds  open  round  the  Pentonville  house.  It  is  to 
show  the  great  preacher  and  his  wife  consulting  together  over  a 
calamity  which  has  suddenly  fallen  upon  her  father's  family.  The 
minister  of  Kirkcaldy  had  been  the  unfortunate  possessor  of  shares 
in  the  Fife  Bank — a  local  joint-stock  banking  company — which 
had  fallen  into  sudden  ruin  by  the  misconduct  of  some  of  its  man- 


HELP  AND  CONSOLATION.  279 

agers ;  sucb.  an  occurrence  as  unhappily  has  been  familiar  enough 
to  us  all  in  more  recent  days.  Immediately  upon  hearing  of  it, 
the  first  impulse  of  Irving  was  consolation  and  help.  He  and  his 
Isabella  took  the  matter  into  tender  consideration — so  much  mon- 
ey was  expected  from  a  new  publication — so  much  was  at  present 
in  hand ;  and  with  suggestions  of  lofty  comfort  in  his  heart,  and 
warm,  instantaneous  filial  impulses  of  aid,  he  thus  writes  to  the 
father  in  trouble : 

"  21st  January,  1826, 
"  My  dear  Father, — I  have  heard  from  Elizabeth  of  the  loss  in 
which  you  have  been  involved  by  wicked  and  worldly  men,  which  is 
nothing  new  in  the  history  of  God's  f:\ithful  servants,  and  ouglit  not 
to  trouble  you.  He  that  hath  the  stars  in  his  right  hand  may  say  to 
you,  as  to  the  angel  of  the  Church  of  Philadelphia, '  I  know  thy  pov- 
erty (but  thou  art  rich).'  Remember  we  are  but  promised  to  live  by 
the  altar,  and  the  rest  is  so  much  burdensome  stcwardry,  to  which 
Ave  submit  in  accommodation  to  the  weakness  of  our  people.  .  .  . 
Therefore  be  not  cast  down,  nor  let  my  dear  mother  be  cast  down. 
Though  the  worst  should  come  to  the  Avorst,  Avhat  raattereth  it? 
The  kingdom  of  Heaven  is  still  ours,  unto  which  all  things  shall  be 
added.  And  unto  the  new  Jerusalem,  the  city  of  our  habitation,  the 
kings  do  bring  the  riches  of  the  earth. 

"  But  we  must  j^rovide  things  honest  in  the  sight  of  all  men,  that 
the  name  of  Christ  and  his  Gospel  be  not  blasphemed,  and  that  I  may 
be  partaker  of  your  trial,  and  partaker  also  of  your  joy  in  rising 
above  it,  Av^e,  Isabella  and  I,  must  be  allowed  to  contribute  our  part. 
...  I  shall  noAV  also  see  to  a  fourth  edition  of  the  Orations,  the  third 
haA'ing  been  nearly  sold  off  some  months  ago.  .  .  .  Isabella  and  I 
feel  much  for  you  and  our  dear  mother,  but  we  are  not  amazed  or 
confounded  as  if  some  strange  thing  had  befallen  you.  .  .  ." 

This  letter  is  concluded  by  Mrs.  Irving  with  the  touching  argu- 
ment of  a  woman  and  a  mother.  "If  we  have  been  able  to  say, 
'  The  will  of  the  Lord  be  done,'  when  He  saw  meet  to  take  from 
us  those  who  were  far  more  dear  than  all  worldly  goods,"  writes 
little  Edward's  mother,  her  heart  still  bleeding  from  that  wound, 
"  I  trust  you  will  be  enabled  to  take  well  the  spoiling  of  your 
goods."  It  was  thus  they  comforted  each  other,  who  had  mourn- 
ed together. 

Early  in  1827,  the  church  in  Eegent  Square — over  the  build- 
ing of  which  Irving  and  his  congregation  had  watched  so  loving- 
ly, and  which  was  to  deliver  them  from  the  crowds  and  commo- 
tion of  the  little  Caledonian  chapel — was  at  last  completed.  At 
the  time  of  its  erection,  it  was  considered  the  handsomest  church 
not  belonging  to  the  Establishment  (for  the  Presbyterians  of  that 
day,  proud  of  their  National  Church,  and  connection  with  the 


280  OPENING  OF  NATIONAL  SCOTCH  CHURCH. 

Scotch  Establishment,  would  have  done  any  thing  sooner  than  al- 
low themselves  to  be  called  Dissenters)  in  London.  One  thousand 
sittings  were  taken  at  the  time  of  its  opening ;  and  the  excellent 
William  Hamilton  writes,  in  all  the  pious  joy  of  a  church  official, 
about  the  "gratifying  success"  which  had  attended  the  opening 
services,  at  which  Dr.  Chalmers  officiated.  "  Dr.  Chalmers,"  writes 
Mr.  Hamilton,  sending  the  newspapers  which  contained  an  account 
of  these  services,  along  with  his  own  joyful  description,  to  his  fu- 
ture wife,  the  sister-in-law  of  Irving,  in  Kirkcaldy  manse,  "  was  so 
highly  pleased  with  his  stay  among  us,  that  he  spontaneously  of- 
fiered  to  pay  us  an  annual  visit.  He  has  complied  with  our  re- 
quest to  publish  the  sermon  he  preached  at  the  opening,  which 
contained  a  powerful  defense  of  our  excellent  pastor,  and  a  most 
eloquent  eulogium  on  his  extraordinary  talents,  piety,  and  worth, 
which  was  not  a  little  gratifying  to  the  congregation,  but  gall  and 
wormwood  to  some  of  his  enemies  who  were  present."  On  the 
evening  of  the  same  Sunday,  Dr.  Gordon,  of  Edinburgh,  another 
old  and  tried  friend  of  Irving,  preached ;  and  with  the  highest 
auguries  of  increase  and  prosperity — relieved  from  the  inconven- 
iences of  popularity  which  they  had  felt  so  deeply,  and  able  at 
last  to  appear,  not  in  relays,  but  as  a  body  together — the  congre- 
gation into  which  the  fifty  worshipers  of  Hatton  Garden  had  grown 
entered  into  quiet  possession  of  the  handsome  church  for  which 
they  had  labored  and  longed.  "  Both  Dr.  Gordon  and  Dr.  Chal- 
mers," says  the  affectionate  witness  we  have  just  quoted,  "love 
our  friend,  and  bore  a  noble  testimony  to  him  in  public  and  in  pri- 
vate wherever  they  went.  .  .  .  Our  session  now  consists  of  seven 
elders  and  seven  deacons — all,  I  believe,  sincerely  devoted  to  the 
good  cause ;  and  I  am  happy  to  say  that  the  most  perfect  harmo- 
ny prevails  among  us,  and,  indeed,  throughout  the  congregation." 
Such  were  the  domestic  circumstances  of  the  community  over 
which  Irving  presided.  Inspired  by  his  fervid  teaching,  they  be- 
lieved themselves  established  there  to  carry  out  "  a  work  which 
is  likely  to  be  the  means,  in  God's  hand,  of  greatly  advancing  the 
spiritual  interests  of  our  countrymen  in  the  metropolis."  By  this 
time  already  many  of  the  sermons  which  were  afterward  found 
out  to  be  heretical  had  been  preached  and  listened  to  with  equal 
unconsciousness  of  any  divergence  from  the  orthodox  faith,  and 
the  unanimity  of  regard  and  admiration  with  which  the  people 
clung  to  their  leader  had  been  as  yet  rather  strengthened  than 
diminished  by  any  thing  that  had  been  alleged  against  him.     The 


DR.  CHALMER'S  DIARY.  281 

long  services  in  which  he  would  not  be  curtailed ;  his  perpetual 
determination,  notwithstanding  the  overflowing  of  human  kind- 
ness in  his  heart,  to  be  among  them  the  priest,  the  pastor,  the  spir- 
itual guide,  and  not  the  companion  and  friend  alone ;  the  high  po- 
sition he  assumed,  and  uncompromising  distinctness  of  his  attacks 
upon  all  the  special  forms  of  evil,  had  neither  lessened  the  confi- 
dence nor  weakened  the  affection  of  his  adherents.  People  who 
steadily,  and  not  capriciously  according  to  the  dictates  of  fashion, 
resorted  to  the  teaching  of  a  man  who  kept  them  nearly  three 
hours  at  a  stretch,  Sunday  after  Sunday,  plunged  in  the  deepest 
questions  of  religion — sometimes  maintained  the  strain  of  an  ar- 
gument which  ascended  into  the  secret  places  of  the  Trinity,  un- 
fathomable mystery — sometimes  stirred  with  appeals  and  exhort- 
ations which  excited  the  multitude  into  all  but  open  outcry,  must 
indeed  have  been  under  the  sway  of  a  fascination  seldom  exer- 
cised, and  of  which  few  men  know  the  secret.  The  thousand 
souls,  who  at  its  earliest  commencement  declared  their  allegiance 
to  the  preacher  in  his  new  church,  had  suffered  this  test  of  their 
sincerity,  and  were  unanimous,  harmonious,  objecting  neither  to 
his  long  sermons  nor  to  his  orthodoxy.  But  other  sentiments  had 
begun  to  dawn  upon  other  men. 

Dr.  Chalmers,  always  doubtful,  puzzled,  but  admiring,  never 
knowing  what  to  make  of  this  genius,  which  he  could  not  choose 
but  acknowledge,  yet  which  was  so  different  from  his  own,  and 
in  some  respects  so  incomprehensible  to  it — Dr.  Chalmers  writes 
from  London  to  his  wife  with  the  same  half  wondering,  half  com- 
prehending regard  which  was  visible  in  almost  every  thing  he 
said  of  Irving,  as  follows : 

"  1th  May.  Mr.  Irving  made  his  appearance  and  took  me  to  his 
house,  where  I  drank  tea.  Mr.  Miller  and  Mr.  Maclean,  Scottish  min- 
isters of  the  London  Presbytery,  were  there.  Their  talk  is  very  much 
of  meetings  and  speeches.  Irving,  though,  is  very  impressive,  and  I 
do  like  the  force  and  richness  of  his  conversation.  .  .  .  Studied  about 
two  hours,  and  then  proceeded  to  take  a  walk  Avith  James.*  We 
had  just  gone  out,  when  we  met  Mr.  Irving.  He  begged  of  James 
the  privilege  of  two  or  three  hours  in  his  house,  to  study  a  sermon. 
I  was  vastly  tickled  with  this  new  instance  of  the  inroads  of  Scots- 
men ;  however,  James  could  not  help  himself,  and  was  obhged  to  con- 
sent.    We  were  going  back  to  a  family  dinner,  and  I  could  see  the 

*  A  brothei-  of  Dr.  Chalmers,  noted,  as  all  the  readers  of  his  biography  will  re- 
member, for  a  certain  kind  churlishness,  and  special  terror  of  the  encroachments  of 
Scotch  visitors,  and  the  universal  entertainment  and  introductory  letters  required  by 
them. 


282  IKVING  KEEPS  CHALMEKS  WAITING. 

alarm  that  was  felt  on  the  return  of  the  great  Mr.  Irving,  who  was 
very  easily  persuaded  to  join  us  at  dinner,  and  the  study  was  all  put 
to  flight.  There  was  not  a  single  sentence  of  study  all  the  time ;  and 
notwithstanding  Mrs.  C 's  alarm  about  the  shabbiness  of  the  din- 
ner, every  thing  went  on  most  delightfully.  Irving  intermingled  the 
serious  and  the  gay,  took  a  good,  hearty  repast,  and  really  charmed 
even  James  himself,  so  that  I  was  very  glad  of  the  inroad  that  had 
been  made  upon  him.  ^Tkursday.  Irving  and  I  went  to  Bedford 
.Square.  Mr.  and  Mrs. Montagu  took  us  out  in  their  carriage  to  High- 
gate,  where  we  spent  three  hours  with  the  great  Coleridge.  His 
conversation  flowed  in  a  mighty  unremitting  stream.  You  know 
that  Irving  sits  at  his  feet,  and  drinks  in  the  inspiration  of  every  syl- 
lable that  falls  from  him.  There  is  a  secret,  and,  to  me,  unintelligi- 
ble communion  of  spirit  between  them,  on  the  ground  of  a  certain 
German  mysticism  and  transcendental  lake  poetry  M'hich  I  am  not 
yet  up  \Qx'  Friday.  Mr.  Irving  conducted  the  preliminary  services 
in  the  National  Church.  There  was  a  prodigious  want  of  tact  in  the 
length  of  his  prayers — forty  minutes ;  and,  altogether,  it  was  an  hour 
and  a  half  from  the  commencement  of  the  service  ere  I  began.  .  .  . 
The  dinner  took  place  at  five  o'clock.  Many  speeches.  Ining  cer- 
tainly errs  in  the  outrunning  of  sympathy." 

The  lengtTi  of  this  preliminary  service  seems  to  have  troubled 
the  great  Scotch  preacher  mightily.  He  appears  to  have  felt, 
with  true  professional  disgust,  the  wearing  out  of  that  audience 
which  properly  belonged  not  to  Irving,  but  to  himself.  Long  af- 
ter, he  recurs  to  the  same  incident  in  a  conversation  with  Mr.  J. 
J.  Gurney.  "  I  undertook  to  open  Irving's  new  church  in  Lon- 
don," saj^s  the  discontented  divine.  "The  congregation,  in  their 
eagerness  to  obtain  seats,  had  already  been  assembled  three  hours. 
Irving  said  he  would  assist  me  by  reading  a  chapter  for  me.  He 
cliose  the  longest  in  the  Bible,  and  went  on  for  an  hour  and  a  half. 
On  another  occasion  he  offered  me  the  same  aid,  adding,  'I  can 
be  short.'  I  said,  'How  long  will  it  take  you?'  'Only  an  hour 
and  forty  minutes.'  " 

Such  an  indiscretion  was  likely  to  go  to  the  heart  of  the  wait- 
ing preacher.  Dr.  Chalmers  never  seems  to  have  forgotten  that 
impatient  interval,  during  which  he  had  to  sit  by  silent,  and  see 
his  friend  take  the  bloom  of  expectation  off  the  audience,  which 
had  come  not  to  hear  Irving,  but  Chalmers.  In  all  his  after  re- 
marks, a  reminiscence  of  his  own  sore  experience  recurs.  On  the 
following  Saturday,  he  records  that  "  Mr.  Gordon  informed  me 
that  yesternight  Mr.  Irving  preached  on  his  prophecies  at  Hack- 
ney Chapel  for  two  hours  and  a  half;  and  though  very  powerful, 
yet  the  people  were  dropping  away.  I  really  fear  lest  his  proph- 
ecies, and  the  excessive  length  and  weariness  of  his  services,  may 


IMPORTANT  CKISIS.  283 

unship  him  altogether,  and  I  mean  to  write  to  him  seriously  on 
the  subject." 

This  was  the  impression  of  a  stranger,  unaware  of  the  long 
training  by  which  Irving  had  accustomed  his  people  to  these  pro- 
longed addresses ;  and  also  of  an  elder,  and — so  far  as  experience 
went — superior  in  the  Church,  who  was  slow  to  forget  that  "the 
great  Mr.  Irving"  had  once  been  his  own  nameless  assistant  and 
subordinate.  With  dissatisfied  and  doubtful  eyes,  the  celebrated 
Scotch  preacher  contemplated  the  apparently  brilliant  and  en- 
couraging position  of  his  friend.  The  practicable,  which  did  not 
trouble  Irving,  was  strongly  present  in  the  mind  of  Chalmers. 
He,  with  both  feet  planted  steadily  on  the  common  soil,  cast  a 
troubled  eye  upon  the  soaring  spirit  which  scorned  the  common 
restraints  of  possibility.  He  shakes  his  head  as  he  tells  his  wife 
of  the  mingled  fascination  and  imprudence  visible  to  himself  in 
this  incomprehensible  man.  Chalmers,  too,  was  capable  of  fol- 
lowing one  idea  with  the  most  absorbing  enthusiasm ;  but  his 
ideas  were  those  of  statesmanship,  practicable  and  to  be  worked 
out ;  and  with  the  eyes  of  a  wisdom  which,  if  not  worldly,  was  at 
least  substantial,  and  fully  aware  of  all  the  restrictions  of  human- 
ity, he  looked  on  doubtfully  at  a  man  who  calculated  no  possibil- 
ities, and  who  estimated  the  capacities  of  human  nature,  not  from 
among  the  levels  of  ordinary  life,  but  from  the  mountain  top  of 
his  own  elevated  and  impassioned  spirit.  Dr.  Chalmers  shook  his 
head.  What  else  could  a  man  of  reason  and  ordinary  prudence 
do?  Nothing  could  be  certainly  predicated  of  such  a  career  as 
that  which,  under  changed  circumstances,  made  now  a  new,  and, 
to  all  appearance,  prosperous  beginning.  Triumph  or  ruin  might 
be  beyond ;  scarcely  the  steady  progress  and  congregational  ad- 
vancement, which  is  the  only  advancement  in  life  open  to  the 
hopes  of  an  orthodox  Scotch  minister.  Such  a  progress,  happy 
but  uneventful — a  yearly  roll  of  additional  members,  perhaps  a 
hundred  pounds  or  so  of  additional  income,  a  recognized  place 
on  the  platform  of  Exeter  Hall — was  not  a  natural  vaticination 
of  the  future  course  of  Edward  Irving ;  and  over  any  thing 
else,  what  could  Chalmers — what  could  any  other  sober-minded, 
clerical  spectator  do  otherwise  than  shake  his  head  ?  Something 
was  like  to  come  of  it  too  far  out  of  the  ordinary  course  to  yield 
ordinary  comfort  or  happiness ;  and  I  don't  doubt  that  Chalmers 
returned  to  Scotland  alarmed  and  uneasy,  comprehending  as  little 
what  would  be  the  end,  as  he  entered  into  the  thoughts  and  emo- 
tions which  were  brinofin?  that  end  about. 


284  "FASHION  WENT  HER  IDLE  WAY." 

And,  indeed,  it  was  a  crisis  of  no  small  importance.  Up  to  this 
time  the  preacher  and  his  congregation  had  been  in  exceptional 
circumstances.  Thej  had  never  been  able  to  make  experiment 
of  that  calm  congregational  existence.  Crowded  out  of  the  little 
Caledonian  chapel  for  years,  their  hopes  had  gone  forward  to  that 
new  church  which  was  to  be  a  kind  of  national  centre  in  the  noisy- 
capital,  and  the  completion  of  which  was  to  open  the  way  to  a 
great  and  extended  mission.  It  was  only  natural  that  all  the 
projects  and  hopes  both  of  leader  and  people  should  fix  upon  that 
place  as  the  scene  of  the  result  and  issue  to  their  great  labors. 
Doubtless  they  did  so  unawares.  For  years  the  preacher  had 
been  used  to  see  round  him  an  unusual  exceptional  crowd,  drawn 
out  of  all  regions,  necessarily  unsteady  and  fluctuating — a  crowd 
which  he  could  charm,  and  thrill,  and  overawe  for  the  moment, 
but  out  of  which  few  results  could  be  visible.  Now  was  the  time 
to  test  what  had  been  done  in  that  flattering  overflow  of  popular 
admiration.  If,  as  Carlyle  says,  "  hopes  of  a  new  moral  reforma- 
tion" had  fired  the  preacher's  heart — if,  with  the  flattered  expect- 
ation of  a  popular  idol,  he  was  watching  to  see  the  "  sons  of  Mam- 
mon, and  high  sons  of  Belial  and  Beelzebub,  become  sons  of  God, 
and  the  gum-flowers  of  Almack's  to  be  made  living  roses  in  a  new 
Eden" — now  was  the  time  to  test  that  dream.  The  tiny  chapel 
where  celebrities  could  not  be  overlooked,  and  where  the  crowd 
never  could  lessen — first  chapter  and  preparatory  stage  of  the  his- 
tory— was  now  left  in  the  quiet  of  the  past ;  and  with  full  space 
to  collect  and  receive  all  who  sought  him,  and  the  highest  expect- 
ations and  hopes  of  now  seeing  the  fruits  of  his  labor,  Irving  en- 
tered that  new  temple,  whence  a  double  blessing  was  to  descend 
upon  his  people's  prayers.  If  fashion  had  crazed  him  with  her 
momentary  adulation,  here  was  the  critical  point  at  which  fashion 
and  he  parted ;  the  beginning  of  a  disenchantment  which,  next 
to  personal  betrayal,  is  perhaps  the  hardest  experience  in  the 
world. 

This  has  been  accepted  by  many — and  asserted  by  one  who 
knew  him  thoroughly,  and  from  whose  judgment  I  know  not  how 
to  presume  to  differ — as  the  secret  cause  of  all  the  darker  shadows 
and  perplexing  singularities  of  his  later  life.  I  am  as  little  able 
to  cope  with  Mr.  Carlyle  in  philosophic  insight  as  I  am  in  person- 
al knowledge ;  I  can  only  take  my  appeal  to  Irving  himself  in  the 
singular  journal  which  has  already  been  given.  If  that  record 
shows  any  trace  of  a  man  whose  heart  has  been  caught  in  the 


mVING'S  OWN  EVIDENCE  ON  THE  SUBJECT.  285 

meshes  of  the  social  enchantress ;  if  he  looks  to  have  Circe's  cup 
in  his  hand  as  he  goes  pondering  through  those  streets  of  Blooms- 
bury  and  Pentonville,  or  with  anxious  care  and  delicacy  visits  the 
doubtful  believer  in  Fleet  Market,  and  comforts  the  sorrowful 
souls  who  seek  his  kindness  in  the  nameless  lanes  of  the  city,  I 
am  willing  to  allow  that  this  was  the  influence  that  set  his  mind 
astray.  But  if  the  readers  of  this  history  are  as  unable  as  myself 
to  perceive  any  trace  of  that  intoxication — an  intoxication  too  well 
known  in  all  its  symptoms,  and  too  often  seen  to  be  recognized 
■with  difficulty — another  clew  may  be  reasonably  required  for  this 
mystery.  I  can  find  no  evidence  whatever,  except  in  what  he 
himself  says  in  the  dedication  of  his  Sermons  to  Mr.  Basil  Mon- 
tagu, of  even  a  tendency  on  Irving's  part  to  be  carried  away  by 
that  brilliant  social  stream.  He  speaks  of  himself  there  as  "being 
tempted  to  go  forth,  in  the  simplicity  of  my  heart,  into  those  high 
and  noble  circles  of  society  which  were  then  open  to  me,  and 
which  must  either  have  ingulfed  me  by  their  enormous  attrac- 
tions, or  else  repelled  my  simple  affections,  shattered  and  befooled, 
to  become  the  mockery  and  contempt  of  every  envious  and  disap- 
pointed railer."  But  that  was  at  the  earliest  period  of  his  London 
experience.  The  master  of  the  Pentonville  household,  with  all 
its  quaint  and  simple  economics ;  with  its  domestic  services,  fre- 
quented not  by  the  great,  and  its  stream  of  homely  guests — the 
faithful  priest,  exercising  all  the  human  courtesies  and  Christian 
tendernesses  of  his  nature  to  win  a  sullen  London  errand-boy,  or 
convince  a  skeptic  of  the  humblest  ranks — who  is  not  to  be  moved 
by  the  representations  even  of  his  anxious  elders  to  shorten  his 
services  by  half  an  hour,  or  adapt  himself  to  the  necessities  of  his 
popularity — is,  on  his  own  evidence,  the  most  unlike  a  man  carried 
away  and  crazed  by  the  worship  of  Fashion  that  can  be  conceived. 
If  he  had  been  such  a  man,  here  was  the  sickening  moment  when 
the  siren  visibly  went  her  way.  The  crowd  that  fluctuated  in  the 
tiny  aisles  of  the  Caledonian  chapel,  and  presented  the  preacher 
with  a  wonderful,  suggestive,  moving  panorama  of  the  great  world 
without,  which  he  addressed  through  these  thronged  and  ever- 
changing  faces,  settled  into  steady  identity  in  Eegent  Square.  The 
throng  ceased  in  that  spacious  interior.  Those  mists  of  infinitude 
cleared  off  from  the  permanent  horizon — "Fashion  went  her  idle 
way,"  Mr.  Carlyle  says:  indisputably  the  preacher  must  have 
learned  that  he  was  no  longer  addressing  the  world,  the  nation, 
the  great  capital  of  the  world,  but  a  certain  clearly  definable  num- 
ber of  its  population — a  congregation,  in  short,  and  not  an  age. 


286  CESSATION  OF  THE  CROWD. 

This  great  change  happened  to  Irving  at  the  moment  when  he 
had  apparently  arrived  at  the  beginning  of  his  harvest-time.  The 
office-bearers  of  his  church  found  the  fruit  they  sought  in  the  roll 
of  seat-holders  and  communicants,  the  visible  increase  which  had 
promoted  them  from  the  Caledonian  chapel  to  the  National  Scotch 
Church.  But  to  the  preacher  the  effect  must  have  been  wonder- 
fully different — as  difi'erent  as  reality  always  is  from  expectation. 
At  the  end  of  that  uncertain,  brilliant  probation,  which  seemed  to 
promise  results  the  most  glorious,  he  woke  and  found  himself  at 
the  head  of  a  large  congregation.  It  was  all  his  friends  could- 
have  wished  for  him — the  highest  amount  of  external  success 
which  his  Church  acknowledged.  But  it  was  an  indifferent  cli- 
max to  the  lofty  hopes  of  the  great  evangelist.  Yet  this  great 
shock  and  crisis  seems  to  have  been  encountered  and  got  through 
unconsciously,  with  no  such  effects  as  might  have  been  anticipat- 
ed. There  is,  indeed,  no  evidence  that  Irving  was  himself  aware 
when  he  passed  out  of  that  wide  horizon  of  hope  and  possibility 
into  the  distinct  field  laid  out  for  him  under  the  smoky  canopy 
of  London  sky.  Yet  here  is  the  evident  point  when  that  transi- 
tion happened.  The  wide  popular  current  ebbed  away  from  the 
contracted  ways  of  Hatton  Garden,  and  subsided  into  a  recogniz- 
able congregation  in  Eegent  Square.  "The  church  was  always 
well  filled,  but  no  longer  crowded,"  says  the  calm  official  retro- 
spect of  the  present  community  belonging  to  that  church.  Fash- 
ion then  and  there  took  her  departure ;  but,  so  far  from  plunging 
into  wild  attempts  to  reattract  her  fickle  devotion,  the  preacher 
seems  to  have  gone  on  unconscious,  without  even  being  aware  of 
what  had  happened  to  him.  Years  intervened,  and  the  fervent 
beginnings  of  thought — then  only  appearing  in  a  firmament  where 
the  hidden  lights  came  out  one  by  one,  all  unforeseen  by  the  eager 
gazer  till  they  startled  him  with  sudden  illuminations — came  to 
developments  never  unaccordant  with  the  nature  that  produced 
them,  though  mysterious  and  often  sad  enough  to  the  calm  looker- 
on,  before  the  world  which  had  subsided  out  of  its  frenzy  of  admi- 
ration was  tempted  to  return  into  a  frenzy  of  curiosity  and  won- 
der. In  the  mean  time,  living's  sober-minded  Scottish  friends  left 
him  in  his  new  beginning  with  alarms  and  uneasy  forebodings, 
not  that  he  would  peril  his  understanding  in  attempts  to  retain 
his  popularity,  but  that  the  unmanageable  sublimation  and  proph- 
et-spirit of  the  man,  inaccessible  as  they  felt  it  to  all  such  motives, 
would  ruin  his  popularity  altogether. 


"THE  PLATE."— IRVING' S  OFFERING.  287 

Some  years  before  two  silver  salvers  had  been  presented  to 
Irving  by  the  grateful  office-bearers  of  the  Scotch  Church  in  Liv- 
erpool. When  the  National  Scotch  Church  was  opened,  he  pre- 
sented them,  with  an  impulse  of  natural  munificence,  for  the  ser- 
vice of  the  house  of  God.  Every  body  at  all  acquainted  with  the 
usages  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  must  be  aware  of  the  collection 
made  weekly  at  the  doors  of  every  place  of  worship — a  collection 
entirely  voluntary,  yet  so  thorough  "  an  institution"  that,  to  an 
old-fashioned  Scotsman,  the  fact  of  passing  "the  plate"  without 
depositing  a  coin  in  it  would  be  something  like  a  petty  crime. 
The  fund  thus  collected  is  entitled  the  Session  Fund,  and  is  in 
parish  churches  appropriated  to  the  relief  of  the  poor ;  and  it  was 
from  this  fund  alone  that  Chalmers,  in  the  day  of  his  reign  in 
Glasgow,  provided  for  the  poor  of  his  parish,  and  abolished  pau- 
perism in  St.  John's.  Irving  designed  his  silver  salvers  for  the 
reception  of  this  weekly  bounty,  and  presented  them  to  the  church 
on  the  day  of  its  opening,  engraven  with  the  following  inscription: 

"  These  two  plates  I  send  to  the  National  Scotch  Church,  London, 
on  this  the  11th  of  May,  1827,  the  day  of  its  opening,  that  they  may 
stand  on  each  side  of  the  door  to  receive  the  ofterings  for  the  Poor, 
and  all  other  gifts  of  the  congregation  of  the  Lord  in  all  time  com- 
ing ^vhile  He  permits.  And  if  at  any  time,  which  God  forbid,  the 
fountain  of  the  people's  charity  should  be  dried  up,  and  the  Poor  of 
the  Lord's  house  be  in  want  of  bread,  or  His  house  itself  under  any 
restraint  of  debt,  I  aj^point  that  they  shall  be  melted  into  shillings 
and  sixpences  for  the  relief  of  the  same,  so  far  as  they  will  go. 
"  Edward  Irving,  A.  M.,  V.  D.  M., 
"  Minister  of  the  National  Scotch  Church,  London." 

Irving's  purpose,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  was  not  carried  out.  The 
elders,  more  prudent  and  less  splendid  than  he,  imagined  or  dis- 
covered that  the  show  of  the  silver  at  the  door  of  the  church,  even 
though  watched  over  by  two  of  their  members,  would  be  too 
great  a  temptation  to  the  clever  thieves  about.  Irving's  salvers 
were  altogether  withdrawn  from  the  office  of  receiving  the  pen- 
nies and  sixpences  of  the  congregation,  and  were  placed,  where 
they  still  remain,  among  the  communion  plate  of  the  church  in 
Eegent  Square. 

The  only  public  appearance  which  he  is  recorded  to  have  made 
at  this  period,  was  at  one  of  the  field-days  of  the  long  and  warm 
intestine  war  which  at  that  time  was  raging  in  the  Bible  Society. 
The  conduct  of  that  society  generally  had  not  been  agreeable  to 
Irving.  Going  to  the  meetings  of  its  London  Committee  as  to  the 
assembling  of  a  body  of  men  engaged  in  the  service  of  religion, 


288  A  MAY  JIEETING. 

he  had  been  at  once  chilled  and  startled  by  the  entirely  secular 
nature  of  their  proceedings.  When  he  remonstrated,  he  was  an- 
swered that  they  were  not  missionaries,  but  booksellers ;  and  this 
was  doubtless  one  of  the  points  at  which  the  vulgar  business,  and 
bustling  secularity  of  the  religious  world  disgusted  a  man  who 
had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  a  mere  community  of  booksel- 
lers, nor  could  understand  why  the  Church's  interest  should  be 
specially  claimed  for  such.  His  indignation  and  protest  on  this 
point,  however,  were  private ;  the  controversy  was  a  public  one, 
and  had  now  lasted  for  many  years.  The  question  was  whether 
or  not  the  Apocrypha  should  be  issued  along  with  the  canonical 
Scriptures  as  a  part  of  the  Bible,  which  the  Society  professed 
themselves  commissioned  to  spread  throughout  the  world.  The 
Warmest  interest  had  been  excited  in  religious  circles  generally, 
and  especially  in  Scotland,  bj  this  dispute.  North  of  the  Tweed 
the  Apocrypha  has  always  been  held  in  particular  abhorrence, 
and  the  idea  of  supporting,  by  their  labors  and  subscriptions,  a  so- 
ciety which  sent  forth  this  spurious  revelation  along  with  the  can- 
on of  Scripture,  roused  the  pugnacious  kingdom  into  a  blaze  of 
displeasure  and  resistance.  The  Society  at  its  headquarters  stood 
out  stoutly ;  why,  it  seems  impossible  to  find  out,  unless  by  an  in- 
stinct of  self-assertion  and  controversy ;  and  it  was  not  until  the 
whole  community  was  in  commotion,  and  a  serious  secession  threat- 
ened, that  the  London  Committee  came  to  its  senses.  Just  at  the 
moment  when  it  was  about  to  do  so,  at  the  Anniversary  Meeting 
held  in  May,  1827,  Irving  made  his  appearance  in  the  place  of 
meeting.  His  entrance  created  a  commotion  which  interrupted 
the  business — the  general  public,  apparently,  having  by  this  time 
come  to  understand  that  this  man  could  not  be  regarded  with 
calm  impartiality,  but  must  either  be  loved  or  hated.  The  tumult 
raised  on  his  appearance  naturally  aroused  the  orator  to  assert 
himself,  and,  independently  of  the  timid  authority  of  the  chair,  to 
make  himself  heard.  It  is  difficult,  in  the  vague  account  given, 
to  find  out  what  "  motion"  it  was  that  Irving  supported,  or  what 
was  accomplished  by  the  forgotten  assembly,  whose  cheers  and 
hisses  would  have  long  ago  passed  into  oblivion  but  for  the  pres- 
ence of  that  unusual  champion.  "With  a  straightforward  manful- 
ness  and  simplicity,  which  look  quaint  and  out  of  place  upon  such 
a  platform,  and  which  must  have  been  wonderfully  confusing  to 
the  minds  of  the  Society,  he  advises  them  to  "acknowledge  that 
they  are  exceedingly  sorry."     And  when  this  suggestion  is  re- 


A  MOMENT  OF  DEPRESSION.  289 

ceived  with  mingled  hisses  and  applause,  he  indignantly  asks,  "  Is 
there  any  member  of  the  Church  of  England — is  there  any  con- 
sistent Protestant  Dissenter — who  would  think  it  at  all  degrading 
to  him  to  acknowledge  himself  in  error  when  he  felt  he  was  so, 
and  when  so  doing  would  heal  the  wounds  which  had  been  in- 
flicted thereby,  and  so  unite  a  whole  Christian  Church  to  the  So- 
ciety? Would  it  be  at  all  degrading  to  the  Committee  to  say 
that  it  was  sorry  that  that  which  is  not  the  Word  of  God  had  been 
(say  unwittingly,  or  unwarily,  I  mind  not  the  word)  mixed  up  and 
circulated  with  the  Book  of  God  ?  Let  them,  I  say,  record  that 
which  they  have  individually  expressed  by  word  of  mouth — that 
that  which  is  not  the  Bread  of  Life  has  been  sent  out  to  the  world 
as  the  Bread  of  Life,  and  that  they  are  sorry !"  The  answer 
which  the  Bible  Society  or  its  Committee  gave  to  this  appeal  is 
not  recorded.  But  Irving  triumphantly  overcame  the  opposition 
against  his  own  appearance,  and  retired  from  the  meeting,  which 
he  did  immediately  after  his  speech,  amid  universal  applause. 

In  the  mean  time,  his  private  family  story  went  on,  amid  the 
clouds  which,  having  once  descended,  so  often  continue  to  over- 
shadow the  early  history  of  a  household.  In  the  same  spring,  an- 
other infant,  a  short-lived  little  Mary,  came  to  a  house  saddened 
by  the  long  and  serious  illness  of  the  mother.  In  the  depression 
occasioned  by  this  interruption  of  domestic  comfort,  Irving  writes, 
in  a  mood  certainly  not  habitual,  but  from  which  such  a  tempera- 
ment as  his  can  never  be  severed, 

"  For  myself,  I  feel  the  burden  of  sin  so  heavily,  and  the  unprofit- 
ableness of  this  vexed  life,  that  I  long  to  be  delivered  from  it,  and 
would  gladly  depart  when  the  Lord  may  please ;  yet,  while  He  pleas- 
eth,  I  am  glad  to  remain  for  bis  Church's  sake.  What  I  feel  for  my- 
self, I  feel  for  my  dear  wife,  whom  I  love  as  myself.  And  at  present 
my  rejoicing  is,  that  she  is  able  to  praise  Him  in  the  furnace  of  trial 
and  the  fire  of  aflliction." 

In  another  and  brighter  mood,  however,  he  writes  the  follow- 
ing letter,  full  of  projects,  to  Dr.  Martin : 

"8th  June,  1827. 
"  My  dear  Fatfier, — We  have  all  great  reason  of  thankfulness  to 
the  Giver  of  all  gifts  and  the  Fountain  of  all  strength  for  the  recov- 
ery of  Isabella  and  the  children,  whose  health  is  now  so  far  re-estab- 
lished as  that  Dr.  Darling  recommends  her  going  to  the  country  in  a 
few  days.  I  am  now  fairly  entered  upon  my  duties  in  the  new  church, 
and,  by  the  grace  of  God,  have  begun  with  a  more  severe  self-devo- 
tion to  secret  study  and  meditation.  In  the  morning  I  propose  to 
expound  the  whole  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  in  order  to  clear  out 

T 


290  LECTURES  ON  BAPTISM. 

anew  some  of  the  Avells  of  salvation  which  have  been  choked  up,  at 
least  in  these  parts,  and  to  see  if  there  be  not  even  deeper  springs 
than  the  Reformers  reached.  In  the  evening  I  am  to  discourse  upon 
the  sixth  vial,  which  I  propose  as  a  sequel  to  my  discourses  upon 
Babylon  and  Infidelity  Foredoomed^  and  which  I  intend  to  print  in 
the  fall  of  the  year.  I  think  that,  by  God's  blessing,  I  can  throw  a 
new  and  steady  light  upon  the  present  face  of  Chi'istendom  and  the 
world.  Besides  this,  I  have  a  little  tribute  of  friendship  to  pay  to 
Basil  Montagu  .  .  .  and  an  aphoristic  history  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, from  the  primitive  times  to  this  time,  for  an  introduction  to  a 
work  containing  the  republication  of  our  authorized  books  at  the 
Reformation.  It  is  for  man  to  design,  but  God  to  permit  and  to  en- 
able ;  yet,  if  He  spare  me,  I  hope  to  do  His  Church  some  service.  I 
ask  your  prayers,  and  entreat  solicitously  for  them,  although  I  know 
that  we  must  have  the  spirit  of  prayer  in  ourselves  and  for  ourselves. 
Farewell ;  may  the  Lord  make  the  going  down  of  your  age  more 
brilliant  than*  the  beginning  of  it,  and  enrich  you  all  with  His  divine 
grace,  and  enlighten  you  Avith  His  countenance.     Amen. 

"  Your  affectionate  son,  Edwakd  Irving." 

The  little  Mary  died  in  December  of  the  same  year.  Though 
the  second  blow  does  not  seem  to  have  struck  like  the  first,  it 
deepened  the  channel  of  those  personal  tears  first  wrung  from  Ir- 
ving's  eyes  by  the  death  of  his  little  Edward,  and  quickened  into 
pathetic  adoration  his  thankfulness  for  the  almost  revelation,  as 
he  believed  it,  which  had  thrown  light  upon  that  doctrine  of  Bap- 
tism, henceforth  to  be  held  as  one  of  the  brightest,  comforting  in- 
spirations of  his  life.  The  volume  of  Lectures  on  Baptism^  in 
which  he  set  before  the  Church  the  views  which  had  been  so  con- 
solatory to  his  own  heart,  was  prefaced  by  the  following  touching 
dedication : 

"  To  Isabella  Irving,  my  wife,  and  the  mother  of  my  two  de- 
parted children : 
"  My  honored  and  beloved  Wife, — I  believe  in  my  heart  that 
the  doctrine  of  the  holy  Sacraments,  which  is  contained  in  these  two 
little  volumes,  was  made  known  to  my  mind,  first  of  all,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  preparing  us  for  the  loss  of  our  eldest  boy;  because  on  that 
very  week  you  went  Avith  him  to  Scotland,  Avhence  he  never  return- 
ed, my  mind  Avas  directed  to  meditate  and  preach  these  discourses 
upon  the  standing  of  the  baptized  in  the  Church,  Avhich  form  the  sixth 
and  scA'enth  of  the  Homilies  on  Baptism.  I  believe»it  also,  because, 
long  before  our  little  Edward  Avas  stricken  by  the  hand  of  God  in 
Scotland,  I  was  led  to  open  these  views  to  you  in  letters,  Avhich,  by 
God's  grace,  were  made  efficacious  to  convince  your  mind.  I  believe 
it,  furthermore,  because  the  thought  contained  in  these  homilies  re- 
mained in  my  mind  like  an  unsprung  seed,  until  it  was  Avatered  by 
the  common  tears  Ave  shed  over  our  dying  Mary.  From  that  time 
forth  I  felt  that  the  truth  concerning  baptism,  which  had  been  reveal- 


SEED-TIME.  291 

ed  for  our  special  consolation,  was  not  for  that  end  given,  nor  for  that 
end  to  be  retained ;  and  therefore  I  resolved,  at  every  risk,  to  open 
to  all  the  fathers  and  mothers  of  the  Christian  Church  the  thoughts 
which  had  ministered  to  us  so  much  consolation. 

"I  desire  most  gratefully  to  acknowledge  my  oHigations  to  the 
fothers  of  the  Scottish  Church,  whose  Confession  of  Faith  concerning 
the  Sacraments,  and  especially  the  sentence  which  I  have  placed  as 
the  motto*  of  this  book,  were,  under  God,  made  instrumental  in  open- 
ing to  me  the  whole  truth  of  Holy  Scripture  concerning  Baptism  and 
the  Lord's  Supper ;  of  which  having  been  convinced,  by  God's  bless- 
ing upon  these  words  of  my  fathers  in  the  Church,  upon  consulting 
the  venerable  companion  of  my  early  studies,  Richard  Hooker,  I 
found  such  a  masterly  treatise  upon  the  whole  subject  of  the  Sacra- 
naents,  that  I  scruplecl  not  to  rank  as  one  of  his  disciples,  and  to  pre- 
fer his  exposition  infinitely  to  my  own ;  yet  to  both  to  prefer  that 
sentence  of  our  own  Confession  Avhich  I  have  placed  as  the  motto  of 
my  book.  For  this  reason  it  is  that  I  have  reprinted  those  parts  of 
Hooker's  treatise  which  concern  the  doctrine  of  the  Sacraments. 

"  And  now,  my  dear  wife,  as  we  have  been  sorely  tried  of  the  Lord 
by  the  removal  of  two  such  sweet  children,  let  us  be  full  of  prayers 
and  fellow-feeling  for  those  who  are  in  like  manner  tried ;  and,  above 
all,  be  diligent  in  waiting  upon  those  children  of  Christian  Baptism 
whom  Christ  hath  committed  to  my  charge  as  a  bishop  and  shepherd 
of  His  flock;  unto  all  whom,  even  as  many  as  by  my  hands  have  been 
admitted  into  His  Church,  I  do  noAV  bestow  my  fatherly  benediction 
in  the  Lord.  May  the  Lord  make  you  the  mother  of  many  children 
to  glorify  His  name  forever  and  ever !  This  is  the  prayer  of  yom- 
loving  husband,  Edward  Irving." 

The  volumes  thus  inscribed  were  not  published  till  1828 ;  but 
they  belong  to  this  period  of  much  quiet,  but  many  emotions, 
which  lay  between  the  death"  of  bis  two  children.  He  labored 
much,  and  pondered  more,  during  these  two  years.  They  were 
the  seedtime  of  a  great  and  melancholy  harvest ;  and  containing, 
as  they  did,  the  first  germs  of  those  convictions  which  he  after- 
ward carried  so  far,  and  the  adjuncts  of  which  carried  him  still 
farther,  they  are  full  of  interest  in  the  history  of  his  life.  The 
Albury  Conference,  which  drew  him  into  the  close  and  exciting 
intercourse  of  a  brotherhood  engrossed  with  hopes  and  expecta- 
tions unshared  by  the  common  world,  and  the  opening  of  his 
church,  which  brought  him  suddenly  out  of  the  brilliant,  indefi- 
nite world  of  possibility  into  a  certain  position,  restricted  by  visi- 
,  ble  limits  of  the  real,  were,  perhaps,  equally  operative  in  preparing 
his  mind  for  all  that  dawned  upon  it.  What  that  was,  and  how 
it  began  to  develop,  may  be  better  treated  in  another  chapter. 

*  The  motto  of  the  book  is  as  follows :  "  We  utterly  condemn  the  vanity  of  those 
who  affirm  sacraments  to  be  nothing  but  naked  and  bare  signs." — Confession  of 
Scotch  Reformers. 


292  ORDINATION  CHARGE. 

One  of  the  most  noble  pieces  of  oratory  which  Irving  ever  pro- 
duced—  the  Ordination  Charge^  which  reads  like  an  ode  of  the 
most  thrilling  and  splendid  music — was  delivered  in  this  spring  at 
the  ordination  of  the  Eev.  Hugh  Maclean  to  the  charge  of  the 
Scots  Church,  London  Wall.  It  is  a  kind  of  satisfaction  to  know 
that  the  man  so  magnificently  addressed — in  a  strain  to  which 
perhaps  no  Scotch  minister,  and  few  priests  of  any  description, 
have  ever  been  called  to  listen — had  soul  enough  to  follow  the 
leader,  who  charged  him  to  his  duty  as  one  hero  might  another, 
out  into  the  conflicts  and  troubles  of  his  after-life.  Such  an  ap- 
peal must  have  thrilled  to  the  heart  of  any  man  capable  of  being 
moved  to  high  emotions.  I  am  not  aware  that  any  similar  ode 
has  ever  embellished  the  ordination  service  of  any  other  Church 
than  that  which  Irving  here  describes  as  "  the  most  severe  and 
uncompromising"  of  all  Christian  churches.  It  is  an  unrivaled 
outburst,  full  of  all  the  lyric  varieties  and  harmonies  of  a  great 
poem,  and  must  have  fallen  with  startling  effect  upon  the  com- 
monplace ears  of  a  quiet  company  of  ministers,  no  man  among 
whom,  except  the  speaker,  had  ever  distinguished  himself,  or  had 
a  chance  of  distinguishing  himself  Such  an  address  might  have 
given  a  climax  to  the  vocation  of  a  heaven-born  preacher,  but  it 
is  only  the  genius  capable  of  being  roused  to  the  utmost  by  such 
an  appeal  that  is  ever  able  to  offer  it ;  and  the  heroic  strain  called 
forth  no  answering  wonder.  But  the  young  preacher  to  whom  it 
was  addressed  threw  his  humble  fortunes,  in  after  days,  into  the 
same  lot  as  that  of  his  instructor  in  the  office  of  the  ministry ;  and 
one  feels  a  certain  comfort  in  knowing  that  the  disciple  was  faith- 
ful to  the  master  who  had  connected  his  unknown  name  with  an 
address  which  inferred  such  noble  qualities  in  him  who  could  re- 
ceive it. 

Later  in  the  year,  Irving  made  a  short  visit  to  Leicester,  to  see 
his  friend  Mr.  Vaughan,  with  whom,  and  with  "some  other  minis- 
ters of  the  Church  of  England  there,"  we  hear  that  "he  had  some 
delightful  intercourse."  "  He  was  expressing  to  me  yesterday," 
writes  William  Hamilton,  "  how  much  he  had  been  gratified  by 
the  harmony  which  prevailed,  and  the  exact  coincidence  of  their 
views  on  almost  all  the  important  points  which  they  discussed." 
The  same  writer  goes  on  to  tell  how  Irving  had  visited  with  him 
the  families  under  his  own  charge  as  an  elder,  and  of  "  the  cordial 
reception  they  every  where  met  with."  "  Mr,  Irving  is  very  hap- 
py and  successful  on  these  occasions,"  writes  his  admiring  friend, 


THE  CELESTIAL  LIGHT.  293 

"  and  it  is  very  delightful  to  see  such  harmony  and  good  feeling 
among  the  members."  Thus,  undeterred  by  the  many  absorbing 
subjects  of  thought  which  were  rising  to  his  mind — by  the  en- 
grossing prophetical  studies  which  Dr.  Chalmers  feared  would 
"unship  him  altogether" — or  even  by  the  impatience  and  almost 
disgust  which  often  assailed  his  own  spirit  in  sight  of  the  indiffer- 
ent and  unimprcssible  world,  he  pursued  all  the  varieties  of  his 
immediate  duty,  carrying  through  it  all  a  certain  elevation  and 
lofty  tone  which  never  interfered  with  the  human  loving-kind- 
ness in  which  all  his  brethren  had  a  share.  Notwithstanding  his 
unsparing  condemnation  of  evil  and  worldliness,  Irving  had  so 
much  of  the  "  celestial  light"  in  his  eyes,  that  he  unconsciously 
assigned  to  every  body  he  addressed  a  standing-ground  in  some 
degree  equal  to  his  own.  The  "  vision  splendid"  attended  him 
not  only  through  his  morning  course,  but  throughout  all  his  ca- 
reer. The  light  around  him  never  faded  into  the  light  of  com- 
mon day.  Unawares  he  addressed  the  ordinary  individuals  about 
him  as  if  they,  too,  were  heroes  and  princes ;  charged  the  astound- 
ed yet  loyal-hearted  preacher,  who  could  but  preach,  and  visit,  and 
do  the  other  quiet  duties  of  an  ordinary  minister,  to  be  at  once  an 
apostle,  a  gentleman,  and  a  scholar ;  made  poor  astonished  women, 
in  tiny  London  apartments,  feel  themselves  ladies  in  the  light  of 
his  courtesy ;  and  unconsciously  elevated  every  man  he  talked 
with  into  the  ideal  man  he  ought  to  have  been.  This  glamour 
in  his  eyes  had  other  effects,  melancholy  enough  to  contemplate ; 
but,  even  though  it  procured  him  trouble  and  suffering,  I  can  not 
find  it  in  my  heart  to  grudge  Irving  a  gift  so  noble.  The  harm 
that  comes  by  such  means  is  neutralized  by  a  power  of  confer- 
ring dignity  and  happiness,  possessed  by  very  few  in  the  com- 
mon world. 


294  SERMONS  ON  THE  TRINITY. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

1828. 

Sermons  on  the  Trinity. — Unconscious  of  any  Doubt  on  the  Subject. — The  Fellow- 
ship of  Christ. — Discoveries  made  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cole. — A  theological  Spy. — 
Follows  the  Preacher  to  the  Vestry. — First  Accusation  of  Heresy. — The  Orthodox 
Doctrine  of  the  Church. — Irving's  Manner  of  Meeting  the  Attack. — The  Cloud 
like  a  Man's  Hand. — Apology  for  the  Church  of  Scotland. — Irving  carries  his 
Message  to  his  own  Country. — Plan  of  his  Journey. — Annan  Market. — His  Labors 
among  his  own  People. — Arrival  in  Great  King  Street. — St.  Andrew's  Church  be- 
sieged by  the  Crowd. — Excitement  in  Edinburgh. — Dissatisfaction  of  Chalmers. — 
The  Statesman  and  the  Visionary. — Uses  of  the  Impracticable. — Religious  Thought 
in  Scotland. — Campbell  of  Row. — A  new  Friend. — Irving's  Faculty  of  Learning. 
— Rosneath. — Row. — A.  J.  Scott. — Accident  at  Kirkcaldy. — Cruel  Reproaches. — 
Irving  visits  Perth. — Returns  to  London. — Immediate  Return  to  his  usual  La- 
bors.— Happiness  in  Returning. — The  Last  Days. — Irving's  Anxieties. — Opposi- 
tion to  his  Doctrine  of  the  Second  Advent. — Improvement  in  his  Wife's  Health. 
— His  Anxiety  for  her  Return. — Pause  in  the  Saturday  Occupation. — Consulta- 
tions about  Prophecy. — Publishing  Negotiations. — A  Bible  Society  Meeting. — 
Anticipates  "Casting  out  of  the  Synagogue." — His  Birthday. — Instructions  and 
Prayers. — The  Lost  Tribes. — Resignation  to  God's  Will. — Arrangement  about  his 
Trinity  Sermons. — The  Bishop  of  Chester. — Contract  with  Publishers. — Tale  of 
tlui  Martyrs. — Excess  of  Health. — Harrowgate. — A  true  Apostolical  Church. — 
The  Year's  Work. — Pastoral  Duties. — The  Threshold  of  a  new  Future. — High 
Anticipations. — Vaughan  of  Leicester. — Second  Albury  Conference. — Dr.  Martin's 
Account  of  its  Results. — Mutterings  of  the  coming  Storm. — Trust  of  his  People. 

The  year  1828  commenced  amid  those  domestic  shadows,  and 
had  not  progressed  far  before  the  pubhc  assaults,  in  which  Irving's 
life  was  henceforward  to  be  passed,  began.  In  the  early  begin- 
ning of  the  year  he  had  prepared  for  publication  three  volumes 
of  his  collected  sermons ;  the  first  volume  setting  forth  the  very 
heart  and  essence  of  his  teaching,  his  lofty  argument  and  exposi- 
tion of  the  Trinity,  and  its  combined  action  in  the  redemption  of 
man ;  the  second,  his  conception  of  the  manner  of  applying  Di- 
vine truth  as  symbolized  in  the  Parable  of  the  Sower ;  and  the 
third,  his  views  on  national  and  public  subjects.  When  this  work, 
however,  was  all  but  ready  for  the  press,  one  of  the  spies  of  ortho- 
doxy hit  upon  a  grand  and  unthought  of  heresy,  in  the  splendid 
expositions  which  the  congregation  had  received  without  a  sus- 
picion, and  which  Irving  himself  had  preached  with  the  fullest 
conviction  that  the  sentiments  he  uttered  were  believed  by  all 


THE  INEVITABLE  COLLISION.  295 

orthodox  Christians.  Up  to  this  period  his  works  had  been  ar- 
raigned before  less  solemn  tribunals ;  failures  in  taste,  confusion 
of  metaphors,  and  an  incomprehensible  and  undiminished  popu- 
larity, which  no  attack  could  lessen,  and  which  piqued  the  public 
oracles,  had  been  brought  against  him,  one  time  or  another,  by  al- 
most every  publication  in  the  kingdom.  But  even  when  a  man 
is  fully  convicted  of  being  more  eloquent  and  less  cautious  than 
his  neighbors,  when  he  is  proved  to  fascinate  the  largest  audiences, 
and  utter  the  boldest  denunciations,  and  give  the  most  dauntless 
challenges  to  all  opponents,  with  the  additional  aggravations  of  a 
remarkable  person,  and  some  peculiarities  of  appearance,  these 
things  are  still  not  enough  to  make  him  a  heretic. 

The  religious  world  had  long  been  shy  of  a  man  so  impractica- 
ble, but  yet  had  been  forced,  by  way  of  availing  itself  of  his  gen- 
ius and  popularity,  to  afford  him  still  its  countenance,  and  still  to 
ask  anniversary  sermons,  though  with  fear  and  trembling,  from 
the  greatest  orator  of  the  time.  These  anniversary  sermons,  how- 
ever, were  so  little  to  be  depended  upon — were  so  much  occupied 
with  the  truth,  and  so  little  with  the  occasion,  or  the  subscrip- 
tion lists — that  he  was  not,  and  could  not  be  popular  among  the 
religious  managers  and  committee  people,  who  make  a  business 
of  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel.  He  was  a  man  of  a  different 
fashion  from  their  favorite  model,  by  no  means  to  be  brought 
into  conformity  with  it ;  and  they  regarded  him  afar  off  with  jeal- 
ous eyes.  At  last  the  inevitable  collision  occurred.  Irving's  ser- 
mons on  the  Trinity  were  uttered  to  an  audience  so  unaware  of 
any  error  in  them  that,  by  special  desire  of  the  office-bearers  of 
l^he  congregation,  they  were  placed  first  in  the  volumes  which 
their  author  prepared  as  a  complete  manifestation  of  his  varied 
labors.  The  sermons  themselves  had  been  preached  some  years 
before ;  they  are  mentioned  in  Fmser^s  Magazine,  in  the  eloge  pro- 
nounced upon  him  after  his  death,  as  having  been  first  delivered 
in  Hatton  Garden,  where  no  man  hinted  heresy  ;  and  Irving  him- 
self describes  the  gradual  composition  of  several  of  them  in  his 
journal-letters  in  1825 ;  they  were  not,  however,  ready  for  pub- 
lication till  the  beginning  of  the  year  1828,  and  seem  to  have  been 
selected  in  all  simplicity,  and,  as  the  preface  relates,  with  no  con- 
troversial meaning,  "  as  being  designed  for  the  instruction  of  the 
Church  committed  to  my  ministerial  and  pastoral  care,  of  whom 
I  knew  not  that  any  one  entertained  a  doubt  upon  that  great  head 
of  Christian  faith."     These  sermons,  though  of  a  very  different 


296  THE  FELLOWSHIP  OF  CHRIST. 

character  from  those  bursts  of  bold  and  splendid  oratory  by  which 
the  preacher  had  made  his  great  reputation,  are  perhaps  more  re- 
markable than  any  of  his  other  productions.  How  any  man  could 
carry  a  large  audience  breathless  through  those  close  and  lofty  ar- 
guments, and  lead  them  into  the  solemn  courts  of  heaven  to  trace 
the  eternal  covenant  there,  preserving  the  mighty  strain  of  intel- 
ligence and  attention  through  hours  of  steadfast  soaring  into  the 
ineffable  mysteries,  is  a  question  which  I  find  it  hard  to  solve. 
But  he  seems  to  have  done  it ;  and  all  unaware  of  the  fact  that 
underneath,  in  the  cloudy  world  below,  certain  sharp  eyes,  una- 
ble to  follow  Am,  could  yet  follow  and  discern  where  his  brilliant 
way  cut  through  divers  floating  clouds  of  doctrine,  he  pursued 
his  eagle's  path  straight  into  the  sunshine.  That  loftiest,  splendid 
theme  unfolded  before  his  intent  gaze  into  a  grand  harmonious 
system  of  God-manifestation.  It' was  not  doctrine  that  he  unfold- 
ed. It  was  the  vivid  reality  of  the  sublimest  historic  facts,  a  God- 
head in  combined  and  harmonious  action,  working  forth,  not  the 
salvation  of  individual  man  by  any  expedient,  however  sublime, 
but  the  grand  overthrow  and  defeat  of  evil  in  a  nature  which  had 
sinned.  In  this  light  the  man  who  embraced  his  Lord  with  all 
the  fervor  of  human  affections,  as  well  as  with  all  the  spiritual 
love  and  faith  of  which  his  soul  was  capable,  perceived,  with  a 
depth  of  tender  adoration  not  to  be  described,  that  wonderful  re- 
ality of  union  which  made  his  Lord  not  only  his  Savior,  but  his 
brother  and  kinsman,  the  true  everlasting  Head  of  the  nature  He 
had  assumed.  Controversy  was  not  in  his  mind,  nor  any  desire 
after  a  novel  view  of  the  truth  he  uttered.  He  "knew  not  that 
any  one  entertained  a  doubt  upon  that  great  head  of  Christian 
faith."  And  with  all  the  simplicity  of  undoubting  belief  and  con- 
fidence, he  set  forth  the  Savior  in  whom  he  trusted — a  Lord  no- 
ways abstracted  from  the  life-blood  of  humanity,  but  rather  its 
fullest  spring  and  fountain-head,  a  man  without  guilt,  but  with 
every  thing  else  that  belongs  to  man — an  existence  not  of  itself 
secure  and  unassailable,  but  held  like  a  fortress  in  immaculate 
purity  by  the  Godhead  within.  Such  was  the  form  in  which  the 
Redeemer  of  his  life  and  Master  of  his  heart  appeared  to  Irving. 
He  set  forth  the  Lord  so,  before  all  eyes,  with  outcries  of  joy  and 
tears,  finding  in  that  utter  brotherhood  of  the  flesh  a  culmination 
of  grace,  and  love,  and  unspeakable  Divine  tenderness  such  as 
heart  of  man  had  not  conceived. 

This  was  the  preacher's  view,  standing  above  the  crowd  with 


DISCOVERIES  MADE  BY  THE  REV.  MR.  COLE.  297 

bis  eyes  and  his  thoughts  in  the  heavens ;  but  other  eyes  and 
thoughts  were  in  the  cloudy  regions  underneath,  watching  that 
lofty  perilous  career  into  the  Divine  mysteries  without  either  light 
to  lead  or  faith  to  follow.  An  idle  clergyman,  called  Cole — of 
whom  nobody  seems  to  know  any  thing  but  that  he  suddenly  ap- 
peared out  of  darkness  at  this  moment  to  do  his  ignoble  office — 
heard  by  the  wind  of  rumor,  which  at  that  time  was  constantly 
carrying  something  of  the  eloquent  preacher's  lavish  riches  about 
the  world,  of  what  appeared  to  him  "  a  new  doctrine."  The  im- 
mediate cause  was  an  address  delivered  by  Irving  in  behalf  of  a 
society  for  the  distribution  of  Gospel  Tracts,  in  which  some  of  his 
audience  discovered  that  the  preacher  declared  the  human  nature 
of  our  Savior  to  be  identical  with  all  human  nature,  truly  and  in 
actual  verity  the  "  seed  of  Abraham."  This,  coming  to  the  ears 
of  Mr.  Cole,  apparently,  at  the  moment,  a  man  at  leisure,  and  in  a 
condition  to  set  his  laborious  brethren  right  and  find  out  their  er- 
rors, filled  the  soul  of  that  virtuous  critic  with  alarm  and  horror. 
To  him  the  world  seems  to  be  indebted  for  the  disingenuous  state- 
ment of  this  new  view,  if  new  view  it  was,  which,  by  giving  the 
name  of  the  "sinfulness  of  Christ's  human  nature"  to  that  which  in 
Irving's  eyes  was  the  actual  redemption  of  human  nature  through 
Christ,  inevitably  prejudiced  and  prejudged  the  question  with  the 
mass  of  religious  people.  Few  can  follow  those  fine  and  delicate 
intricacies  and  distinctions  which  encompass  such  an  important 
but  impalpable  difference  of  belief,  but  every  body  can  be  shocked 
at  the  connection  of  sin  with  the  person  of  the  Savior.  This  was 
the  unfair  and  deeply  disingenuous  method  of  representing  it 
which  Cole  first  hit  upon,  and  which  all  who  followed  him  on 
that  side  of  the  question,  in  spite  of  countless  protests  and  denials 
from  the  other,  obstinately  maintained.  The  novel  means  which 
Mr.  Cole  took  to  satisfy  himself  about  the  new  doctrine  we  are 
fortunately  able  to  give  in  his  own  words,  which,  in  the  form  of  a 
letter  to  Irving,  he  published  shortly  after  the  event  he  narrates. 
"I  had  purposed,"  says  this  candid  divine,  "ever  since  the  delivery 
of  your  Society  Oration,  to  hear  you  myself,  that  I  might  be  satisfied 
personally  whether  you  really  did  hold  the  awful  doctrine  of  the  sin- 
fulness of  Christ'' s  human  nature  or  not ;  but  six  months  elapsed 
before  my  continued  purpose  was  realized.  I  did  not  like  to  leave 
my  usual  place  of  worship  to  hear  you,  and  yet  there  appeared  no 
possibility  of  accomplishing  my  desire  without  it.  On  Sunday  even- 
ing, the  28th  of  October  last,  however,  I  was  returning  home  rather 
early,  about  eight  o'clock,  and  it  occurred  to  me  that,  if  I  went  to 
your  chapel,  I  might  find  your  oration  not  quite  concluded,  and  that 


298  A  THEOLOGICAL  SPY. 

I  might,  perhaps,  hear  sometliing  that  would  enable  me  to  arrive  at 
the  desired  satisfaction.  I  accordingly  proceeded  to  the  Caledonian 
chapel.  When  I  entered,  I  found  your  oration  not  concluded ;  I 
therefore  sat  down,  and  heard  you  for  about  twenty  minutes.  I  had 
not  been  seated  above  a  minute  or  two  when  I  found  that  you  were 
dwelling  much  upon  the  person  and  work  of  our  Lord  and  Savior 
Jesus  Christ;  and  I  had  hai'dly  arrived  at  a  perception  of  the  train 
of  that  part  of  your  discourse,  when  you  made  me  tremble  from  head 
to  foot  by  thundering  out  the  expression,  'that  sinful  substance  1' 
meaning  the  human  body  of  the  adorable  Son  of  God !  You  were 
declaring  'that  the  main  part  of  His  victory  consisted  in  His  over- 
coming the  sin  and  corruption  of  His  human  nature.'  You  stated 
'•He  did  not  sin.'  'But,'  you  said,  'there  Avas  that  sinful  substance 
against  which  He  had  to  strive,  and  with  which  He  had  to  conflict 
during  the  whole  of  His  life  upon  earth.'  What  I  felt  at  hearing 
such  awful  blasphemy  against  the  person  of  the  Son  of  God  declaimed, 
with  accompanying  vehement  gesticulations,  before  upward,  I  should 
suppose,  of  tw'o  thousand  persons,  I  can  not  describe.  And  the  whole 
superstructure  of  the  remaining  part  of  your  oration  was  more  or  less 
of  a  piece  with  and  built  upon  this  terrifically  awful  foundation.  .  .  . 
Nevertheless,  to  put  myself  beyond  the  reach  of  error  in  so  moment- 
ous a  matter,  and  at  the  same  time  to  give  you  the  most  fair  and  full 
opportunity  of  unsaying  any  unguarded  expressions,  and  also  to  ascer- 
tain whether  what  you  uttered  was  your  considerate  and  real  belief, 
I  resolved,  if  practicable,  to  speak  to  you  in  person.  Having  under- 
stood from  one  of  your  attendants  that  you  would  favor  me  with  a 
conference,  I  waited  till  you  were  disengaged,  and  was  at  length  ad- 
mitted into  your  presence.  My  address  and  questions,  and  your  an- 
swers, were  as  follows:  'I  believe,  sir,  a  considerable  part  of  the  con- 
clusion of  your  discourse  this  evening  has  been  upon  the  person  and 
works  of  Jesus  Christ?'  You  answered  in  the  affirmative.  I  added, 
'If  I  mistake  not,  you  asserted  that  the  human  body  of  Christ  was  sin- 
ful substance  ?'  You  replied, '  Yes,  I  did.'  I  continued, '  But  is  that 
your  real  and  considerate  belief?'  You  answered, '  Yes,  it  is,  as  far  as 
I  have  considered  the  subject.'  And  here  you  produced  a  book,  which 
I  believe  Avas  some  national  cfonfession  of  faith,  to  confirm  your  faith 
and  assertions,  in  which  you  pointed  out  to  me  these  Avords  (if  I  mis- 
take not),  'The  flesh  of  Jesus  Christ,  Avhich  was  by  nature  mortal  and 
corruptible.'  .  .  .  'This, sir,' I  observed,  'is  to  me  a  most  awful  doc- 
trine.' And,  after  making  other  remarks  upon  the  aAvfuluess  of  the 
doctrine,  and  asking  you  once  or  tAvice  if  such  Avas  your  deliberate 
and  considerate  belief,  Avhich  you  answered  in  the  affirmative,  I  put 
this  final  question  to  you :  '  Do  you  then,  sir,  really  believe  that  the 
body  of  the  Son  of  God  Avas  a  mortal,  corrupt,  and  corruptible  body, 
like  that  of  all  mankind?  the  same  body  as  yours  and  mine  :'  You 
answered,  'Yes,  just  so;  certainly;  that  is  what  I  believe.'  Upon 
which  I  departed." 

The  inquirer  departed,  after  so  unwarrantable  an  invasion  of 
another  man's  privacy,  to  bring  against  the  sincere  and  patient 
preacher  who  had  borne  this  catechising,  and  had  not  resented  it, 


FIRST  ACCUSATION  OF  HERESY.  299 

the  charge  of  serious  heresy.  Such  a  method  of  getting  at  the 
facts  on  which  the  indictment  was  to  be  framed  has  fortunately 
been  seldom  resorted  to,  and  it  is  not  an  example  which  many 
men  would  like  to  follow.  Irving  himself  gives  a  much  shorter 
account  of  the  same  interview  in  the  preface  to  a  volume  entitled 
Christ's  Holiness  in  the  Flesh,  published  in  1831.     He  says; 

"  Of  the  man  I  know  nothing,  save  that  a  stranger  once  solicited 
conversation  with  me  on  a  Lord's-day  night,  after  public  worship, 
of  which  conversation  I  found  what  purported  to  be  the  substance 
standing  at  the  head  of  this  pubUcation  (Cole's  pamphlet).  Whether 
it  be  so  or  not  I  can  not  tell,  for  it  was  at  a  moment  of  exhaustion 
that  it  was  held ;  and  I  gave  the  stranger  an  invitation  to  come  to 
me  at  leisure  on  the  Thursday  following  for  the  farther  satisfying  of 
his  conscience.  He  did  not  think  it  worth  his  while  to  do  this,  and 
could  reconcile  his  conscience  to  the  betrayal  of  pastoral  and  minis- 
terial confidence,  and  to  the  publication  of  a  conversation,  without 
even  asking  me  whether  it  Avas  correctly  reported  or  not.  ...  I  shall 
never  forget,"  he  proceeds,  "  the  feeling  which  I  had  upon  first  hear- 
ing my  name  coupled  with  heresy.  So  much  did  it  trouble  me,  that 
I  once  seriously  meditated  sending  a  paper  to  the  Christian  Observer 
in  order  to  contradict  the  man's  false  insinuations.  But  I  thought  it 
better  to  sit  quiet  and  bear  the  reproach.  When,  however,  I  per- 
ceived that  this  error  was  taking  form,  and  that  the  Church  was  com- 
ing into  peril  of  believing  that  Christ  had  no  temptations  in  the  flesh 
to  contend  with  and  overcome,  I  felt  it  my  duty  to  intercalate,  in  the 
volume  on  the  Incarnation,  a  sermon  (No.  HI.),  showing  out  the  truth 
in  a  more  exact  and  argumentative  form,  directed  specially  against 
the  error  that  our  Lord  took  human  nature  in  its  creation,  and  not  in 
its  fallen  estate  ;  and  another  (No.  VI.),  showing  the  most  grave  and 
weighty  conclusions  flowing  from  the  true  doctrine  that  He  came  un- 
der the  conditions  of  our  fallen  state  in  order  to  redeem  us  from  the 
same.  This  is  the  true  and  faithful  account  of  the  first  work  which 
I  published  upon  the  subject." 

In  the  preface  of  that  work  itself,  Se  refers  us  simply,  but  with 
less  detail,  to  the  same  occurrence : 

"  When  I  had  completed  this  ofiice  of  my  ministry,"  he  explains, 
when  giving  forth  the  contested  sermons  for  the  first  time  to  the 
world,  "  and,  by  the  request  of  my  flock,  had  consented  to  the  pubhca- 
tion  of  these,  and  the  other  discourses  contained  in  this  book,  and 
when  the  printing  of  them  had  all  but  or  altogether  concluded,  there 
arose,  I  say  not  by  what  influence  of  Satan,  a  great  outcry  against  the 
doctrine  which,  witli  all  orthodox  churches,  I  hold  and  maintain  con- 
cerning the  person  of  Christ ;  the  doctrine,  I  mean,  of  His  human  na- 
ture, that  it  was  manhood  fallen  which  He  took  up  into  his  divine 
person,  in  order  to  prove  the  grace  and  the  might  of  Godhead  in  re- 
deeming it ;  or,  to  use  the  words  of  our  Scottish  confession,  that  His 
flesh  was,  in  its  proper  nature,  mortal  and  corruptible,  but  received 
immortality  and  incorruption  from  the  Holy  Ghost.     The  stir  which 


300  lEVING'S  MANNER  OF  MEETING  THE  ATTACK. 

was  made  in  divers  quarters,  both  of  this  and  of  my  native  land,  about 
this  matter,  as  if  it  were  neither  the  orthodox  doctrine  of  the  Church, 
nor  a  doctrine  according  to  hoUness,  showed  me,  who  am  convinced 
of  both,  that  it  was  necessary  to  take  controversial  weapons  in  my 
hand,  and  contend  earnestly  for  the  faith  as  it  was  once  delivered  to 
the  saints.  I  perceived,  now,  that  the  dogmatical  method  which  I 
had  adopted  for  the  behoof  of  my  own  believing  flock  would  not  be 
sufficient  Avhen  publishing  to  a  wavering,  gainsaying,  or  unbelieving 
people,  and  therefore  it  seemed  to  me  most  profitable  to  delay  the 
publication  until  I  should  have  composed  something  fitted  to  re-es- 
tablish men's  minds  upon  the  great  fundamental  doctrine  of  the 
Church ;  which  having  done,  I  resolved  to  insert  the  same  as  two 
other  sermons,  the  one  upon  the  method  of  the  Incarnation,  and.  the 
other  upon  the  relations  of  the  Creator  and  the  creature,  as  these  are 
shown  out  in  the  light  of  the  Incarnation.  And  for  this  timeous  in- 
terruption by  evil  tongues,  I  desire  to  give  thanks  to  God,  inasmuch 
as  I  have  been  enabled  thereby  not  only  to  expound,  but  to  defend 
the  faith  that  the  Son  of  God  came  in  the  flesh." 

Such  wds  the  simple  and  straightforward  course  adopted  by  Ir- 
ving at  the  first  whisper  of  the  accusation  brought  against  him. 
Instead  of  rushing  into  sudden  encounter  with  his  darkling  assail- 
ant, he  waited  until  nearly  the  end  of  the  year,  in  order  to  add  to 
the  plain  statement  of  his  belief  its  fuller  defense  and  support ; 
and  after  adding  these  careful  productions  to  the  already  printed 
volume,  issued  it,  with  the  explanation  given  above,  without  even 
referring  to  the  obscure  originator  of  the  sudden  outcry.  The 
dedication  to  the  third  volume  of  this  work  is  dated  January  10th, 
1828,  while  the  similar  preface  to  the  first  is  not  written  till  No- 
vember 10  th  of  the  same  year,  ten  months  later.  The  difference 
of  these  dates  bears  notable  and  simple  testimony  to  the  way  in 
which  this  matter  affected  him.  The  work,  prepared  with  all  care 
and  deliberation,  and  just  on  the  eve  of  being  given  to  the  world, 
was  postponed,  not  that  he  might  soften  down  or  clear  away  the 
doubtful  expressions,  but  that,  with  more  distinct  force  and  clear- 
er utterance,  he  might  disclose  the  belief  that  was  in  him.  Hav- 
ing no  doubt  in  himself,  he  was  only  anxious  to  be  understood 
clearly,  that  his  doctrine  might  be  proved.  In  this  patient  and 
candid  manner,  not  hastily,  but  with  the  postponement  of  all  an 
author's  expectations,  and  all  the  natural  indignation  of  a  man  un- 
handsomely assailed,  he  answered  this  first  charge  of  heresy.  He 
himself  bears  witness  that  it  was  echoed  on  all  sides  around  him. 
It  was  "  a  great  outcry" — "  a  stir  in  divers  quarters."  He  delay- 
ed answering  for  a  year — a  year  so  full  of  other  occupations  that 
it  is  hard  to  conceive  how  he  can  have  had  the  patience  and  com- 


APOLOGY  FOR  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  301 

posure  necessary  to  take  up  tlie  threads  and  extend  the  higli  ar- 
gument ;  and  then  soberly  asserts  his  cherished  truth  and  vindi- 
cates his  character.  "  The  point  at  issue  is  simply  this,"  he  says 
with  dignified  gravity  and  moderation,  "whether  Christ's  flesh 
had  the  grace  of  sinlessness  and  incorruption  from  its  proper  na- 
ture, or  from  the  indwelling  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  I  say  the  latter." 
With  this  statement  of  the  matter,  we  may,  in  the  mean  time,  like 
Irving,  leave  the  question.  The  cloud,  like  a  man's  hand,  had 
risen  out  of  the  envious  mists,  when  the  religious  spy  entered  the 
little  Presbyterian  sacristy  at  Regent  Square  to  bring  the  ingenu- 
ous soul  there  to  account,  and  betray  its  frank  and  unstudied  ex- 
planations. All  unconscious  of  the  object  of  his  questioner,  Ir- 
ving spoke  forth  the  truth  he  held  then  as  always ;  and  when  he 
became  aware  of  the  brewing  storm,  faced  it,  all  candid  and  un- 
disguisable,  but  with  a  patience  and  lofty  composure  which  few 
men  could  have  equaled.  And  with  that,  for  the  present,  the 
matter  closed.  An  angry  wind  of  assault  and  accusation  raged 
without;  but  within,  his  beloved  Church,  always  ready  enough 
to  note  deviations  in  doctrine,  was  yet  unroused  and  unstartled. 
And  Irving  went  on  his  way,  full,  not  of  one  truth,  but  of  many, 
and  believing  himself,  first  and  above  all,  called  upon  to  proclaim 
the  coming  of  that  Lord  whom  he  all  but  saw — the  approach  of 
one  who  was  no  abstraction  nor  embodiment  of  doctrine  to  his 
fervid  spirit,  but  his  very  God  and  Lord,  flesh  of  his  flesh  and 
bone  of  his  bone. 

In  the  spring  of  the  same  year  he  preached  a  Fast-day  Sermon, 
it  is  not  recorded  upon  what  occasion,  before  the  Presbytery  of 
London,  \fhich  was  afterward  published  under  the  title  of  an 
Apology  for  the  ancient  fullness  and  purity  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland.  This  work  I  can  only  speak  of  from  the  frag- 
mants  contained  in  an  adverse  and  ill-natured  review ;  but  it  was 
evidently  not  only  a  fervent  eulogium  on  the  mother  Church,  but 
an  assertion  of  higher  claims  on  her  behalf  than  the  so-called  dem- 
ocratic and  popular  Church  of  Scotland  is  generally  supposed  to 
have  ever  made ;  and  he  seems  to  have  founded  his  views,  as  Ir- 
ving was  always  disposed  to  do,  upon  the  ancient  Confessions  of 
the  Church,  and  not  upon  the  modern  Westminster  Confession, 
which  is  now  its  chief  recognized  standard.  Upon  these  old  con- 
fessions he  always  made  his  stand,  reaching  across  the  controver- 
sial age  to  those  ancient  and  loftier  days  when  the  primitive  creed 
was  set  forth  simply  and  without  argument.     There  is,  indeed,  a 


302    IRVING  CARRIES  HIS  MESSAGE  TO  HIS  OWN  COUNTRY. 

certain  willful  independence  in  the  way  in  which  he  eludes  all 
mention  of  the  later  declaration  of  doctrine  which  has  been  iden- 
tified with  his  Church,  and  fixes  his  tenacious  regard  upon  the 
elder  utterance,  which  he  never  ceased  to  maintain,  and  quaintly 
inflicted  upon  his  English  disciples  in  after  years  with  a  pertinaci- 
ty which  would  be  amusing  were  it  not  deeply  pathetic.  "I  do 
battle  under  the  standards  of  the  Church  under  which  my  fathers 
fell,"  he  says  with  touching  prophetic  sadness  in  this  Fast-day  ser- 
mon. "I  am  a  man  sworn  to  discipline,  and  must  abide  by  my 
standard,  and  may  not  leave  it,  but  fall  beside  it,  or  fall  above  it, 
and  yield  to  it  the  last  shelter  and  rampart  of  my  fallen  body." 
These  words  were  laughed  at  by  some  of  the  critics  of  the  day  as 
"mouth-valiant  tropes."  The  progress  of  time,  however,  throws 
sad  and  striking  illustrations  upon  them ;  for  it  is  certain  that, 
whether  right  or  wrong  in  his  interpretation  of  their  meaning,  Ir- 
ving did  stand  by  those  standards  till  he  fell  in  the  heat  of  battle, 
and  never  relinquished  them,  even  to  the  death. 

In  May,  Mrs.  Irving,  whose  health  was  still  delicate,  went  to 
Scotland  to  her  father's  house,  and  about  the  same  time  Irving 
himself  left  London  to  travel  by  the  slower  route  of  Annan  and 
his  native  district,  preaching  as  he  went,  to  Edinburgh  and  Kirk- 
caldy. His  object  in  this  journey  was  not  relaxation  or  pleasure. 
He  went,  counting  himself  "most  favored  of  the  Lord,"  to  pro- 
claim in  Scotland,  as  he  had  already  done  in  London,  the  coming 
of  his  Master.  "  Walk,  dear  David,  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord — the 
time  is  short,"  he  writes  in  one  of  those  friendly  letters,  now  be- 
coming rarer  and  rarer.  And,  penetrated  with  that  conviction,  he 
went  to  Scotland  to  warn,  first  his  father's  house  and  kindred,  and 
the  country-side  which  had  still  so  great  a  hold  upon  his  heart, 
and  then  universal  Scotland  through  her  capital,  of  that  advent 
which  he  looked  for  with  undoubting  and  fervent  expectation. 
This  journey  was  in  many  respects  a  very  remarkable  one,  being 
occupied  entirely  in  the  work  to  which  he  had  no  inducement  or 
persuasion  but  his  own  profound  belief  of  the  great  event  about 
to  happen — of  which,  indeed,  nobody  can  doubt  that  the  world 
had,  if  it  were  so  near  at  hand,  most  strenuous  need  to  be  adver- 
tised. No  way  could  he  have  better  proved  the  perfect  reality 
^         of  his  own  belief. 

"Edward  is  in  excellent  health,"  writes  Mrs. Irving,  on  the  16th 
of  May,  from  Kirkcaldy,  to  Mr.  Story,  of  Rosneath.  "  He  has  gone 
to  bear  his  testimony  for  the  truth  in  his  native  town,  and  purposes 


ANNAN  MARKET.  gQg 

being  in  Dumfries,  if  the  Lord  will,  next  week,  and  to  commence  his 
labors  in  Edinburgh  on  Thursday  next.  .  .  .  His  time  is  wholly  oc- 
cupied. His  course  of  discourses  will  not  be  finished  in  Edinburgh 
until  Wednesday,  the  4th  of  June,  when  he  proposes  starting  imme- 
diately for  Glasgow,  and,  if  they  choose,  preaching  there  on  the  fol- 
lowing day  ;  then  at  Paisley  on  Friday,  at  Greenock  on  the  Satui'day 
morning,  and,  crossing  to  Rosneath,  doing  all  the  service  you  may  re- 
quire on  Sabbath  and  Monday.  He  desires  much  to  preach  for  Mr. 
Campbell  on  Tuesday  evening,  again  at  Glasgow  on  Wednesday,  at 
Bathgate  (my  brother's  parish)  on  Thursday,  and  be  here  at  the  com- 
munion on  Sabbath  the  15th.  All  being  well,  on  Tuesday  after,  we 
expect  that  your  acquaintance,  William  Hamilton,  will  be  united  to 
my  sister  Elizabeth.  After  this,  God  willing,  Edward  visits  Perth, 
Dundee,  and  Monimail." 

Such  was  the  course  lie  had  determined  for  himself  before  set- 
ting out  from  his  labors  in  London ;  and  when  it  is  understood 
that  he  did  this  without  inducement  or  stimulation,  except  that 
of  the  message  with  which  he  was  bursting,  something  of  the  fer- 
vor of  the  spirit  which  could  not  keep  silent  may  be  apprehend- 
ed. One  joyful  domestic  incident — the  marriage  of  his  sister-in- 
law  to  his  bosom  friend,  a  marriage  quaintly  suggested  years  ago, 
before  the  pair  had  ever  met,  to  the  present  bridegroom — gave  a 
point  of  tender  human  interest  to  the  laborious  journey ;  but  such 
a  holiday  few  laboring  men,  few  workers  errant  in  such  an  agi- 
tating field  as  that  of  London,  would  have  thought  of  or  could 
have  carried  out. 

From  the  first  point  in  these  apostolic  travels  he  writes  as  fol- 
lows to  his  wife : 

"Annan,  Saturday,  17th  May,  1828. 
"  My  dear  Wife, — I  arrived  here  on  Wednesday  night,  and  found 
all  our  friends  well.  Next  morning  I  waited  on  the  minister,  who 
most  graciously  gave  me  my  request  to  preach  the  three  week  nights 
as  well  as  the  Sabbath.  This  I  published  in  the  market  as  I  came 
down  the  street,  and  in  the  evening  the  church  was  thronged,  as  also 
last  night.  I  opened  the  seventh  chapter  of  Daniel,  and  the  second 
and  third  of  Acts,  laying  out  the  whole  subject,  and  this  night  I  open 
2  Peter,  iii.,  and  Romans,  xix.  and  xx.  Indeed,  I  have  been  most  fa- 
vored of  the  Lord  to  open  these  great  truths  first  in  Scotland  to  my 
own  kindred  and  townsmen,  and  in  the  church  where  I  was  bap- 
tized. To-morro\v  I  preach  at  Kirkpatrick,  in  a  tent,  I  suppose,  when 
I  intend  throwing  all  help  aside,  and  preaching  a  regular  sermon  from 
Rom.,  viii.,  1,  2,  3,  trusting  to  Christ's  own  most  helpful  and  blessed 
promise.  In  the  evening  I  return  and  preach  for  the  Sabbath-schools ; 
I  know  not  what  sermon  yet ;  perhaps,  however,  it  may  be  a  discourse 
of  baptism,  from  Rom.,  vi.,  embodying  the  doctrine  of  the  homilies, 
and  this  also  extempore.  On  Monday  I  proceed  for  Dumfries,  resting 
a  few  hours  with  our  Margaret,  and  proceeding  thence  to  Cargen,  to 


304  HIS  LABORS  AMONG  HIS  OWN  PEOPLE. 

meet  some  clergymen  there;  but,  finding  the  minister  of  the  parish 
to  be  my  nearest  of  kin,  I  wrote  a  letter  to  him,  inclosed  to  Cargen. 
to  say,  that  if  he  would  gather  the  people  after  their  work  at  seven 
o'clock,  I  would  preach'to  them.  On  Tuesday,  at  one  o'clock,  I 
preach  for  the  Society ;  and  in  the  evening,  at  seven,  for  Mr.  Kirk- 
wood,  at  Holy  wood,  if  it  please  him ;  and  then,  on  Wednesday  morn- 
ing, I  proceed  with  Margaret  to  Edinburgh  by  the  earliest  coach. 
.  .  .  These  things  I  write  that  you  may  remember  me  at  those  sea- 
sons when  I  am  engaged  in  the  Lord's  service ;  for  it  is  the  strength 
yielded  unto  the  prayers  of  His  saints  which  is  my  strength.  I  am 
nothing  but  a  broken  reed.  I  desire  to  be  still  viler  in  my  sight.  I 
am  His  worthless  instrument,  whom  He  will  use  for  His  own  glory, 
either  in  saving  me  or  in  not  saving  me ;  and,  so  that  His  glory  is 
promoted,  1  desire  to  be  satisfied.  Oft  I  have  the  feeling  of  the  apos- 
tle— lest  I  also  be  a  castaway.  God  bless  you  and  dear  Margaret. 
.  .  .  The  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  upon  thee,  and  upon  all 
the  house  of  thy  father.     Farewell. 

"  Your  afi'ectionate  husband,  Edward  Trying." 

Thus  laboring,  he  made  his  way  through  Dumfriesshire.  The 
wonderful  apparition  of  that  great  figure,  with  which  Annan  had 
grown  unfamiliar,  pausing  in  the  street  where  the  weekly  market 
of  the  country  town  was  going  on,  and  proclaiming  with  audible 
voice  to  all  the  rural  crowd  of  farmers,  and  cottagers,  and  homely 
country-merchants  the  night's  preaching;  is  a  scene  well  worthy 
any  j)ainter's  skill.  There  where,  as  his  old  companions  boast, 
no  man  has  ever  had  "  an  ill  word"  to  say  of  Edward  Irving,  he 
appeared  out  of  the  halo  of  distant  metropolitan  grandeur,  famil- 
iar, yet  strange,  a  distinction  to  his  native  town.  The  country- 
side, stirred  with  an  impulse  warmer  than  mere  curiosity,  arose 
and  went  to  hear  the  message  he  brought  them.  On  the  Sunday 
when  he  preached,  neighboring  ministers  shut  up  their  churches, 
and  went  the  long  Sabbath-day's  journey  across  the  Annandale 
moors  to  hear  him,  along  with  their  people.  Such  a  scene  as 
Tennyson  touches,  with  one  wistful  stroke  of  his  magic  pencil, 
must  have  been  common  enough  in  those  days  in  that  southland 
country.  Many  a  countryman,  roused  by  the  sound  of  his  old 
schoolfellow's  name,  like  him  who 

"  In  his  furrow  musing  stands, 
Docs  my  old  friend  remember  me?" 

must  have  given  his  Sunday's  leisure  to  listen  to  that  voice  which 
had  no  equal  in  Annandale.  For  once  the  proverb  seems  to  have 
failed.  He  had  honor  in  his  own  country,  where  gentle  and  sim- 
ple flocked  to  hear  him,  and  where,  when  the  church  would  not 
contain  his  hearers,  he  preached  in  the  open  air  from  the  little 


AKRIVAL  IN  GREAT  KING  STREET.  305 

wooden  pulpit,  traditionally  known  as  the  "  tent,"  to  which,  on 
extraordinary  occasions,  the  rural  ministers  resorted.  That  he 
had  been  able  to  carry  his  message  thus  to  his  own  people  seems 
to  have  been  aTefreshment  to  Irving's  heart. 

Then  he  went  on  to  Edinburgh,  where  he  had  already  arranged 
to  deliver  twelve  lectures  on  the  Apocalypse.  Here  he  was  to 
live  in  the  house  of  Mr.  Bridges,  now  a  friend  of  some  years'  stand- 
ing, who  lived  in  Great  King  Street,  one  of  those  doleful  lines  of 
handsome  houses  which  weigh  down  the  cheerful  hill-side  under 
tons  of  monotonous  stone.  The  mistress  of  the  house  awaited  in 
some  trepidation  the  arrival  of  her  distinguished  guest,  doubtful 
whether  one,  of  whose  eccentricities  and  solemnities  every  body 
had  heard,  might  be  sufficiently  of  human  mould  to  make  him  an 
agreeable  visitor.  She  sent  away  her  children  hurriedly  when 
she  heard  his  arrival  at  the  door,  and  listened  with  a  little  awe 
for  his  stately  approach.  But,  while  the  mother  stood  palpitating 
by  her  drawing-room  door,  the  children  on  the  stairs  encountered 
the  stranger.  He  stood  still  immediately  to  greet  them,  to  make 
himself  acquainted  with  their  names,  and  give  them  the  blessing, 
without  which  he  could  not  pass  any  head  sufficiently  low  to  have 
his  hand  of  benediction  laid  upon  it.  I  am  not  sure  that  or^e  of 
them  was  not  mounted  aloft  on  the  mighty  altitude  of  his  shoul- 
der when  he  confronted  the  mother,  alarmed  no  longer,  and  re- 
ceived the  welcome,  which  came  from  no  hesitating  lip. 

It  was  May,  and  the  clergy  of  Scotland  were  all  in  Edinburgh. 
Of  all  times  to  deliver  the  message  of  Elias,  this  was  the  best  time 
for  the  Presbyterian  nation,  and  it  was  on  that  special  account 
that  Irving  had  chosen  it.  He  began  his  lectures  in  St.  Andrew's 
Church  at  the  extraordinary  hour  of  six  in  the  morning,  in  order 
to  make  sure  of  the  ecclesiastical  audience,  busied  all  day  in  the 
affairs  of  the  Church,  which  he  particularly  sought.  In  the  sweet 
but  chilly  freshness  of  those  spring  mornings,  a  dense  crowd  filled 
the  area  of  George  Street.  I  have  heard  a  clergyman  of  the  mild- 
est aspect  and  most  courtly  manners  describe  how,  roused  by  the 
idea  that  favored  persons  were  being  admitted  by  another  en- 
trance, he,  despite  all  the  proprieties  of  his  clerical  character  and 
the  suavities  of  his  individual  disposition,  was  so  far  roused  as  to 
threaten  an  official  in  attendance  with  a  personal  assault,  and  de- 
scent over  the  besieged  railing,  if  admittance  was  not  straightway 
afforded.  Nothing  in  our  day  seems  fit  to  be  compared  with  that 
wonderful  excitement.     Half  of  the  audience  would,  on  ordinary 

U 


306  EXCITEMENT  IN  EDINBURGH. 

occasions,  have  been  peacefully  reposing  in  their  beds  at  the  hour 
which  saw  them,  all  animated  and  anxious,  pressing  into  the 
gloomy  church.  The  very  accompaniments  which  would  have 
repelled  them  from  another — his  indifference  to  ordinary  comforts 
and  regulations — his  selection  of  an  hour  of  all  others  least  likely 
to  tempt  forth  the  crowd — seem  to  have  attracted  them  to  Irving. 
Hosts  of  people  cheerfully  made  themselves  uncomfortable  for 
the  chance  of  getting  admittance ;  and  those  who  came,  came  not 
once,  as  to  an  unparalleled  exhibition,  but  time  after  time,  as  una- 
ble to  escape  from  the  spell.  "  He  is  drawing  prodigious  crowds," 
Dr.  Chalmers  writes.  "  We  attempted  this  morning  to  force  our 
way  into  St.  Andrew's  Church,  but  it  was  all  in  vain.  He  changes 
to  the  West  Church  for  the  accommodation  of  the  public."  In 
that  vast  building,  fitted  up  with  three  hideous  galleries,  the  won- 
derful invention  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  crowd  did  not 
lessen.  "  Certainly  there  must  have  been  a  marvelous  power  of 
attraction  that  could  turn  a  whole  population  out  of  their  beds  as 
early  as  five  in  the  morning,"  adds  Dr.  Chalmers,  f  The  largest 
church  in  our  metropolis  was  each  time  overcrowded."  And  the 
enthusiastic  hearers  took  the  younger  members  of  their  house- 
holds with  them,  when  it  was  practicable,  through  the  crowd,  by 
way  of  impressing  that  wonderful  eloquence,  so  unlikely  to  ap- 
pear again  in  their  day,  upon  the  minds  of  the  new  generation. 

It  was  altogether  an  extraordinary  new  chapter  in  the  preach- 
er's life.  Perhaps  to  disturb  the  equilibrium  of  the  composed  so- 
ciety of  Edinburgh,  and  draw  an  immense  congregation  of  his  so- 
ber-minded countrymen  from  their  morning  slumbers  and  home 
comfort  into  such  a  crowded  assembly  as  the  rising  sun  rarely 
shines  upon,  was  the  greatest  triumph  to  which  he  had  yet  at- 
tained. It  does  not  seem,  however,  that  he  looked  at  it  at  all  in 
this  vulgar  light.  "  I  have  fairly  launched  my  bark.  God  speed 
us !"  he  writes  to  his  wife :  and,  without  another  word  of  comment 
upon  his  extraordinary  audiences,  proceeds  to  report  his  progress 
through  Dumfriesshire,  and  to  diverge  into  purely  domestic  mat- 
ters, telling  how  one  of  the  Kirkcaldy  sisters,  then  in  his  native 
country,  "is  dear  to  all  who  know  her;"  but,  "being  of  the  Ref- 
ormation school  by  education,"  he  perceives  that  the  family  with 
whom  she  resides  is  "  but  evangelical ;"  and  sending  to  another 
sister — the  bride  Elizabeth — the  tender  regards  which  her  cir- 
cumstances call  forth :  "  My  brotherly  love  and  ministerial  bless- 
ing upon  her  virgin  head,"  he  writes ;  his  heart  evidently  touch- 


THE  STATESMAN  AND  THE  VISIONARY.  307 

ed  with  the  tearful  joy  of  that  crisis  of  youthful  life.  Nor  could 
any  one  guess,  from  this  brief  correspondence,  that  the  writer  was 
at  the  height  of  popular  applause,  followed,  lauded,  and  comment- 
ed upon  by  the  whole  disturbed  town,  in  which  he  had  appeared 
like  a  sudden  meteor;  the  agitating  popularity  which  encircled 
him  leaves  no  trace  upon  his  hurried  and  simple  communications. 

And  now  the  objections  which  had  always  risen  against  him 
began  really  to  take  a  form  grievous  to  his  heart.  London  criti- 
cism had  not  dismayed  the  dauntless  orator;  but  he  was  now 
among  friends,  and  exposed  to  animadversions  of  a  heavier  kind. 
Again  Dr.  Chalmers  comes  in,  puzzled  and  full  of  doubt,  yet  speak- 
ing plainly  the  opinion  for  which  his  mind  had  evidently  been 
preparing  since  his  visit  to  London.  "For  the  first  time  heard 
Mr.  Irving,"  he  notes  in  his  brief  journal ;  "  I  have  no  hesitation 
in  saying  it  is  quite  woeful.  There  is  power  and  richness,  and 
gleams  of  exquisite  beauty,  but,  withal,  a  mysterious  and  extreme 
allegorization,  which,  I  am  sure,  must  be  pernicious  to  the  gener- 
al cause.  He  sent  me  a  letter  he  had  written  to  the  king,  on  the 
Test,  etc.,  and  begged  that  I  would  read  every  word  of  it  before  I 
spoke.  I  did  so,  and  found  it  unsatisfactory  and  obscure,  but  not 
half  so  much  so  as  his  sermon."  At  the  discussion  upon  the  Ab- 
olition of  Tests  in  the  General  Assembly  of  that  year,  Chalmers 
again  describes  the  apparition  of  Irving,  making  himself  visible 
among  the  assembled  spectators,  and  doing  all  that  a  by-stander 
could  to  make  his  own  strenuous  opposition  apparent.  "Irving 
is  wild  on  the  other  side  from  me,"  said  the  calm  and  liberal  di- 
vine, who  supported  with  all  his  force  of  practical  wisdom  the  ab- 
olition of  a  safeguard  proved  to  be  useless,  and  who  had  read, 
without  being  at  all  influenced  by  it,  the  eloquent  letter  to  the 
king,  in  which  the  idealist  opposite  him  set  forth  his  splendid  im- 
practicable vision  of  a  Christian  nation  bound  under  God  to  be 
swayed  by  only  Christian  men;  "he  sat  opposite  to  me  when  I 
was  speaking,  as  if  his  eye  and  looks,  seen  through  the  railing, 
were  stationed  there  for  my  disquietude."  He,  by  the  way,  had  a 
regular  collision  with  a  Dr.  H.,  a  violent  sectarian,  who  denounced 
him  as  an  enemy  to  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  The  colloquy  that  en- 
sued was  highly  characteristic ;  Mr.  Irving's  part  of  it  began  with 
"Who  art  thou,  0  man,  that  smiteth  me  with  thy  tongue?" 

Nothing  could  better  illustrate  the  characters  of  the  two  men, 
whom  it  is  always  interesting  and  often  amusing  to  see  together, 
than  this  odd  juxtaposition :  the  one,  clear-sighted  and  executive 


308  USES  OF  THE  IMPKACTICABLE. 

within  the  legislative  area ;  the  other,  impatient,  eager,  visionary, 
outside,  spending  his  strength  in  vehement  appeals  and  protests 
against  the  inevitable  tide  of  things  which  was,  visibly  to  his  eyes, 
sweeping  down  the  lofty  claims  and  standing  of  his  country. 
Chalmers  puts  the  impracticable  optimist  aside  with  a  mixture  of 
impatience  and  compassion — finds  his  impassioned  protest  "ob- 
scure and  unsatisfactory,"  and  proceeds,  in  spite  of  the  brilliant 
gaze  fixed  upon  him  "through  the  railing,"  to  clear  the  modern 
working  ground  for  modern  action  and  practical  necessities,  Ir- 
ving, with  a  certain  loving,  noble  scorn,  all  unaware  of  the  differ- 
ent direction  in  which  his  friend's  eyes  are  turning,  and  totally  in- 
accessible to  all  considerations  of  practicability,  watches  the  for- 
mation of  the  commonplace  road,  shaped  according  to  compelling 
circumstances,  and  burns  to  rush  in  and  establish  the  eternal  ideal 
track,  deviating  for  no  compulsion,  which  neither  he  nor  any  other 
man  can  ever  fix  upon  the  surface  of  this  earth.  Yet,  let  nobody 
think  that  the  ideal  protest  outside  was  of  less  use  to  humanity 
than  the  operative  sense  within.  Chalmers  helped  on  the  course 
of  modern  affairs,  and  smoothed  and  widened  the  national  path ; 
Irving,  with  extravagance,  with  passion,  with  convictions  which 
knew  no  middle  course,  stirred  the  hearts  in  men's  bosoms,  and 
kept  alive  the  spirit  of  that  sublime  impracticable,  which,  never 
reaching,  every  true  man  strives  to  reach,  and  which  preserves  an 
essence  of  national  and  spiritual  life  far  beyond  the  power  of  the 
most  perfect  organization  or  the  highest  political  advantages  to 
bestow. 

Whether  Chalmers's  conclusion,  that  the  lectures  of  this  course 
were  "quite  woeful,"  was  shared  by  the  Edinburgh  public,  seems 
very  doubtful ;  for,  to  the  last,  that  public,  not  overexcitable, 
crowded  its  streets  in  the  early  dawn,  thronging  toward  that  point 
where  the  homely  West  Church,  with  its  three  galleries,  stands 
under  the  noble  shadow  of  the  Castle  Hill ;  and  his  wonderful 
popularity  was  higher  at  the  conclusion  than  at  the  beginning. 
Nor  is  it  easy  to  believe  that  the  same  year  which  produced  the 
splendid  oratory  of  the  Last  Days^  could  have  fallen  so  far  short 
in  the  special  mission  with  which  he  felt  himself  charged.  But 
Chalmers's  disapproving  eye  did  not  perceive  nor  recognize  the 
overpowering  force  of  that  conviction  which  had  taken  possession 
of  his  friend.  The  second  Advent  was,  to  him,  a  doctrine  open 
to  discussion,  possibly  capable  of  proof;  to  Irving,  a  closely-ap- 
proaching stupendous  event,  of  which  woe  was  unto  him  if  he  did 


EELIGIOUS  THOUGHT  IN  SCOTLAND.  309 

not  "warn  liis  brethren.     The  one  man  was  not  able  to  judge  the 
other  with  such  an  astonishing  gulf  of  difference  between. 

Other  encounters,  telling  upon  his  future  career,  happened  to 
Irving  at  this  remarkable  era  of  his  life.  It  was  one  of  the  crit- 
ical periods  of  religious  thought.  Here  and  there,  throughout 
Scotland,  one  mind  and  another  had  broken  the  level  of  fixed  the- 
ology, and  strayed  into  a  wider  world  of  Christian  hope  and  love. 
Departing  from  the  common  argumentative  basis  of  doctrine,  such 
minds  as  that  of  Mr.  Erskine,  of  Linlathen,  and  Mr.  Campbell,  of 
Row,  afterward  notable  enough  in  the  agitated  Church,  had  con- 
centrated themselves  upon  one  point  of  the  bountiful  revelation 
of  divine  truth,  and  declared,  with  all  the  effusive  warmth  of 
Christian  love  and  yearning,  the  "  freeness  of  the  Gospel."  Ac- 
cording to  their  view,  a  substantial  difference  had  taken  place  in 
the  position  of  the  world  since  the  great  act  of  redemption  was 
accomplished.  It  was  not  a  problematical  salvation,  only  real 
when  faith  and  conversion  came  to  the  individual  soul,  but  an 
actual  fact,  entirely  changing  the  position  of  the  human  race,  which 
was  manifest  to  them  in  the  work  of  our  Lord  and  Savior.  It 
was  not  that  salvation  might  be,  as  man  after  man  believed  and 
received  it,  but  that  salvation  luas,  for  God  had  accomplished  and 
revealed  that  greatest  demonstration  of  His  love.  Leaving  to 
other  men  the  task  of  balancing  with  all  those  wonderful  myster- 
ies of  limitation,  which,  whether  called  divine  election  or  human 
resistance,  show  visibly,  in  gloom  and  terror,  the  other  side  of  that 
glorious  picture,  they  addressed  themselves  to  the  joyful  utterance 
of  that  unquestionable  universal  proffer  of  love  which  God  makes 
to  all  His  creatures.  This  delicious  gleam  of  light,  opening  inef- 
fable hopes  of  universal  safety,  and  emboldening  the  preacher  to 
summon  every  man,  as  in  the  position  of  a  redeemed  creature,  to 
the  assurance  of  that  love  and  forgiveness  which  dwelt  in  God, 
had  begun  to  brighten  the  pious  soul  and  laborious  way  of  the 
young  west-country  minister,  with  whose  name,  as  a  system  of 
doctrine,  these  views  were  afterward  identified  in  the  early  au- 
tumn of  1828.  Dreaming  nothing  of  heresy,  but  anxious  to  con- 
sult a  brother  in  the  ministry,  of  older  experience  and  more  vivid 
genius  than  himself,  about  this  tremulous  dawning  glory  which 
had  brightened  the  entire  world  of  truth  to  his  own  perceptions, 
John  Campbell,  of  Row,  saintly  in  personal  piety  and  warm  in 
Celtic  fervor,  came,  with  the  natural  diffidence  of  youth,  to  seek 
an  interview  with  Irving.    He  found  him  alone  in  the  drawing- 


810  A  NEW  FKIEND. 

room  at  Great  King  Street,  with  one  of  the  children  of  the  house 
playing  on  the  carpet  at  his  feet — a  tender  domestic  accompani- 
ment to  the  high  reverie  and  musings  of  the  interpreter  of  proph- 
ecy. The  stranger — less  a  stranger  as  being  the  dear  friend  of 
one  of  Irving's  dearest  friends — told  his  errand  modestly :  he  had 
come  to  ask  counsel  and  help  in  the  midst  of  his  hopes  and  diffi- 
culties. Irving  turned  toward  him  with  the  natural  gracious 
humbleness  of  his  character,  and  bade  him  speak  out.  "Grod 
may  have  sent  me  instruction  by  your  hands,"  said  the  candid 
heart,  always  more  ready  to  learn  than  to  teach.  It  is  not  hard 
to  imagine  what  must  have  been  the  effect  of  these  words  on  the 
young  man,  shy  of  his  errand.  They  sat  down  together  to  dis- 
cuss that  high  theme,  with  the  child  playing  at  their  feet.  No- 
body will  doubt  that  their  after-friendship  lasted  till  death. 

I  am  not  able  to  estimate  what  effect  Mr.  Campbell's  views  had 
upon  the  mind  of  Irving.  As  one  part,  and  that  a  deeply  impor- 
tant one,  of  the  truth,  great  and  wide  enough  to  deserve  any  man's 
special  devotion,  and,  indeed,  the  most  clear  demonstrative  exhi- 
bition of  the  Gospel,  it  is  evident  that  he  entered  into  it  heartily ; 
and  holding,  as  he  himself  held,  that  Christ's  work  was  one  which 
redeemed  not  only  individual  souls,  but  the  nature  of  man,  no  one 
could  be  more  ready  than  he  to  rejoice  in  the  fullest  uncondition- 
al proclamation  that  Christ  died  for  all.  His  own  sentiments, 
however,  on  other  subjects,  and  the  higher  heroical  strain  of  a  soul 
which  believed  visible  judgment  and  justice  to  be  close  at  hand, 
and  felt,  in  the  groaning  depths  of  its  nature,  that  the  world  he 
contemplated  was  neither  conscious  nor  careful  of  its  redemption, 
make  it  apparent  that  Irving's  mind  was  not  so  specially  bent 
upon  this  individual  aspect  of  the  truth  as  that  of  his  visitor.  But 
it  is  a  curious  and  significant  fact,  that  many  men — I  had  almost 
said  most  men,  at  all  able  to  think  for  themselves,  who  ever  cross- 
ed his  path — seem  to  have  entertained  an  impression  that  they,  in 
their  proper  persons,  had  instructed  and  influenced  Irving.  To 
the  outer  world,  the  great  preacher  appears  drawing  after  him  a 
crowd  of  lesser  luminaries ;  but  each  individual  of  these,  when 
one  comes  to  inquire  into  it,  retains  a  conviction  that  he  was  the 
leader,  and  Irving,  always  so  lavish  and  princely  in  his  acknowl- 
edgments of  benefits  received,  the  follower.  With  the  open  heart 
and  eye  of  simple  genius,  always  ready  to  hear  and  receive,  he 
seems  somehow  to  have  convinced  all  with  whom  he  came  in 
close  contact  that  light  had  reached  his  mind  through  their  means, 


ROSNEATH.  311 

and  this  notwithstanding  the  high  position  he  always  assumed  as 
a  teacher.  But  Mr.  Campbell  commended  himself  entirely  to  Ir- 
ving's  heart.  He  was  too  visibly  a  man  of  God  to  leave  any 
doubtfulness  upon  his  immediate  reception  into  the  fervent  broth- 
erhood of  that  tender  nature. 

From  Edinburgh,  as  soon  as  his  lectures  were  finished,  the 
preacher  went  to  Glasgow,  from  whence,  about  a  week  after,  he 
writes  the  following  brief  account  of  his  labors  to  his  wife : 

"  Collins' shop,  Glasgow,  June  10th,  1828. 
"  I  have  a  moment's  time,  and  embrace  it,  to  let  you  know  that  I 
am  here,  well,  and  about  to  proceed  to  Carnwath  to-morrow  morn- 
ino-.  I  have  had  much  of  the  Lord's  presence.  I  preached  here  on 
Matt.,  xiii.,  on  Thursday.  On  Friday,  on  the  Regeneration,  when  the 
apostles  are  to  sit  on  thrones.  On  Saturday,  on  the  liesurrection. 
On  Sabbath,  at  Rosneath,  in  the  tent,  on  Psalm  ii.  for  lecture,  and  on 
the  name  of  God,  Psalms  ix.  and  x.,  for  sermon.  At  Row,  on  the 
24th  of  Matthew.  To-morrow  I  preach  on  Matt,  xxv.,  first  parable ; 
at  Bathgate,  second  parable ;  and  in  Edinburgh,  on  the  Last  Times. 
I  was  much  delighted  with  Campbell  and  Sandy  Scott,  whom  I  have 
invited  to  come  with  you  to  London.  I  trust  the  Lord  will  deliver 
him  out  of  his  present  deep  waters.  I  have  much  comfort  in  these 
extempore  expositions,  and,  if  I  mistake  not,  it  will  constitute  an  era 
in  my  ministry ;  not  that  I  will  hastily  adopt  it,  or  always,  but  for  the 
propagation  of  this  truth  by  exposition.  It  is  a  great  delight  for  me 
to  find  that  I  can  preach  every  day  with  little  trouble,  with  no  injury. 
I  trust  the  Lord  preserves  you  in  faith,  and  peace,  and  love.  By  the 
blessing  of  God,  I  will  see  you  on  Saturday  morning.  .  .  .  Farewell, 
my  beloved  wife !" 

This  brief  record  supplies  little  except  the  facts  of  the  rapid 
but  apostolic  journey.  I  have  no  information  as  to  the  effect  of 
his  appearance  at  Glasgow;  but  when  he  arrived  at  the  little 
westland  paradise  of  Rosneath,  and  under  the  rich  sycamores  and 
blossomed  laurel  set  up  the  tent,  or  wooden  out-door  pulpit,  fa- 
miliar to  all  eyes  on  great  ecclesiastical  occasions,  and  close  b}^ 
the  little  church,  all  too  small  for  the  overflowing  audience,  yet 
occupied  by  a  portion  of  the  hearers,  thrilled  the  soft  air  and  lis- 
tening crowd  with  his  herald's  proclamation  of  the  coming  King, 
the  whole  district,  hereafter  to  bear  a  notable  part  in  his  own  his- 
tory, "was  stirred  by  his  approach.  Doubtless  the  singular  young 
woman  who  was  first  to  receive  that  wonderful  gift  of  "tongues," 
which  had  so  great  an  influence  on  Irving's  future  fate,  was  there 
from  the  head  of  the  loch  to  have  her  mysterious  imagination 
quickened  with  words  which  should  reverberate  to  the  preacher's 
undoing.     All  the  agitations  and  distractions  of  his  latter  days 


312  EOW.— A.  J.  SCOTT. 

lay  there  in  tlie  germ  by  the  sweet  half-Highland  waters,  on  the 
shore  of  which,  as  eager  to  penetrate  the  rural  stillness  as  to  charm 
the  greater  ear  of  cities,  he  delivered  his  startling  message.  Next 
day  at  Kow,  on  the  opposite  shore,  almost  within  hearing  of  his 
Sabbath-day's  station,  a  similar  scene  was  repeated.  A  witness 
describes,  with  a  certain  unconscious  poetry,  the  aspect  of  the  loch, 
bright  with  boats,  conveying  from  all  points  the  eager  congrega- 
tion, and  Irving's  generous  spontaneous  divergence  from  his  spe- 
cial mission,  to  take  up,  and  illuminate,  and  enforce  the  equally 
special  and  earnest  burden  of  the  young  brother  who  had  unfold- 
ed to  him  his  heart.  There  he  met,  not  for  the  first  time,  but 
with  an  important  result,  another  man,  who  can  not  be  dismissed 
with  the  familiar  mention  given  him  in  the  letter  above :  Alex- 
ander Scott,  now  of  Manchester,  the  son  of  Dr.  Scott,  of  Greenock, 
a  licentiate  of  the  Scotch  Church — a  man  whose  powerful,  willful, 
and  fastidious  mind  has  produced  upon  all  other  capable  minds 
an  impression  of  force  and  ability  which  no  practical  result  has 
yet  adequately  carried  out.  A  Scotch  probationer,  but  character- 
istically recalcitrant  and  out  of  accordance  with  every  standard 
but  his  own,  this  remarkable  man,  then  young,  and  in  a  position 
in  which  any  great  thing  might  be  prophesied  of  his  visible  pow- 
ers, attracted,  I  can  not  tell  how,  notwithstanding  his  total  dissim- 
ilarity and  unaccordance,  the  regard  of  Irving.  A  greater  con- 
trast could  not  be  than  between  that  fastidious  fancy,  which  seems 
to  reject  with  disgust  the  ordinary  ornaments  of  language,  win- 
ning a  kind  of  perfection  of  simplicity  by  the  disdainful  finesse  of 
art,  and  the  fervent  and  glowing  imagination,  swelling  into  irre- 
sistible lyric  strains  by  intuition  of  nature,  which  inspired  the  elo- 
quence of  Irving,  unless  it  were  the  contrast  between  the  profound 
and  sublime  faith  which  turned  belief  into  reality  in  the  heart  of 
the  great  preacher,  and  that  questioning,  unsatisfied,  always  fas- 
tidious philosophic  soul,  which  seems  to  delight  in  undermining 
the  ground  on  which  the  other  great  intelligence  holds  a  precari- 
ous standing,  and  lessening  one  by  one  the  objects  of  possible 
faith.  Notwithstanding  this  vast  difference,  so  visible  nowadays, 
these  two  dissimilar  natures  had  somehow  fallen  into  warm  and 
sudden  friendship;  and  Irving,  all  truthful  and  ingenuous,  de- 
siring no  pledges  about  doctrine,  and  confident  in  the  piety  and 
truth  of  the  young  man,  engaged  the  doubtful  probationer  to  join 
him  in  London,  and  be  his  assistant  in  his  ministerial  labors. 
Such  an  offer,  perhaps,  no  man  in  the  Church  of  Scotland  but 


ACCIDENT  AT  KIRKCALDY.  313 

himself  would  have  made ;  but  the  bargain  seems  to  have  been 
concluded  at  this  Kow  preaching;  and  for  some  time  after,  this 
strangely-matched  pair  labored  together  with  such  agreement  as 
was  possible,  and  with  friendship  unbroken. 

Passing  through  Glasgow,  Irving  then  went  to  Carnwath,  in 
the  wilds  of  Lanarkshire,  where  his  wife's  cousin,  the  Rev.  James 
Walker,  was  minister  of  the  parish,  and  from  thence  to  Bathgate, 
not  far  off,  to  his  brother,  Samuel  Martin,  another  well-known  and 
honored  parish  priest.  Another  sermon  in  Edinburgh  seems  to 
have  concluded  this  laborious  week.  On  Saturday  he  crossed  the 
firth  to  Kirkcaldy,  to  join  his  family  and  share  the  household  joys 
and  conferences  of  the  family  home,  then  excited  by  all  the  agita- 
tions of  an  approaching  bridal.  It  was  the  eve  of  the  communion 
besides,  always  a  time  of  solemn  yet  pleasant  stir  in  a  Scotch 
manse.  The  tenderest,  touching  conjunction  of  family  emotions 
was  in  that  manse  of  Kirkcaldy  on  the  expectant  Saturday,  and 
the  solemn  cheerful  dawn  of  the  sacramental  morning:  one  of  the 
daughters  a  bride,  another  a  delicate  expecting  mother — sweet 
agitation  and  religious  calm. 

But  darker  shadows  were  to  fall  over  the  wedding-day.  On 
Sunday  evening,  after  the  sacramental  feast  was  over,  a  prodigious 
concourse  of  people  gathered  in  Kirkcaldy  church.  They  had 
come  from  all  quarters  to  hear  a  preacher  so  renowned  for  his  elo- 
quence, who  had  long  been  familiar  to  all  the  neighborhood,  whom 
once  the  popular  mind  of  Kirkcaldy  had  scorned,  but  whom  now 
the  entire  neighborhood  struggled  for  a  chance  of  hearing.  In 
the  sweet  summer  evening,  when  Irving,  all  unaware  of  any  ca- 
lamity, and  having  just  left  his  ailing  wife,  was  on  his  way  to 
church,  he  met  a  messenger  coming  to  warn  him  of  the  terrible 
accident  which  had  just  occurred.  The  overcrowded  galleries  had 
fallen,  and,  besides  the  immediate  inevitable  loss  of  life,  which,  for- 
tunately, was  not  great,  all  the  horrors  of  a  vulgar  panic  had  set 
in  among  the  crowd.  Irving  immediately  took  up  his  post  under 
a  window  in  the  staircase,  and,  conspicuous  by  his  great  size  and 
strength,  helped  many  of  the  terrified  fugitives  to  make  their  way 
out,  lifting  them  down  in  his  arms.  Such  a  scene  of  popular  panic 
and  selfish  cowardice  is  always  an  appalling  one.  Dr.  Chalmers, 
whose  wife  and  child  were  present,  reckons,  in  his  account  of  it, 
that  "  at  least  thirty-five  people"  were  killed,  two  or  three  only  by 
the  actual  fall  of  the  gallery,  and  the  rest  "by  the  stifling  and  suf- 
focation toward  the  doors  of  the  church."     The  dead  and  dying 


314  CRUEL  REPROAGHES. 

were  lifted  out  into  the  claurch-yard,  the  latter  to  receive  such  help 
as  might  be  possible,  and  terror  and  lamentation  filled  the  neigh- 
borhood. In  the  midst  of  this  heart-rending  scene,  one  of  the 
crowd,  with  a  bitterness,  perhaps,  excused  by  some  great  loss, 
turned  upon  the  preacher,  and  taunted  him  cruelly  with  being 
the  cause  of  the  terrible  event.  The  reproach,  bitterly  unjust  as 
it  was,  went  to  Irving's  heart.  He  is  said  to  have  withdrawn  from 
the  melancholy  scene  to  his  own  chamber  with  tears  of  anguish 
and  humiliation.  And  when  this  dreadful  disturbance  of  the 
evening's  calm  had  come  to  an  end,  and  the  troubled  family,  after 
having  exhausted  all  possible  efforts  for  the  relief  of  the  sufferers, 
were  at  last  assembling  to  their  evening  prayers,  his  grieved  soul 
broke  forth  into  words.  "God  hath  put  me  to  shame  this  day 
before  all  the  people,"  he  said,  with  a  pang  of  distress  all  the  more 
sharp  and  terrible  from  the  love  of  love  and  honor  that  was  natu- 
ral to  his  heart.  The  short  time  he  spent  in  Kirkcaldy  afterward 
was  entirely  occupied  by  visits  to  the  injured  or  bereaved  people, 
and,  to  such  of  them  as  needed  pecuniary  help,  his  purse  as  well 
as  his  heart  was  open.  But  the  whole  calamitous  event  seems  to 
have  been  embittered  by  a  wholly  unreasonable  and  most  cruel 
resentment  against  the  preacher,  which  it  is  hard  to  account  for. 
It  is  said  that  in  some  excited  local  coterie  there  was  wild  talk  of 
offering  up  the  axdlior  of  all  this  calamity  as  a  deodand.  And  even 
the  fact  that  the  marriage,  thus  sadly  overcast,  was  not  postponed, 
increased  the  popular  indignation.  Dr.  Chalmers  himself,  with 
inexplicable  bitterness,  exposed  as  he  himself  was  to  all  the  acci- 
dents common  to  the  gathering  together  of  immense  multitudes, 
describes  this  calamity  as  "the  most  striking  and  woeful  effect  of 
living's  visit."  It  gave  a  tragic  conclusion  to  the  triumphant  and 
exciting  course  of  his  brief  but  incessant  labors. 

Just  at  this  eventful  and  exciting  period,  another  infant  son 
came  into  the  world  in  the  Kirkcaldy  manse,  and,  as  soon  as  Ir- 
ving could  leave  his  wife,  he  returned  to  London,  making  a  brief 
divergence  into  the  North  before  setting  out  on  his  homeward 
journey.  In  this  short  expedition  northward  he  reappears  out 
of  the  darkness  in  the  following  vivid  glimpse,  for  which  I  am 
indebted  to  the  kindness  of  the  Eev.  J.  W.  Taylor,  of  the  Free 
Church,  Creich.     This  gentleman  writes : 

"  My  own  remembrance  of  Edward  Irving  is  thirty  years  old,  yet 
is  the  impression  as  fresh  as  the  day  on  which  it  was  made.  I  re- 
member the  very  bend  of  the  pavement  where  first  I  saw  him :  the 


IRVING  VISITS  PERTH.— RETURNS  TO  LONDON.  3 15 

raven  locks  flowing  down  to  his  broad  shouldei's,  his  magnificent 
erect  figure,  the  cloak  thrown  over  his  arm,  and  the  giant  air  with 
which  he  marched,  are  inefFaceably  present  to  my  mind.  .  .  .  He  had 
come  to  Perth  to  preach.  Midday  sermons  were  not  popular  enter- 
tainments then,  and  the  Kirkcaldy  church  catastrophe  was  fresh  in 
people's  thoughts ;  but  the  East  church  was  filled.  His  text  was 
taken  from  the  24th  chapter  of  Matthew,  regarding  the  coming  of  the 
Son  of  Man.  I  remember  nothing  of  the  sermon  save  its  general 
subject ;  but  one  thing  I  can  never  forget.  Wliile  he  was  engaged 
in  unfolding  his  subject,  from  out  of  a  dark  cloud,-which  obscured 
the  church,  there  came  forth  a  bright  blaze  of  lightning  and  a  crash 
of  thimder.  There  was  deep  stillness  in  the  audience.  The  preacher 
paused ;  and  from  the  stillness  and  the  gloom  of  his  powerful  voice, 
clothed  with  increased  solemnity,  pronounced  these  words :  '  For  as 
the  lightning  cometh  out  of  the  east,  and  shineth  even  unto  the  west, 
so  shall  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man  be.'  You  can  imagine  the 
eflfect." 

The  next  that  we  see  of  him  is  in  London,  returned  to  his  post, 
and  plunging,  without  any  interval,  into  his  ordinary  labors.  He 
went,  not  to  his  own  house — it  being,  indeed,  a  transitionarj  mo- 
ment, in  which  he  seems  to  have  had  no  house,  having  ended  his 
tenancy  of  one,  and  not  entered  upon  another  till  his  wife's  re- 
turn— but  to  that  of  Miss  Macdonald,  a  daughter  of  Sir  Archibald 
Macdonald,  once  Lord  Chief  Justice,  a  woman  of  great  accom- 
plishments and  wonderful  self-devotion,  who  had  been  for  some 
time  the  warmest  friend  of  his  family,  and  his  own  zealous  assist- 
ant and  amanuensis.  From  her  habitation — then,  it  is  to  be  sup- 
posed, a  more  refined  locality  than  it  appears  now — he  writes  to 
his  wife : 

"6  Euston  Grove,  Euston  Square,  London,  ) 
"Friday,  July  3d,  1828.  J 

"  My  deaeest  Wife, — This  is  merely  to  announce  to  you  my  safe 
arrival.  I  have  a  long  sheet  begun,  but  there  is  not  time  to  close  it 
until  to-morrow,  for  which  I  have  a  frank.  I  found  Miss  Macdonald 
well,  about  one  o'clock ;  after  washing,  etc.,  we  sat  down  to  our  old 
work*  for  about  two  hours,  after  which  we  have  gone  forth  to  visit 
the  schools,  which  are  thriving.  ...  As  I  passed  through  Cheap- 
side,  I  called  to  inquire  after  our  friends  both  there  and  elsewhere. 
Alex  had  received  a  letter  that  morning  to  say  that  they  were  on 
their  way,  and  would  be  here  either  to-morrow  or  on  Monday,  The 
Lord  bring  them  in  peace  and  safety !  For  myself,  I  am  in  good 
health,  and  slept  well  all  the  voyage.  It  is  really  a  matter  of  some 
importance  to  come  by  the  James  Watt,  and  I  would  have  you  to 
bear  it  in  mind.  I  fondly  hope,  before  this  time,  you  are  so  far  re- 
covered as  to  be  able  to  be  up  and  to  enjoy  yourself,  and  that  the 
dear  boy  is  thriving  well.  God  make  his  soul  to  prosper  and  be  in 
health !     And  for  dear  Margaret,  say  that  little  Stewart  inquired  af- 

*  Miss  Macdonald  writing  to  his  dictation. 


316  HAPPINESS  IN  EETUENING. 

ter  her,  and  all  rejoice  in  her  health.  But,  no !  guard  against  her 
vanity  and  egotism.  It  will  become  very  great  unless  it  be  kept 
down.  I  pray  you  to  bear  this  in  mind.  Dinner  is  on  the  table,  and 
Campbell  is  to  spend  the  evening  with  us — going  ofl'  to-morrow. 
My  love  to  you  all.     God  bless  the  homes  of  our  fathers  all ! 

"  Your  affectionate  and  dutiful  husband,     Edward  Irving." 

Mr.  Camphell,  of  Eow,  had  either  accompanied  or  preceded  Ir- 
ving to  London,  and  had  preached  in  bis  church,  not  only  in  the 
ordinary  course,  but  an  extraordinary  Gaelic  sermon,  carrying 
back  the  minds  of  the  changed  congregation  to  those  old  days  of 
the  Caledonian  Chapel  when  Irving  himself  volunteered  to  learn 
Gaelic,  if  need  were,  rather  than  give  up  that  post  which  he  felt 
to  be  his  fittest  sphere.  And  it  is  evident  that  the  profound  pie- 
ty and  fervent  love  to  God  and  man  which  he  found  in  the  heart 
of  his  new  friend  had  already  made  Irving  a  partisan  in  his  favor, 
as  was  natural  to  the  man.  The  correspondence  proceeds,  not 
with  the  closeness  or  fullness  of  the  journal-letters,  which  made 
the  former  separation  between  husband  and  wife  memorable,  but 
still  conveying  the  best  picture  that  can  be  given  of  his  life  and 
thoughts : 

"14  Westbourne  Terrace,  Bayswater,  19th  July,  1828. 

"  My  dearest  Isabella, — I  find  it  impossible,  for  some  few  days 
yet,  of  getting  my  plan  carried  into  effect  of  fiiushing  my  long  letter, 
so  much  lies  to  my  hand ;  and,  that  you  may  not  be  disappointed  of 
the  regular  communications  which  you  so  well  deserve  and  I  so  much 
desire  to  make,  I  must  send  you  these  light  pilot-boats  before  my 
great  galleon.  William  and  Elizabeth  arrived  last  night  about  half 
jDast  eight  o'clock.  They  are  both  looking  uncommonly  well ;  Eliz- 
abeth a  great  deal  stronger  than  at  the  time  of  her  marriage,  and 
both,  as  you  may  well  conceive,  glad  to  get  home.  We  were  hold- 
ing a  session,  and  so  I  did  not  arrive  here  till  toward  or  after  ten 
o'clock.  The  session  were  loud  in  their  acknowledgments  to  Mr. 
Campbell,  and  none  more  so  than  Mr.  Mackenzie,  who,  before,  had 
been  in  some  doubt  of  his  doctrines.  Now  I  think  the  judgment  of 
so  many  pious  and  intelligent  men,  supported,  as  it  is  generally,  I 
may  say  universally,  ought  to  have  its  weight  among  the  gainsayers 
in  Scotland.  I  wrote  for  Campbell  two  letters,  as  I  said,  and  saw 
him  off  on  Saturday  night.  On  Sabbath  I  preached  my  sermon  on 
'  Jesus,'  and  in  the  evening  I  opened  the  period  of  the  provocation 
from  the  making  of  the  covenant  unto  the  turning  back  into  the  wil- 
derness. Next  Sabbath,  God  willing,  I  open  the  name  '  Christ'  and 
the  Church  in  the  wilderness.  The  services  were  both  well  attend- 
ed, and  the  people  seemed  most  glad  to  see  me  back  again,  as  you 
may  be  sure  was  I  to  be  back.  I  caused  thanks  to  be  returned  for 
you,  and  I  am  glad,  by  your  father's  letter,  to  find  that  we  have  such 
good  reason  for  the  continuance  of  thanks. 

"  I  have  read  Mr.  Evil's  second  tract,  which  contains  a  good  deal 


THE  LAST  DAYS.  317 

of  matter.  ...  I  write  these  things  because  I  know  you  love  to  med- 
itate on  them.  Vou  Billow  called  yesterday  afternoon ;  he  has  been 
hxmted  out  of  Scandinavia  as  they  would  a  man-destroyer,  but  not 
until  he  had  been  instrumental  in  raising  up  two  or  three  preachers 
in  his  stead,  and  he  is  now  bound  on  his  way  to  Poland,  still  in  the 
service  of  the  Continental  Society.  His  wife  is  with  him,  and  they 
have  now  three  children,  ...  I  have  finished  this  day  my  dedication, 
which,  as  Miss  Macdonald  was  writing  it,  containing  a  review  and 
narration  of  God's  dealings  with  the  Church,  we  found  we  were  writ- 
ing on  that  day  six  years  on  which  I  set  out  from  Glasgow  to  go  to 
London  to  take  up  my  charge.  Next  Sabbath  is  the  first  of  my  Sab- 
batical year.  God  grant  it  may  be  a  year  of  free-will  fruitfulness  ! 
I  have  several  curious  things  to  send  to  you,  but  I  must  wait  for  a 
frank.  Mr.  Percival  and  his  brother  were  in  church  on  Sabbath  morn- 
ing. ...  I  forget  whether  there  is  any  thing  else  of  news,  but  I  for- 
get not  to  assure  you  of  my  tender  love  and  constant  faithfulness. 
God  gi*ant  me  to  prove  myself  your  worthy  husband!  I  bless  my 
children,  yours  and  mine.  I  pray  God  to  bless  all  the  house.  Re- 
member me  with  all  affection,  and  pray  for  me  always.  E.  I." 

The  dedication  mentioned  in  this  letter  was  that  of  the  splendid 
volume,  entitled  the  Last  Days^  a  work  which  one  naturally  places 
beside  his  Orations,  and  which,  apart  from  prophetical  researches, 
or  the  deeper  investigations  into  doctrine  of  his  Trinity  sermons, 
is  perhaps  more  likely  to  preserve  his  literary  fame  than  any  oth- 
er of  his  productions.  The  dedication  was  to  his  session,  and  es- 
pecially to  William  Hamilton,  now  so  nearly  connected  with  bim 
by  family  ties,  and  his  old  elder,  Mr.  Dinwiddle ;  and  contained  a 
history  of  his  coming  to  London,  and  all  the  difficulties  connected 
witli  it,  from  which  I  have  already  largely  quoted.  It  is  one  of 
the  chief  of  those  many  brief  snatches  of  autobiography  in  which 
he  revealed  himself  from  time  to  time  with  unconscious  simplici- 
ty, and  which,  unlike  prefaces  and  dedications  in  general,  are  of 
an  interest  in  many  instances  superior,  and  always  equal  to,  the 
book  itself  thus  introduced.  But  his  wife's  health*  had  again 
raised  fond  anxieties  in  his  heart : 

"London,  Boro',  Scotch  Church,  15th  July, 
"  My  dearest  Isabella, — I  write  this  from  the  Presbytery-room, 
after  a  long  meeting,  merely  to  express  by  this  post  the  satisfaction 
which  I  have  in  not  having  received  any  letter,  and  the  hope  to  which 
I  have  been  raised  that  it  was  only  an  affection  of  the  stomach.  .  .  . 
I  trust  it  has  been  a  profitable,  though  a  most  overwhelming  night  to 
me,  last  night.  God  willing,  we  shall  not  separate  again,  save  at  the 
command  of  God,  and  for  the  needful  duties  of  His  Church ;  and  this 
experience  convinces  me  of  the  propriety,  of  the  duty,  of  not  leaving 
Margaret  in  Scotland.  Ah !  dear  Avife,  you  see  how  hope  takes  wing ! 
I  am  speaking  as  if  you  were  all  beside  me  again,  when,  perhaps,  you 


318  IRVING'S  ANXIETIES. 

may  be  in  sore  affliction  and  trouble.  If  so,  God  be  your  help  and 
comfort,  your  health  and  your  portion !  You  were  remembered  in 
the  prayers  of  the  Presbytery,  and  shall  be  remembered  to-morrow 
night  in  the  Church.  I  can  not  go  to  dine  with  my  brethren,  but  go 
home  to  Miss  Macdonald's.  ...  My  blessing  upon  our  children,  and 
my  dearest  love  and  blessmg  to  yourself,  my  most  dear  and  afiection- 
ate  wife." 

"6  Euston  Grove,  Euston  Square,  15th  July. 
"  My  dearest  Isabella, — This  letter  of  your  father's  afflicts  me 
exceedingly,  but  yet  I  have  a  good  hope  that  the  Lord  will  be  gra- 
cious to  us,  and  restore  you  to  your  bodily  strength  for  a  consolation 
to  me  and  to  his  people.  .  .  .  Miss  Macdonald  assures  me  that  her 
sister  has  frequently  had  similar  attacks.  This  is  some  comfort  to 
me  in  my  present  absence  and  great  distance  from  you ;  but  my  chief 
comfort  is  in  knowing  that  where  God  is  there  is  peace.  His  pres- 
ence be  with  thee  and  give  thee  rest !  It  was  a  very  great  delight 
to  me  to  receive  a  letter  written  partly  by  your  own  hand,  and  I  had 
begun  to  count  over  the  weeks  before  your  return.  But  the  Lord 
suffereth  me  not  to  be  high-minded ;  I  am  kept  in  poverty  of  spirit 
and  in  affliction ;  would  that  I  may  be  found  bowed  down  for  my 
sins,  and  the  sins  of  my  house,  and  the  sins  of  the  Church !  Lately 
I  have  been  very  much  exercised  with  the  consciousness  of  indwell- 
ing sin,  and,  by  God's  grace,  have  attained  imto  some  measure  of 
self-loathing;  but  much,  much  I  lack  of  this  grace,  which  cometh 
only  through  the  apprehension  of  God's  beauty,  and  holiness,  and 
loveliness,  seen  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ.  To  you,  now  lying  on  a 
bed  of  sickness  and  weakness,  how  sweet  must  be  the  thought  that 
the  Son  of  God  himself  bore  your  infirmities,  and  carried  your  dis- 
eases and  sorrows,  and  that  He  is  able  to  succor  you  in  your  tempta- 
tion ;  yea,  that  He  is  suffering  with  you,  and  will  be  a  strength  in  you 
to  overcome  your  suffering !  Oh,  my  dear  wdfe,  how  glad  were  I 
at  this  moment  to  stand  beside  your  bed  and  speak  comfort  to  your 
heart !  But  He,  who  is  the  head  of  all  the  members,  heareth  my 
prayer,  and  will  minister  grace  unto  you  by  His  Spirit,  or  by  some 
one  of  His  saints.  I  am  very  troubled  in  my  spirit  at  present,  but 
yet  I  will  trust  in  my  God.  The  other  night  I  was  enabled  to  make 
a  very  full  confession  of  our  sins  as  husband  and  wife,  and  the  heads 
of  a  family.  I  desire  to  be  before  the  Lord  in  great  lowliness  and 
poverty  of  spirit  until  He  is  pleased  to  comfort  me  with  the  tidings 
of  your  recovery.  If  you  be  able  to  attend  to  other  things,  I  know 
you  will  desire  to  know  all  our  state,  and  how  we  prosper  together. 
The  enemy  seems  stirring  up  the  lukewarm  and  formalists  to  speak 
more  and- more  against  the  blessed  hope  of  our  Lord's  coming,  but 
among  us  I  find  it  findeth  room  and  bringeth  peace.     I  had  a  good 

deal  of  controversy  this  morning  with ,  who  came  out  with  such 

an  expression  as  this :  '  I  wish  you  were  done  with  that  subject  alto- 
gether.' The  ears  of  men  are  fast  shutting,  and  we  will  soon  be  re- 
duced to  the  necessity  of  giving  ourselves  wholly  to  the  ear  of  God. 
'  I  gave  myself  to  prayer.'  Yesterday  I  preached  upon  '  Christ,'  the 
anointed,  showing  from  Exodus,  xxx.,  that  the  holy  oil  was  the  sym- 
bol of  the  anointing  spirit,  and  the  things  anointed  the  symbols  of 


IMPROVEMENT  IN  HIS  WIFE'S  HEALTH.  319 

Christ's  humanity  therewith  anointed.  First,  the  tabernacle  of  His 
humanity,  as  the  inclosure  of  divinity  and  of  the  Avorshiper  of  God — 
the  middle  thing  between  the  Creator  and  the  fallen  creature,  the 
ground  of  all  intercommunion ;  second,  the  ark  of  the  covenant  .  .  . 
third,  the  shew-bread.  .  .  .  To  you,  dearest  Isabella,  that  which  is  of 
most  concern  is  to  look  with  faith  to  those  cherubim  upon  the  mer- 
cy-seat. They  are  what  we  hope  to  be,  and  what  we  now  believe 
ourselves  to  be — souls  saved  by  grace,  and  resting  upon  Christ,  our 
propitiation,  which  is  the  same  word  with  mercy-seat,  ox  lyropitiatory . 
In  the  evening  I  preached  upon  the  wilderness  state  of  the  Church, 
having  written  a  new  discourse  for  that  purjDOse,  in  which  I  showed 
how  the  Jewish  Avilderness  experience  was  to  teach  us  of  the  Gentile 
Chui'ch  how  few,  how  very  few  would  be  honored  to  come  into  the 
Sabbatical  rest.  Even  Moses  and  Aaron  fell  in  the  wilderness,  though, 
doubtless  glorified  saints,  and  many  more ;  but  only  these  two  men 
came  through  to  inherit  the  land.  We  are  all  sealed  with  the  new 
covenant  in  the  Lord's  Supper ;  and  if  this  generation  should  be  the 
one  which  receives  the  judgment,  how  few  will  be  brought  through, 
for  how  few  see  the  new  covenant  in  the  cup !  But  we  do,  my  dear 
Isabella,  therefore  let  us  be  strong  in  faith.  I  am  again  comforted. 
I  feel  a  hope  that  the  Lord  will  long  spare  us  to  go  forward  together 
through  the  wilderness,  and  that  He  may  bring  us  and  our  little  ones 
with  us  unto  our  rest.  .  .  .  Meanwhile,  I  am  employing  myself  in  fin- 
ishing the  work  upon  the  latter  days,  and  .  .  .  shall  engage  myself 
with  my  work  on  the  Lord's  Supper,  which  I  see  to  be  daily  more 
and  more  important.  .  .  .  We  have  great  love  and  harmony,  blessed 
be  the  Lord !  .  .  .  I  wish  we  were  together :  this  is  a  poor  substi- 
tute for  personal  communion ;  but  all  was  done  for  the  best.  Abide 
in  faith,  my  dearest  wife,  and  be  not  disappointed  at  His  appearing. 
The  Lord  bless  our  two  children." 

"17th  July. 

"  I  have  received  with  much  gladness,  and,  I  trust,  thankfulness  of 

heart,  this  letter  of  dear  aunt's,  which  Mr.  H sent  out  from  town 

immediately  on  its  arrival.  I  trust  you  will  exercise  over  yourself 
much  care,  and  walk  by  the  rules  of  your  physician,  to  whom  I  will 
be  very  much  indebted  when  he  gives  you  permission  to  set  out  on 
your  voyage.  I  wish  you  would  ask  him  how  long  it  is  likely  to  be 
till  then.  Let  me  know  also  in  what  way  you  w^ould  like  that  we 
should  put  up  till  w^e  get  a  house  of  our  own,  for  which  I  will  now  be 
looking  out,  somewhere  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  church. 

"  I  spent  the  first  part  of  tliis  w^eek  at  Miss  Macdonald's,  engaging 
ourselves  chiefly  with  the  finishing  of  a  long  discourse  upon  '  Having 
a  form  of  godliness,  but  denying  the  power  thereof,'  in  the  handling 
of  which,  to  establish  the  fact  of  the  abounding  hypocrisy,  I  have 
gone  over  every  one  of  the  characteristics*  again,  which  makes  it 
likewise  serve  the  end  of  a  recapitulation.  Upon  the  whole,  I  begin 
to  think  that  you  and  Mr.  Drummond  think  more  correctly  about 
these  sermons  than  I  do  myself.  May  God  accept  them  as  an  ofier- 
ing  of  the  faith  and  faithfulness  of  His  Church !  .  .  .  I  have  had  a 

letter  fi-oni ,  of  Edinburgh,  remonstrating  with  me  for  not  hav- 

*  See  Last  Days, 


320       PAUSE  IN  THE  SATURDAY  OCCUPATIONS. 

ing  preached  the  fundamental  truths  of  the  Gospel  when  I  preached 
my  twelve  discourses.  I  take  it  as  a  precious  oil  from  him,  though 
it  proves  to  me  how  dark  the  time  is  in  which  such  a  one  should  be 
held  up  for  a  light.  I  doubt  very  much  whether  he  apprehends  any 
more  than  the  altar  and  the  laver,  which  was  open  to  all  the  people 
and  under  the  open  heaven.  The  Church  of  the  first-born — the  elect 
ones  in  the  holy  place — he  very  dimly  perceives,  if  at  all.  However, 
if  you  should  see  him,  let  him  know  that  I  am  beholden  to  him  for 
his  kindness,  and  take  it  in  good  part.  .  .  .  The  Presbytery  were 
very  kind  to  me  when  I  presented  my  apology  for  my  absence.     I 

have  had  several  visits  of  Miss  C ,  whom  I  call '  my  little  nun.' 

She  fasts  every  Friday,  confessed  herself  to  me  before  the  Sacrament, 
is  most  earnest  that  we  should  all  league  and  covenant  over  again 
and  is  a  most  pure-minded  creature,  but  somewhat  of  a  devotee.  .  . 
I  shall  observe  what  you  say  of  Von  Bulow,  but  I  fear  he  is  gone 
In  the  paper  before  yesterday  there  was  an  address  from  Wolff,  the 
apostle  of  the  Jews  in  Palestine,  to  his  countrymen  in  Alexandria, 
being  cTiiefly  taken  verbatim  from  our  Ben-Ezra.  I  liked  it  well ;  he 
seems  growing  in  the  knowledge  of  the  truth.  They  say  (the  evil- 
speaking  generation)  '  Wolff  has  separated  from  his  wife.'  You  see 
what  you  have  to  expect  if  you  do  not  haste  back  again.  .  .  .  Fare- 
well, my  sister,  my  spouse !  When  are  we  to  meet  again  ?  Make 
no  tarrying.  My  blessing  upon  the  children.  .  .  .  Farewell!  The 
galleon  is  hardly  yet  on  the  stocks." 

"  19th  July. 
"  Miss  Macdonald  and  I  snatch  a  moment  before  dinner,  in  the 
midst  of  Saturday  occupations,  to  let  you  know  how  happy  we  were 
made,  and  all  your  friends,  on  account  of  your  restoration,  which  I 
dare  say  hath  abounded  in  many  thanksgivings  to  God.  May  the 
Lord  continue  to  preserve  you  and  the  dear  children  by  His  mighty 
power  until  our  union  and  forever !  .  .  .  Yesterday  we  had  a  call,  at 
Bayswater,  of  Captain  Gambler,  who  opened  to  me  his  interpretation 
of  Ezekiel's  three  chapters  of  Tyrus,  making  it  out  to  be  this  land. 
...  I  am  deeply  impressed  with  it,  but  have  not  yet  had  time  to  ex- 
amine it.  I  am  writing  upon  Christ,  the  altar  of  incense,  the  brazen 
altar  and  the  laver,  and  upon  Korah  and  his  company."  .  .  . 

This  hurried  break  in  his  Saturday's  labors  is  accompanied  by 
a  letter  from  his  kind  and  gentle  amanuensis,  insisting  on  Mrs. 
Irving  taking  possession  of  her  house  as  soon  as  she  is  able  to 
come  to  London,  and  declaring  her  own  intention  of  going  to  the 
country,  and  leaving  it  entirely  to  her  friends,  whenever  she  knew 
their  arrangements.  The  author  and  the  scribe  mutuall}^  paused 
— the  one  from  the  deepest  ponderings  of  judgment  and  mercy, 
the  other  from  the  absorbing  yet  tedious  labors  of  the  ministering 
pen — to  send  messages  of  comfort  to  the  patient  wife  in  her  sick- 
chamber.  These  intimations  of  the  joint  labors  of  the  preacher 
and  his  amanuensis  are  sufficient  to  show  that  his  delight  in  the 
faculty  of  extempore  preaching,  which  he  seems  to  have  discov- 


CONSULTATIONS  ABOUT  PROPHECY.  321 

ered  in  himself  in  his  travels  in  Scotland,  by  no  means  interfered 
with  his  habitual  studies.  The  fatiguing  home  voyage  from  Ed- 
inburgh was  no  sooner  accomplished  than  he  plunged  into  this 
habitual  occupation;  and  throughout  all  this  summer,  through 
the  fervid  months  which  most  people  find  unbearable  in  London, 
his  pastoral  labors  are  constantly  kept  in  balance  by  intervals  of 
close  composition.  The  lonely  man,  with  his  heart  and  its  treas- 
ures at  a  distance,  divides  his  time  between  the  new-formed  home 
of  his  sister  Elizabeth  and  that  warm  centre  of  friendship  and 
good  offices  where  Miss  Macdon  aid's  pen  was  always  ready  to 
save  him  half  his  toil.  Very  interesting  is  the  picture  of  the  in- 
terrupted occupation  presented  to  us  for  a  moment  in  tHe  letter 
above :  the  man,  all  fervent  and  loving,  turning  from  his  work  to 
rejoice  in  the  safety  of  his  distant  wife,  yet  with  a  delicate  consid- 
eration, even  in  that  most  sacred  tenderness,  for  the  friend  beside 
him,  connecting  her  name  with  his  own;  and  the  sympathetic 
woman,  adding  her  congratulations  and  invitation,  glad,  yet  not 
without  a  sentiment  of  contrast,  as  she  writes  that  "  all  times  are 
alike  to  a  disengaged  person  like  myself,"  while  anticipating  the 
joyful  return  of  the  wife  so  deeply  longed  for;  such  a  vignette 
of  the  many-sided  life,  which  can  only  be  seen  of  other  eyes  when 
it  concerns  the  gifted,  is  enough  to  throw  a  certain  gleam  of  pleas- 
ant interest  even  over  the  noisy  purlieus  of  Euston  Square. 
The  next  letter  from  Kirkcaldy  contained  still  better  news : 

"22d  July,  1828. 
"  My  dearest  Wife, — The  anxiety  with  which  I  heard  the  two 
knocks  of  the  postman  was  amply  repaid  upon  my  breaking  the  seal 
and  seeing  your  own  hand.  I  hope  the  Lord  will  enable  us  to  be 
thankful  for  all  His  mercies.  .  .  .  Lord  Mandeville  came  last  night, 
and  passed  three  hours  with  us,  opening  to  me  his  views,  which  are 
not  new  to  you  or  to  me,  though  to  himself  so  much  that  he  almost 
doubted  the  evidence  of  his  own  most  patient  inquiries.  1st.  That 
we  are  not  yet  living  under  the  New  Covenant,  which  is  to  the  Jews 
primarily,  and  through  them  to  others,  against  the  day  of  their  res- 
toration. 2.  That  we  are  still  under  Abraham's  covenant  of  imputed 
righteousness.  3.  That  we  enjoy  it  in  a  testamentary  form.  ...  I 
have  now  his  Lordship's  papers.  He  is  gone  down  to  Huntingdon, 
to  the  Bible  Society  meeting.  .  .  .  Mr.  Dinwiddie  is  in  great  trepi- 
dation at  being  put  at  the  head  of  my  book,*  and  he  tells  me  Mr. 
Hamilton  is  of  the  same  mind.  I  hope  to  persuade  them  better.  I 
have  a  strong  conviction  that  this  boastful  land  is  soon  to  be  hum- 
bled. Oh,  my  dear  Isabella,  make  no  tarrying,  but  hide  yourself  and 
our  children  under  the  shadow  of  His  wings,  which  is  the  Almighty. 
.  .  .  Pray  for  me  often  and  diligently,  and  pray  for  us  altogether  in 
*  The  Last  Days  was  dedicated  to  these  two  gentlemen. 

X 


322  A  BIBLE  SOCIETY  MEETING. 

'  Our  Father,'  and  pray  much  that  we  may  have  a  sweet  sense  of  the 
forgiveness  of  our  sins.  It  is  too  good  for  me  to  be  used  as  the 
Lord's  instrument  in  these  perilous  times,  though  but  little  believed. 
Oh,  God,  grant  me  to  be  thy  faithful  servant,  in  the  spirit  of  a  son, 
'  though  a  son  learning  obedience.'  Coleridge  and  Wordsworth  are 
gone  to  Germany  in  company ;  is  not  that  curious  ?  .  .  .  I  remem- 
ber nothing  farther  to  mention,  except  what  I  would  never  forget — 
my  love  to  all  your  house,  and  my  blessing  upon  my  children,  and 
upon  my  tender  and  devoted  wife." 

"25tliJul7. 

"  I  have  received  the  sermons,  and,  as  usual,  there  is  now  nothing 
wanting,  and  what  I  am  to  do  with  them  I  have  not  yet  determined. 
I  wish*  your  father  would  make  me  a  good  bargain  with  some  of 
the  Edinburgh  booksellers,  and  so  implicate  their  purse  that  they 
would  b*e  forced,  by  self-interest,  to  push  them,  for  I  see  no  other 
way  of  getting  such  interested.  I  would  give  them  an  edition  of  the 
series,  consisting  of  1500  copies,  two  vols,  octavo,  for  £500.  I'll  teU 
you  what,  my  good  chancellor,  I  will  give  you  all  you  can  get  for 
them,  in  full  possession,  to  do  with  it  whatever  seemeth  to  you  good. 
Try  Blackwood,  or  some  of  those  worldlings ;  for  truly  there  is  no 
longer  any  grace  or  honor,  and  hard  justice  must  be  the  rule  with 
such.  I  wish  sadly  you  were  back  again.  I  miss  you  very  sore,  al- 
though Miss  Macdonald  does  every  thing  which  one  not  a  wife  can 
do  for  my  comfort,  and  I  have  great  reason  to  be  thankful.  She  de- 
sires her  kind  love,  and  rejoices  in  your  recovery.  Tell  Maggy  she 
must  come  to  her  own  papa,  or  I  will  come  and  carry  her  off  across 
the  seas.  But  now  keep  of  a  good  heart,  that  I  may  see  you  the 
sooner." 

"Blackheath,  25th  July. 

"  I  write  this  from  Miss  Stubbs'  cottage,  whither  Miss  Macdonald 
and  I  have  come  in  order  to  see  and  enjoy  its  beauty  before  it  pass 
into  the  hands  of  another  owner.  .  .  .  Lord  Mandeville  came  to  us 
on  Saturday  night,  and  Elizabeth  was  with  us.  Mr.  Hamilton  and 
Mr.  Mackenzie  dropped  in,  and  we  spent  a  very  sweet  evening,  being 
chiefly  occupied  with  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  upon  which  his 
Lordship  and  I  have  come  to  very  similar  conclusions.  .  .  .  He  had 
been  at  the  Bible  Society  at  Huntingdon,  and  had  to  stand  in  the 
pillory  of  Public  Opinion.  He  had  written,  when  invited  to  take  the 
chair,  that  he  had  resolved  Avithin  himself  never  to  take  tlie  chair  in 
any  meeting  which  Avas  not  opened  with  prayer,  and,  hearing  noth- 
ing farther,  concluded  they  had  come  to  that  resolution ;  but  when 
he  found  himself  in  the  committee-room,  all  but  two  opposed  it  vio- 
lently. .  .  .  '  So,'  he  said,  '  there  remain  only  two  ways  to  proceed, 
and  I  leave  you  your  choice :  either  I  will  not  take  the  chair  and  al- 
low the  county  to  put  their  own  construction  upon  it,  or  I  will  take 
the  chair  and  begin  the  meeting  by  an  explanation  of  all  that  has  oc- 
curred.' They  preferred  the  last,  to  which  he  was  not  disinclined, 
lest  it  might  seem  that  he  was  acting  from  ill  temper.  And  so,  hav- 
ing opened  the  matter  by  this  act  of  lectui'ing,  the  meeting  proceed- 

*  This  is  apparently  a  reference  to  the  three  volumes  of  Sermons  already  men- 
tioned. 


THE  "EECORD"  NEWSPAPER.  323 

ed,  every  sj^eaker  leveling  against  his  Lordship's  view  of  the  matter, 
and  apologizing  for  and  justifying  the  Society  ....  during  which 
exposition  they  were  so  given  over  to  an  ungovernable  mind,  that 
they  shut  their  ears  with  their  hands,  and  even  stamped  with  their 
feet,  and  did  not  refrain  themselves  from  any  other  expression  of 
disgust  and  disdain.  .  .  .  But  so  it  is,  dearest,  this  religious  Avorld 
wilt  outdo  the  French  Republicans  in  their  rage  against  the  true  serv- 
ants of  the  Lord,  who  shall  be  faithful  enough  to  withstand  them.  .  .  . 
Yesterday,  though  rather  weakened  in  body,  I  was  much  strengthen- 
ed in  spirit  for  the  Lord's  work,  to  open,  in  the  morning,  the  mystery 
of  Christ  the  first-born  from  the  dead,  and  therein  preferred  above 
all  creatures  to  be  the  High-Priest ;  and  in  the  evening,  to  open  up 
the  mystery  of  Baptism  as  shadowed  forth  in  the  judgment  and  pres- 
ervation of  the  Deluge.  .  .  .  There  is  a  curious  piece  of  information 
connected  with  the  Record  newspaper,  which  I  resolved  to  commu- 
nicate to  you,  in  order  to  prepare  you  for  that  opposition  which  we 
are  destined  to  from  the  religious  world.  It  had  come  to  a  stand- 
still, and  was  going  to  be  given  up,  when  Mr.  Drummond  and  Hal- 
dane,  and  Lord  Mandeville,  and  a  few  others,  resolved  to  take  it  up 
and  make  it  a  truly  Christian  paper,  adopting  J?«'e  clivino  doctrine 
with  respect  to  Church  and  State  at  home,  and  Protestant  principles 
with  respect  to  our  foreign  affairs,  such  as  Cromwell  taught  Papal 
Europe  to  fear.  The  moment  it  was  heard  by  the  religious  world 
(the  Evangelical)  that  it  was  coming  into  the  hands  of  such  men,  they 
rallied  themselves,  subscribed  plentifully,  and  are  resolved  to  carry 
it  on.  .  .  .  Such  is  the  idea  entertained  of  us,  and  such  is  the  present 
standing  of  the  Record  religious  newspaper.  Prepare  yourself,  ray 
love,  for  casting  out  of  the  synagogue.  I  am  sure  it  will  come  to 
this,  and  that,  according  to  our  faithfulness  in  testifying  to  the  death, 
will  be  our  acceptancy  and  admission  into  the  kingdom  of  the  Lord. 
.  .  .  Beloved,  I  desire  you  to  love  me  as  I  love  you,  and  let  us  love 
one  another  as  one  self;  not  as  one  another,  but  one — the  same." 

"31st  July. 
"  However  short  the  time  I  can  snatch,  I  know,  though  it  were  but 
a  line  that  I  wrote,  it  will  yield  you  pleasure  as  a  token  of  my  afiec- 
tion,  and  therefore  I  do  not  hesitate,  in  the  midst  of  my  many  occu- 
pations, to  send  you  these  hasty  and  most  insufficient  letters.  ...  In 
the  mean  time,  I  have  been  slowly  working  out  Mr.  Drummond's 
book ;  for,  as  nsual,  I  always  feel  myself  pressed  with  a  superfluity 
of  matter,  which  I  take  as  a  gracious  token  of  the  Lord's  goodness, 
and  a  call,  at  the  same  time,  not  to  slacken  in  ray  endeavors  to  arouse 
the  Church.  It  would  have  pleased  you  to  see  alraost  the  whole 
body  of  the  church  full  last  night,  listening  to  the  exposition  of  the 
last  part  of  the  nineteenth  chapter  of  the  Revelation.  I  believe  the 
Spirit  can  not  now  be  quenched.  I  feel  the  assurance  of  it,  that  the 
Lord's  people  are  destined  to  raake  a  stand  in  this  place  for  His 
truth.  The  Dissenters  are  showing  signs  of  fear  in  beginning  to  or- 
ganize a  lecture  for  next  winter  upon  the  subject  of  unfulfilled  proph- 
ecy ;  and  I  hear  they  are  prevailing  against  me  in  various  parts,  and 
that  I  am  generally  reported  among  them  as  a  man  wholly  mad.  I 
trust  there  is  enough  of  method  in  my  madness  to  expose  all  their 


324  HIS  BIRTHDAY.— INSTEUCTIONS  AND  PRAYERS. 

treachery  to  Christ  and  His  Church.  About  fifteen  of  the  chief  Prot- 
estant noblemen,  with  the  Duke  of  Gordon  at  their  head,  have  begun 
to  organize  among  themselves  a  Protestant  Association,  to  act,  not  as 
a  body,  but  with  a  mutual  understanding  in  their  several  parts  of  the 
country.  They  begin  now  to  perceive  the  sanctimonious  mask  of  Sa- 
tan concerning  the  Sacraments  when  it  is  too  late.  .  .  .  Elizabeth 
was  with  us  a  good  part  of  yesterday.  We  went  out  and  looked  at 
some  houses,  but  as  yet  I  see  none  to  my  mind ;  and,  indeed,  I  am 
rather  disposed,  if  I  could  bring  it  about,  to  take  a  lodging  for  you 
and  the  children  somewhere  in  the  neighborhood  of  town,  and  to 
come  in  and  out  myself  for  some  mouths  until  you  are  strong.  I 
would  like  to  hear  your  mind  upon  this  subject.  .  .  .  Miss  Macdon- 
ald  and  I  amuse  ourselves  among  hands  with  reading  a  very  curious 
German  book  of  travels,  full  of  beautiful  plates — above  all  measure 
interesting.  I  think  I  shall  be  beyond  you  in  German  when  you  re- 
turn, for  I  begin  to  like  it  very  much :  it  is  a  rare  book  for  Maggy, 
the  plates  are  so  magnificent.     I  heard  from  George  the  other  day  by 

Mr.  R ,  and  I  have  remitted  him  £30  in  clearing  of  his  expenses 

and  enabling  him  to  return.  .  .  .  Would  you  believe  it,  that  the  Bap- 
tist minister  refused  to  baptize  Miss  C because  she  declared  that 

she  expected  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  ordinance  ?  Indeed, 
there  is  no  saying  to  what  lengths  they  will  go.  They  will  now  stop 
at  nothing.  .  .  .  God  preserve  my  Margaret  and  Samuel  imto  the 
eternal  kingdom !  I  often  think  woefully  of  the  pair  that  are  gone 
before ;  but  I  ought  not.  The  Lord  preserve  me  from  all  murmur- 
ings ;  but  I  am  a  very  wicked  man.  The  Lord  alone  can  keep  me  in 
peace  and  tranquillity." 

* '  Mornington  Terrace,  Hampstead  Road,  4tli  August. 
"  On  this  day  and  at  this  hour,  thirty-six  years  ago,  I  entered  into 
this  sinful  world,  and  very  evil  have  been  the  days  of  my  pilgrimage, 
and  sore  grieved  am  I  this  morning  to  look  out  upon  the  past.  Noth- 
ing could  comfort  me  but  the  blessed  revelation  that  it  is  so  ordered 
of  the  Lord  that  our  flesh  should  be  full  only  of  sin,  and  that  by  this 
ordinance  His  glory  is  advanced.  This  is  not, '  Let  us  sin  that  grace 
may  abound,'  but  it  is, '  The  grace  of  God  aboundeth  by  my  sin,'  and 
therefore,  I  am  born  a  sinner,  and,  being  so,  I  am  not  to  be  discon- 
tented or  murmur  against  God,  but  betake  myself  to  the  remedy 
which  He  hath  provided,  which  remedy  will  only  lay  open  the  disease 
more,  and  force  us  out  oif  ourselves  into  the  Redeemer.  The  number 
of  sins  Avhich  I  have  committed  are  to  me  profitable  to  reflect  ujDon 
only  as  they  confirm  the  truth,  which,  by  faith,  I  have  received  and 
hold,  that  the  whole  race  of  mankind  is  fallen,  and,  as  such,  can  not 
cease  from  sin.  He  that  hath  believed  this  is  farther  advanced  than 
the  greatest  spiritualist,  who  seeks  and  sighs  that  be  may  be  torn  up 
with  racking  emotions  and  painful  workings  of  remorse.  The  work 
of  the  Spirit,  in  convincing  of  sin,  is  not  by  agonizing  convictions,  and 
bringing  of  us,  as  it  were,  to  hell's  mouth,  but  by  a  calm  and  settled 
avoiding  of  ourselves  and  the  fallen  world,  always  for  the  preference 
of  Christ  and  the  world  to  come.  I  therefore  desire  and  pray,  both 
for  myself  and  for  my  own  dear  wife,  that  we  may  at  all  times  prefer 
the  glory  of  God  in  Christ  revealed  to  that  temporary  well-being  of 


THE  LOST  TRIBES.  395 

the  creatuvG  which  is  to  be  found  iu  this  foUen  Avorld.  There  is  a 
well-being  and  perfection  of  the  creature  to  be  found  here,  otherwise 
there  would  be  no  glory  to  God  in  our  preference  of  that  eternal  per- 
fection Avhich  we  have  in  Christ.  In  this  way  the  Holy  Spirit  acteth 
in  and  upon  us,  not  by  making  us  insensible  to  the  worldly  well-be- 
ing, but,  while  we  are  alive  thereto,  by  leading  us  to  prefer  our  bet- 
ter being  in  Christ,  He  hath  not  a  pleasure  in  cruelty,  or  torturing 
us  with  what  so  many  seek  to  have  worked  up  in  their  experiences 
of  a  great  and  grievous  sort,  but  He  delighteth  in  our  peace  and  joy, 
and  giveth  us  to  see  the  excellency  and  loveliness  of  our  blessed  Jesus, 
who  hath  been  tried  Avith  every  infirmity  of  the  fallen  creature,  which 
in  us  becometh  sin,  but  in  Him  stayed  at  infirmity  and  temptation. 
In  perceiving  that  our  Lord's  flesh  was  altogether  such  as  ours,  we 
may  well  be  comforted,  dear  Isabella,  to  abide  in  this  flesh,  all-sinful 
though  it  be,  and  await  the  good  pleasure  of  the  Lord.  So  may  we, 
having  a  body  conversant  only  with  wickedness,  and  in  itself  compe- 
tent only  to  the  suggestion  of  sin,  be  so  possessed  with  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  (not  the  Holy  Ghost  in  his  imlimited  divinity,  but  the  Spirit 
of  Christ,  that  is,  the  Holy  Ghost,  proceeding  through  the  man-soul  of 
Christ,  and  bringing  with  Him  the  humanity  of  Christ,  His  holy  hu- 
manity, to  bear  up  against,  and  overcome,  our  wicked  humanity.  Oh, 
blessed  mystery !)  that  we  may,  notwithstanding  of  the  flesh  anima- 
ted only  to  evil,  be  able  to  love  and  obey  God  from  the  heart.  In 
all  these  thoughts,  instructions,  and  prayers  to  and  for  my  beloved 
wife,  I  have  my  sweet  children  in  my  mind  no  less  than  their  mother, 
whom  God  beholdeth  all  represented  by  me.  So  may  I  bear  them 
forever  on  ray  heart ! 

"  Our  dear  friend,  Mr.  Paget,  of  Leicester,  was  in  church  all  yes- 
terday, and  kindly  came  down  to  converse  during  part  of  the  inter- 
val. I  wish  you  knew  him.  He  is  truly  a  divine — more  of  a  divine 
than  all  my  acquaintances.  ...  He  also,  like  Campbell  and  Erskine, 
sees  Christ's  death  to  be  on  account  of  the  whole  Avorld,  so  as  that 
He  might  be  the  Lord  both  of  the  election  and  the  reprobation,  and 
that  it  is  the  will  of  God  to  give  eternal  life  by  the  Holy  Ghost  to 
whom  it  pleaseth  Him.  I  first  came  to  the  conviction  of  that  truth 
on  that  Saturday  when,  at  Harrow,  after  breakfasting  with  a  bishop 
and  a  vicar,  I  sat  down  to  prepare  a  meal  for  my  peo2:)le.  He  thinks 
the  Calvinistic  scheme  confines  this  matter  by  setting  forth  Christ  as 
dying,  instead  of,  whereas  there  is  no  stead  in  the  matter,  but  on  ac- 
count of,  for  the  sake  of,  to  bring  about  reconciliation.  He  also 
thinks  that  the  righteousness  of  Christ  which  is  imputed  to  ns  is  not 
the  righteousness  of  the  Ten  Commandments,  which  He  kept,  and 
which  is  only  a  fleshly  righteousness,  but  the  righteousness  into 
which  He  hath  entered  by  the  resurrection — that  super-celestial  glo- 
ry whereof  we  now  partake,  being  one  with  Him,  and  living  a  resur- 
rection life.  This  I  believe ;  and  I  take  it  to  be  a  most  important 
distinction  indeed. 

"  Mr.  Drummond  was  at  church  last  night,  and  brought  me  as  far 
as  Miss  Macdonald's  in  his   carriage.     He  was  telling  me  a  very/ 
extraordinary  piece  of  intelligence,  if  it  be  true,  namely,  that  thef 
Tribes  have  been  discovered,  twenty  miUions  in  number,  inhabiting 


1 


326  ARRANGEMENT  ABOUT  HIS  TRINITY  SERMONS. 

the  region  north  of  Cashmere  and  toward  Bokhara,  in  the  great  cen- 
tral plain  of  Asia.  It  would  seem  that  there  came  men  from  them  to 
Leipsic  fair  who  brought  this  intelligence.  They  were  trading  in 
Cashmere  shawls.  ...  I  will  let  you  know  more  of  this  Avhen  I  hear 
farther  concerning  it.  I  am  to  dine  with  Mr.  Drumraond  this  day 
week,  to  settle  who  are  to  be  of  the  Albury  Conference.  He  seems 
to  think  that  we  must  select  with  more  caution,  as  some  of  the  peo- 
ple last  year  have  not  been  very  faithful.  I  hope  it  is  only  malicious 
report.  Oh,  that  w^e  were  filled  yviih.  the  love  and  the  life  of  Christ ! 
I  have  had  but  a  restless  night,  and  I  write  this  fasting.  It  is  just 
striking  twelve  upon  the  Somers-town  church,  which  is  almost  right 
opposite  my  Avindow^  Avith  a  green  grass-park  full  of  milch  cows*  be- 
tween, which  I  overlook  on  this  sweet  autumn-like  morning.  My 
dear  brother !  oh,  my  brother !  how  oft,  on  such  mornings,  have  we 
rejoiced  in  our  childhood  together;  and  behold,  thy  visible  part 
moulders  in  the  dust  far  away,  and  mine  abideth  here  still.  May  Ave 
meet  at  the  throne  of  the  glory  of  God  !  This  is  not  a  prayer  for  the 
dead,  but  for  the  living.  Miss  Macdonald  is  to  come  at  tAvelve  to 
write.  What  excellence  is  Avrapped  up  in  that  name — right-hearted, 
tender-hearted  Avoman !  Thou  art,  indeed,  a  comfort  to  me,  in  the 
absence  of  my  Avife  and  children,  Avorth  many  sisters.  Farewell,  my 
dear  Isabella ;  make  no  tarrying  to  return ;  our  time  may  be  short 
together,  let  it  be  SAveet.  I  bless  the  children  in  the  name  of  the 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost." 

"15th  August. 

"  God  hath  enabled  us,  my  dear  wife,  to  be  in  perfect  resignation 
to  His  wall,  and  in  much  affliction  to  say,  'Thy  Avill  be  done!'  His 
actings  in  Providence  are  the  declarations  of  His  sovereignty,  and  our 
receiving  them  Avith  thankfulness  is  our  thankful  acknoAvledgment 
of  the  same.  Therefore,  to  me  and  mine  be  it  according  to  the  Avill 
of  God.  I  did  rejoice  exceedingly  Avhen  I  found  that  He  had  been 
pleased  to  shine  on  us  with  His  face,  and  I  trust  He  Avill  continue  to 
do  so  more  and  more.  It  is  \'ery  sAveet  to  me  to  receive  your  letters, 
and  to  bear  the  share  of  your  burdens.  I  have  thought  it  might  con- 
duce to  your  health  and  the  children's  to  try  the  air  of  Monimail,  and, 
if  that  did  not  recruit  you,  might  it  not  be  advisable  to  try  the  very 
mild  air  of  Annan  or  Moflat?  But  act  in  this  matter  as  you  judge 
best.  I  think  our  desires  are  equal,  to  be  separated  no  longer  than 
is  absolutely  necessary. 

"  Your  prayers  concerning  my  books  have  been  ansAvered,  in  one 
respect  already,  that  yesterday  and  to-day  I  have  been  directed,  I 
think,  in  great  wisdom,  and  delivered  from  great  perplexity.  You 
knoAV  how  the  book  for  the  Church  hath  passed  to  three  volumes. 
It  is  now  my  purpose  to  make  it  three  complete  volumes,  and  not  to 
burden  the  Church  Avith  the  risk,  but  to  give  them  Mr.  Drummond's 
book,f  Avhich  I  think  Avill  come  into  immediate  and  Avide  circulation, 

*  This  description  will  startle  the  present  inhabitants  of  that  crowcled  and  busy 
district. 

t  By  "  Mr.  Drummond's  book"  Irving  evidently  means  the  Last  Bai/s,  Mr.  Drum- 
raond, it  would  appear,  having  specially  suggested  or  approved  it. 


THE  BISHOP  OF  CHESTER.  327 

the  expense  being  already  provided  for.  And  now,  having  the  other 
work  on  my  hand,  I  propose  adding  to  the  first  part  another  discourse 
upon  the  'Method  of  the  Incarnation,'  which  will  complete  the  whole 
doctrine  ....  and  this  done,  I  offer  the  thousand  copies  to  any  book- 
seller in  Edinburgh,  being  resolved  to  bring  it  out  in  the  heart  of  my 
mother  Church,  as  containing  the  whole  doctrine  on  which  she  is  be- 
come so  feeble,  and  containing,  besides,  much  prophetic  matter,  and 
much  natural  and  ecclesiastical,  wliich  may  prepare  the  way  for  the 
other  work,  upon  which  I  find  I  must  at  least  spend  a  diligent  winter. 
This,  therefore,  I  intend  immediately  to  arrange  for,  by  means  of  my 
friend,  Mr,  Bridges,  to  Avhom  I  will  write,  and  ask  him  to  negotiate 
with  the  booksellers  for  me.  This  I  think  a  very  great  deliverance, 
and  humbly  trust  to  see  prosperous  unto  the  Church  of  Christ  and 
the  glory  of  God.  The  additional  discourse  will  bring  the  first  vol- 
ume up  to  the  size  of  the  other  two,  being  400  pages ;  and  I  will  dis- 
tinctly state  the  reason  of  it  to  be  my  becoming  aware  of  the  exist- 
ence of  the  heresy  in  the  Church.  Be  of  good  cheer;  the  Lord  is 
not  raising  a  controversy  about  these  things  for  naught. 

"I  am  now  sleeping  at  Mr.  Hamilton's, but  working  here  with  ray 
most  faithful  fellow-workman,  and  I  trust  attaining  to  deeper  and 
deeper  insight  into  the  mystery  of  God,  as  also  is  my  flock.  To-night 
we  begin  Ezekiel  at  Mr.  Tudor's,  and  I  trust  the  Lord  will  be  with 
us.  Mr.  Marsh  intends  to  be  of  our  party ;  and  Miss  Macdonald  has 
consented  to  accompany  me.  .  .  .  Mr.  Drumraond  told  us  that  the 
new  London  College  was  an  idea  of  the  archbishop's  thrown  out  to 
the  king,  without  thinking  he  would  approve  it.  But  he  did  at  once, 
and  the  archbishop  pledged  the  bishops,  who  Avere  invited  to  Lam- 
beth, knowing  not  wherefore,  as  a  bishop  told  Mr. .     When  they 

were  come  together,  the  archbishop  told  them  he  had  pledged  them 
to  the  king.  They  were  loth,  but  could  not  draw  back,  and  con- 
sented, in  the  hope  it  might  come  to  nothing.  The  Lord  leads  men 
blindly;  it  is  now  come  to  £100,000,  and  will  go  on,  I  hope,  to  the 
defeat  of  the  infidel,  or  to  the  showing  out  the  Dissenters  as  the  op- 
posers  of  religion  established,  and  the  preferrers  of  infidelity  unestab- 
lished,  and  the  establishers  of  it.  Dr.  Sumner,  now  Bishop  of  Chester, 
was  in  Hatchard's,  and  said  to  a  clergyman  whom  he  met  there, '  I 
have  a  note  here  to  wait  upon  the  Duke  of  Wellington ;  tell  me 
where  he  lives.'  He  went,  was  back  in  about  ten  minutes,  and  the 
clergyman  was  still  there.  '  You  have  soon  got  your  business  over.' 
'  Yes,  and  in  so  short  a  time  I  am  promoted  to  the  see  of  Chester.  I 
was  shown  into  a  room ;  in  came  the  duke :  Are  you  Dr.  Sumner  ? 
I  am  commanded  to  offer  you  the  bishopric  of  Chester.  Do  you  ac- 
cept it  or  not?  Yes?  Then  put  down  your  name  here.  Good- 
morning.'  And  so  he  left  him.  This  is  from  good  authority,  Mr. 
Drummond  says.  I  send  it  to  amuse  you  and  your  father.  .  .  .  The 
Lord  bless  you  and  ray  children,  and  all  your  house." 

"  18th  August. 

"  I  am  glad  to-day  to  have  no  accounts  from  you,  concluding  that 

dear  Samuel  is  recovering,  and  that  the  mild  weather  will  be  blessed 

to  i,he  speedy  restoration  of  your  strength ;  yet,  while  I  thus  hope 

and  pray,  I  desire  to  submit  myself  and  mine  to  the  great  Sovereign 


328  CONTKACT  WITH  PUBLISHERS. 

Disposer,  who  orderetli  all  according  to  the  pleasure  of  His  own  will. 
I  feel  that  this  is,  indeed,  to  feel  and  to  act  upon  my  election  of  God, 
to  surrender  all  things  unto  Him  as  a  righteous  and  tender  father,  in 
which  I  know  you  labor  along  with  me.  By  the  blessing  of  God,  I 
continue  equal  to  my  duties.  ...  I  am,  indeed,  very  anxious  that 
you  should  remove  before  those  cold  winds,  which  proved  in  God's 
hand  fatal  to  our  dear  Edward.  Whenever  you  do  propose  it,  you 
should  begin  to  have  preparations  made  for  your  removal  in  such 
time  as  to  leave  you  nothing  to  do  for  a  day  or  two  before,  but  to 
take  leave  of  your  family  and  step  into  the  carriage  or  the  boat.  .  .  . 
You  may  think  this  is  shooting  far  ahead,  but  I  am,  indeed,  desirous 
that  you  and  my  children  should  be  with  me  as  soon  as  is  consistent 
with  health  and  safety,  for  I  dread  these  east  winds,  and  long  to  be 
your  nurse,  if  not  in  bodily,  at  least  in  spiritual  matters. 

"  I  have  signed  a  contract  with  Seeley  for  the  three  volumes,  to 
the  first  of  which  I  intend  to  add  a  fifth  sermon,  demonstrative  of 
Christ's  true  humanity.  I  take  all  the  risk,  pay  the  printers,  and  have 
a  guinea  for  each  copy,  allowing  him  £5  per  cent.,  which,  if  they  sell, 
will  leave  me  £1000,  and  the  expenses  of  printing,  etc.,  will  be  about 
half  of  it.  It  is  provided  that  I  may  have  separate  agents  for  Glas- 
gow and  Edinburgh,  with  whom  (Collins  and  Olii^hant,  I  jjropose, 
with  your  judgment)  I  will  make  a  similar  contract  for  those  Avhich 
they  may  sell.  Miss  Macdonald  has  already  pressed  upon  me  £300, 
which  she  has  no  use  for  at  the  banker's,  to  pay  the  printing.  It  is 
a  book  for  much  good  or  evil,  both  to  the  Church  and  myself,  I  dis- 
tinctly foresee.  I  intend  to  read  it  all  over  with  the  utmost  diligence, 
and  correct  it  with  the  greatest  care.  The  other  book  is  i^roceeding 
fast — we  are  now  about  the  350th  page ;  it  will  be  about  450.  I 
have  the  sweetest  testimonies,  both  from  Ireland  and  from  Mr.  Mac- 
lean, to  my  book  on  Baptism — or  rather,  I  should  say,  yours — for  to 
you,  I  believe,  the  thoughts  were  given,  as  to  you  they  are  dedicated. 
My  little  tale  is  now  completed,  about  eighteen  pages,  and  I  have 
asked  a  revise,  that  I  may  send  it  to  you  under  cover.  We  have  had 
a,2yro-re-7iata  meeting  of  Presbytery,  and  I  am  much  exhausted.  I 
shall  now  close  with  my  blessing — the  blessing  of  the  Father,  Son, 
and  Holy  Ghost  be  upon  the  head  of  my  dear  wife,  and  my  two  chil- 
dren, forever  and  ever." 

The  "little  tale"  here  referred  to  was  a  quaint  and  graceful  lit- 
tle narrative,  entitled  a  Tale  of  the  Times  of  the  Martyrs,  which  his 
countryman,  Allan  Cunningham,  then  engaged  in  the  arduous  oc- 
cupation of  editing  an  Annual,  had  persuaded  him  to  write.  The 
Annual  in  question  was  the  Anniversary,  a  publication  which,  I 
believe,  lived  and  died  in  one  appearance.  Irving's  story  is  a  fine 
piece  of  writing,  in  the  same  style  of  minute  and  simple  narrative 
as  his  journals,  but  is  chiefly  remarkable  as  his  only  attempt  in 
the  lighter  form  of  literature,  excepting,  indeed,  another  brief  nar- 
rative, equally  minute,  quaint,  and  melancholy,  entitled  The  Loss 
of  the  Abeona,  which  appeared  in  Frazer^s  Magazine  nearly  about 


EXCESS  OF  HEALTH.  329 

the  same  time.  Both  are  true,  detailed,  and  simple  to  the  last  de- 
gree, and  convey  the  reader  into  a  primitive  world  of  heightened, 
but  profoundly  reserved  Scotch  imagination,  very  remarkable  and 
impressive  in  its  way.  IIow  he  could  have  found  time  for  such 
elaborate,  minute  cabinet  pictures,  amid  all  his  great  labors  and 
studies,  is  more  than  one  can  understand. 

His  next  letters  are  occupied  with  a  project  of  visiting  Harrow- 
gate,  which  Mr.  Drummond  had  proposed  to  him.  Irving's  health 
was  shaken  at  the  time ;  at  least,  he  was  in  such  a  condition  of 
discomfort  as  the  strongest  frames,  shut  out  from  external  nature, 
and  pursued  by  an  incessant  flood  of  thought,  are  naturally  liable 
to.  His  doctor  told  him  that,  "  as  my  complaints  proceed  rather 
from  an  excess  of  health  and  disarrangement  of  the  functions 
through  much  thought,  they  (the  Harrowgate  waters)  would  be 
of  little  good  or  evil  to  so  robust  a  person ;"  yet,  tempted  by  Mr. 
Drummond's  society,  and  by  the  fact  that  Harrowgate  was  so  far 
on  his  way  to  the  North,  whither  he  was  anxious  to  go  to  bring 
home  his  wife,  of  whose  prolonged  absence  he  began  to  be  very 
impatient,  he  seems  to  have  persuaded  himself  to  the  contrary, 
and  went  accordingly.     From  Harrowgate  he  writes  as  follows : 

"9th  September,  1828. 
"  My  dear  Isabella, — We  arrived  here  last  night  about  1 2  o'clock, 
and,  now  that  I  have  paid  my  respects  to  the  well  and  breakfast,  I  sit 
down  to  write  you  with  Mr.  Drummond's  pen,  ink,  and  paper,  but 
with  my  own  heart.  ...  I  do  trust  this  my  coming  here  is  ordered 
of  the  Lord  for  the  restoration  of  my  strength,  that  I  may  serve  Him 
with  more  dihgence  and  ability  during  the  winter.  Lately  there  has 
been  too  great  a  sympathy  between  my  head  and  my  stomach,  so 
much  so  as  to  cause  slight  headaches  ever  after  eating.  ...  I  doubt 
not  that  the  root  of  the  matter  is  study,  which  of  late  has  been  with 
me  of  a  deeper,  intenser,  and  clearer  kind  than  at  any  former  period 
of  my  life,  as  I  think  will  appear  in  the  things  which  are  now  in  the 
hands  of  the  printers.  Besides  the  conclusion  of  my  book  on  the 
Last  ^imes,  Ihave  written  150  or  160  of  Miss  Macdonald's  pages 
upon  the  Method  of  the  Incarnation.  ...  It  will  be  a  body  and  cen- 
tre to  the  whole  discourse,  which  now  has  a  perfectly  logical  meth- 
od: 1.  The  origin  or  fountain-head  of  the  Avhole  in  the  will  of  God. 
2.  The  end  of  it  unto  His  glory.  3.  The  method  of  it  by  the  union 
with  the  fallen  creature.  4.  The  act  of  it  by  the  life  and  death  of  the 
God-man,  and  his  descent  into  hell.  5.  The  fruits  of  it  in  grace  and 
peace  to  mankind ;  and,  finally,  conclusions  concerning  the  Creator 
and  the  creature.  If  I  mistake  not,  my  dear  Isabella,  there  is  much 
more  to  God's  glory  in  that  volume  than  in  all  my  other  writings 
put  together.  ...  I  have  been  strongly  impressed,  at  the  conclusion 
of  the  book,  with  the  necessity  of  imdertaking  a  Avork  upon  the  Holy 
Spirit  and  the  Church,  but  whether  in  the  way  of  a  completion  of 


330  HARROWGATE. 

tlie  introduction  to  Ben-Ezra,  or  in  a  separate  treatise,  I  am  not  yet 
resolved  ;  and  then,  if  God  spare  me,  I  midertake  a  work  upon  the 
Trinity.  What  most  blessed  themes  these  are!  They  ravish  my 
heart,  and  fill  me  with  the  most  enlarged  and  exquisite  delight.  .  .  , 
Oh,  my  dear  Isabella,  how  I  long  to  be  with  you  again,  and  to  be  one 
with  you,  unseparated  by  distance  of  place  or  interruption  of  vision, 
and  to  embrace  my  dear  children !  God  grant  me  patience  and  con- 
stancy of  affection,  and  a  heart  of  more  tenderness." 

"  17th  September. 

"  I  dare  say  this  "\\  ater  would  do  me  good  if  I  were  to  stay  long 
enough,  for  it  seems  to  enter  into  strong  controversy  with -my  com- 
plaint, and  I  think,  in  the  end,  would  overcome  it.  But  stay  I  can 
not,  for  my  communion  hastens,  and  my  duties  call  me  to  London. 
This  is  truly  my  chief  reason  for  not  delaying  my  joxtrney  to  Scot- 
land so  long  as  you  seem  to  have  desired.  To  remain  separate  for  a 
whole  half  year  from  my  wife  and  children  is  to  me  no  small  trial. 
When  God  requires  it,  I  trust  I  shall  be  able  to  submit  to  it ;  but 
when  there  is  no  such  call,  I  freely  confess  myself  little  disposed  to 
it.  .  .  .  Besides,  though  we  know  differently,  such  separations  lead 
to  idle  speculation,  which  it  is  good  to  prevent.  That  it  is  possible 
to  prevent  intrusion  in  London  I  have  found  during  the  last  two 
months  ;  and  if  London  do  not  agree  with  you,  I  should  be  glad  to 
take  a  place  for  you  wherever  you  please,  but  I  confess  myself  very 
loth  to  be  separated  from  you  and  my  children  longer  than  is  neces- 
sary, and  shall  be  slow  in  consenting  to  it  again. 

"The  other  day  the  new  Bishop  of  Chester,  Dr.  Sumner,  confirmed 
about  two  or  three  liundred  persons.  He  had  been  instituted,  or 
consecrated,  only  the  day  before  at  Bishopthorpe,  the  residence  of 
the  Archbishop  of  York,  and  made  this  his  first  .duty.  It  was  to  me 
very  impressive,  and  I  hope  very  profitable.  .  .  .  His  brother,  the 
Bishop  ofW^inchester,  bore  him  company,  and  I  was  much  impressed 
with  the  ejjiscoiDal  authority  and  sanctity  of  their  aj^pearance.  In- 
deed, the  more  I  look  into  the  Church  of  England,  the  more  do  I 
recognize  the  marks  of  a  true  Apostolical  Church,  and  desire  to  see 
somewhat  of  the  same  ecclesiastical  dignity  transferred  to  the  ofiice- 
bearers  of  our  Church,  which  hath  the  same  orders  of  bishops,  jiriests 
or  presbyters  or  elders,  and  deacons,  whereof  the  last  is  clean  gone, 
the  second  little  better,  and  the  first  hath  more  of  Avorldly  propriety, 
or  literary  and  intellectual  character,  than  of  episcopal  authority  and 
grave  wisdom.  Oh,  that  the  Lord  would  revive  His  work  in  our 
land !  In  what  I  have  said  I  do  not  affect  the  ceremony,  or  state,  or 
wealth  of  the  English  Church,  but  desire  to  see  some  more  of  the 
true  primitive  and  Scottish  character  of  our  Church  restored.  I 
would  wish  every  parish  minister  to  fulfill  the  bishop's  ofiice,  every 
elder  the  priest's,  and  every  deacon  the  deacon's ;  and  I  am  convinced 
that,  till  the  same  is  attempted,  through  faith  in  the  ordinances,  we 
shall  not  prosper  in  the  government  and  pastorship  of  our  churches. 

k"  To-day  I  have  received  a  copy  of  Dr.  Hamilton's  book  against 
illenarianism,  and  have  been  reading  it  all  this  morning :  I  think  it 
breathes  a  virulent  spirit,  and  seeks  occasions  of  offense.     I  receive 
y  share  of  his  censure.     I  said  to  your  father  I  would  answer  it, 


THE  YEAR'S  WORK.  33 1 

but  as  yet  I  have  found  liotliing  to  answer,  save  his  attempt  to  ex- 
pose my  inconsistencies  with  others,  and  theirs  with  me.  Now,  ver- 
ily, I  am  not  called  ujdou  to  be  consistent  with  any  one  but  God's 
own  Word.  Still,  if  I  had  time,  I  would,  for  the  sake  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  which  I  love,  and  to  which  I  owe  my  duty,  undertake  an 
answer  to  it ;  but  at  present  my  hands  are  filled.  I  wish  Samuel 
would  break  a  spear  with  him. 

"  I  shall  drink  the  waters  till  Friday  morning,  and  then  proceed  on 
my  way  to  York,  from  Avhicli  I  will  take  the  first  coach  that  I  can 
get  to  Edinburgh.  .  .  .  On  Monday,  I  trust,  the  Lord  willing,  I  will 
be  permitted  to  embrace  you  all.  .  .  .  Tell  Maggy  that  she  must 
make  herself  ready  to  set  out  on  this  day  week  for  London.  My 
dear  Samuel  is  oft  on  my  mind  at  the  throne  of  grace.  God  alone 
can  convey  my  messages  to  him." 

So  concluded  this  sejoaration,  which  at  length  made  the  solitary 
head  of  the  house  imjDatient,  and  produced  the  nearest  approach 
to  ill-temper  which  is  to  be  found  in  any  of  Irving's  letters.  He 
conveyed  his  family  home  to  Miss  Macdonald's  house  in  the  end 
of  September,  where  they  seem  to  have  remained  for  a  consider- 
able time,  their  kind  hostess  forming  one  of  the  household.  The 
ceaseless  occupation  of  this  year  is  something  wonderful  to  con- 
template. The  Homilies  on  Bcq^iism,  the  three  volumes  of  ser- 
mons, and  the  Last  Days,  were  but  a  portion  of  the  works  so  lib- 
erally undertaken  and  so  conscientiously  carried  out.  In  the  in- 
tervals of  those  prodigious  labors  he  had  not  only  his  own  pas- 
toral work  to  carry  on  from  week  to  week,  but,  by  way  of  holi- 
day, indulged  in  a  preaching  tour  with  sermons  every  day ;  threw 
himself  into  the  concerns  of  the  time  with  a  vehemence  as  unusu- 
al as  it  was  all  opposed  to  the  popular  tide  of  feeling ;  and  be- 
came the  centre  of  a  description  of  study,  known,  when  it  throws 
its  fascination  upon  men,  to  be  the  most  absorbing  which  can  oc- 
cupy human  intelligence.  In  this  height  and  fullness  of  his  life, 
men  of  all  conditions  sought  Irving,  with  their  views  of  Scripture 
and  prophecy.  He  heard  all,  noted  all,  and  set  to  work  in  his 
own  teeming  brain  to  find  place  and  arrangement  for  each.  The 
patience  with  which  he  listens  to  every  man  is  as  remarkable  as 
the  cloud  of  profound  and  incessant  thought  in  which  his  mind 
seems  enveloped,  without  rest  or  interval ;  and  his  perpetual  hu- 
man helpfulness  is  equally  notable.  When  the  Presbytery  of 
London,  doubtless  moved  by  his  own  exertions,  sends  forth  a  pas- 
toral letter  to  the  Scotch  community  in  London,  it  is  Irving  who 
takes  the  pen  and  pours  forth,  like  a  prophet,  his  burden  of  grief 
and  yearning,  his  appeal  and  entreaty,  and  denouncing  voice,  call- 


332  PASTORAL  DUTIES. 

ing  upon  those  baptized  members  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  who 
have  forgotten  their  mother  to  return  to  her  care  and  love ;  and 
scarcely  are  these  grave  entreaties  over,  than,  at  a  friend's  impul- 
sion, he  is  again  devoting  his  leisure  hours — those  hours  full  of 
every  thing  but  rest — to  that  grave  picture  of  the  martyr's  son, 
which  must  have  startled  the  ordinary  readers  of  Annuals  into 
the  strangest  emotion  and  amazement ;  while  conjoined  with  all 
this  is  the  entire  detail  of  a  pastor's  duties  —  visits  of  all  kinds, 
meetings  with  young  men,  death-bed  conferences,  consultations  of 
Session  and  Presbytery,  into  all  of  which  he  enters  with  an  inter- 
est such  as  most  men  can  only  reserve  for  the  most  important 
portions  of  their  work.  So  full  a  stream  of  life,  all  rounded  and 
swelling  with  great  throbs  of  hope  and  solemn  expectation,  seldom 
appears  among  the  feeble  and  interrupted  currents  of  common 
existence.  It  is  impossible  to  understand  how  there  could  be  one 
unoccupied  moment  in  it;  yet  there  are  moments  in  which  he 
reads  German  with  Miss  Macdonald,  or  enters  into  the  fascinating 
gossip  of  Henry  Drummond,  or  consults  with  the  young  wife  Eliz- 
abeth over  her  new  plenishing,  and  what  is  needful  to  her  house. 
Though  they  meet  in  solemn  session  in  the  evening  upon  the  high 
mysteries  of  Ezekiel,  he  makes  cheerful  errands  forth  with  this 
sister  to  look  at  houses,  and  prepares  by  anticipation  for  the  re- 
turn of  those  still  dearer  to  him,  and  has  domestic  tidings  of  all 
his  friends  to  send  to  his  lingering  and  delicate  wife.  Amid  all, 
he  feels  that  this  time,  so  full  and  prosperous — this  period  in  which 
he  has  come  to  the  middle  of  life's  allotted  course,  the  top  of  the 
arch,  as  Dante  calls  it — is  a  time  of  wonderful  moment  to  himself 
no  less  than  to  his  Church.  He  feels  that  his  studies  have  been 
"  of  a  deeper,  intenser,  and  clearer  kind  than  at  any  former  period 
of  my  life."  He  "  distinctly  foresees"  that  one  of  the  books  he  is 
about  to  publish  is  "  a  book  for  much  good  or  evil,  both  to  the 
Church  and  myself,"  though  convinced  that  there  is  also  more  for 
God's  glory  in  it  than  "in  all  my  other  writings  put  together;" 
he  has,  in  short,  come  to  the  threshold  of  a  new  world,  which  yet 
he  can  not  see,  but  which  vaguely  thrills  him  with  prophetic 
tremors — a  world  to  him  radiant  with  ever-unfolding  truth,  per- 
secutions, glories,  martyrdoms,  one  like  unto  the  Son  of  Man  in 
the  midst  of  the  fiery  l3urning  with  him,  and  the  Lord  visible  in 
the  flesh,  vindicating  his  saints  at  the  end.  Such  was  not  the  fu- 
ture which  awaited  the  heroic  devoted  soul,  but  such  was  the  form 
in  which  his  anticipations  presented  it  now. 


THRESHOLD  OF  A  NEW  FUTURE.  333 

I  may  be  pardoned  for  lingering  on  this  splendid  and  overflow- 
ing year.  Irving  had  already  controversies  enough  on  hand ;  vul- 
gar antagonists,  whom  he  scorned ;  assaults  from  without,  which 
could  not  harm  him,  having  no  point  of  vantage  upon  his  heart 
but  nothing  which  touched  his  life  or  honor.  He  had  enemies, 
but  none  whose  enmity  wounded  him.  Every  thing  he  had  touch 
ed  as  yet  had  opened  and  sublimed  under  his  hand,  and  no  au 
thoritative  voice  had  yet  interfered  to  drive  back  to  doctrine  and 
forms  of  words  a  man  whose  faith  seized  upon  a  Divine  reality 
instead,  and  converted  dogmas  into  things.  He  stood,  open-eyed 
and  eager,  trembling  on  the  verge  of  an  opening  world  of  truth, 
every  particular  of  which  was  yet  to  gleam  forth  as  vivid  on  his 
mind  as  those  which  he  had  already  apprehended  out  of  the  dim 
domain  of  theology.  And  other  men,  who  had  also  found  light 
unthought  of  gleaming  out  of  the  familiar  text  which  use  had 
dulled  to  most,  were  gathering  round  him,  bringing  each  his  trem- 
bling certainty,  his  new  hope.  Whether  they  were  right  or  wrong 
had  as  yet  come  under  the  question  of  no  serious  tribunal.  Wrong 
or  right,  it  was  the  love  of  God  glowing  radiant  over  the  human 
creatures  he  had  made  that  inspired  them  all ;  and  to  many  an 
eye  less  vivid  than  Irving's,  this  wonderful  combination  seemed 
the  beginning  of  a  new  era,  the  manifestation  of  a  higher  power. 
For  himself,  he  was  at  the  height  of  his  activity  and  the  fullness 
of  his  powers :  his  anticipations  were  all  grand,  like  his  thoughts. 
He  looked  for  suffering  on  a  heroic  scale,  not  the  harassing  repe- 
titions of  Presby terial  prosecution ;  and  he  looked  to  be  splendid- 
ly vindicated  at  the  last  day  by  the  Lord  himself,  in  glory  and 
majesty.  His  heart  swelled  and  his  thoughts  rose  upon  that  high 
tide  of  hope  and  genius ;  shades  of  passing  ailment  might  now 
and  then  glide  across  him ;  but  it  was  "  excess  of  strength"  resist- 
ing the  intellectual  and  spiritual  commotions  within,  and  not  any 
prevision  of  bodily  weakness.  His  friends  stood  round  him  close 
and  cordial,  an  undiminished  band;  and  every  vein  throbbing 
with  life,  and  every  capacity  of  heart  and  mind  in  the  fullest  sway 
of  action,  he  marched  along  in  the  force  and  fullness  of  his  man- 
hood, prescient  of  splendid  conflict  and  great  sorrow,  unaware  and 
unbelieving  of  failure  or  defeat. 

In  the  beginning  of  winter  he  paid  a  hurried  visit  to  Leicester, 
to  his  friend  Mr.  Vaughan,  whose  life  was  then  nearly  drawing  to 
its  close.  The  short  time  they  appear  to  have  had  together  was 
spent  "conversing  about  the  things  pertaining  to  our  high  calling 


334  SECOND  ALBUKY  CONFERENCE. 

as  ministers  of  the  Gospel  and  Churcli  of  Christ."  And  the  letter 
in  which  Irving  records  this  is  ended  by  an  amusing  conjugal  ad- 
vice, more  in  the  strain  of  ordinary  husbands  than  is  common  to 
his  chivalrous  and  tender  heart:  "I  will  hope  to  be  with  you, 
under  Miss  Macdonald's  roof,  on  Thursday  evening,  which  let  us 
have  quietly  together,"  he  writes.  "  And  therefore  be  not  over- 
wearied, for  nothing  afflicts  me  so  much  as  to  see  you  incapable 
of  enjoying  the  society  and  love  for  which  you  do  not  always 
give  me  credit,  but  which  I  trust  I  always  feel."  And  in  a  post- 
script, he  adds  a  message  to  the  little  daughter,  now,  at  three  years 
old,  capable  of  entering  into  the  correspondence.  "  Tell  Maggy," 
he  says,  "  that  at  Dunstable  a  man  would  have  sold  me  twelve 
larks  for  a  shilling,  to  bake  into  a  pie,  four-and-twenty  blackbirds 
baking  in  a  pie ;  and  that  at  Newj)ort-Pagnell  one  of  the  horses 
lay  down  when  he  should  have  started  to  run,  which  is  like  Meg, 
not  Maggy,  when  she  will  not  do  ma's  bidding,  but  stands  still 
and  cries.  Not  Maggy,  but  Meg;  for  Maggy  is  like  the  other 
three,  who  would  have  gone  on  cheerfully,  except  when  Meg  is 
restive."  This  is  the  first  appearance  of  the  little  woman  in  the 
father's  letters,  which  afterward  contain  many  communications  for 
her.  A  week  or  two  later  he  writes  from  Albury,  where  the  sec- 
ond prophetical  conference  was  now  taking  place ;  and,  after  a 
brief  announcement  to  his  wife  of  his  arrival,  devotes  his  second 
letter  from  thence  entirely  to  his  three-year-old  correspondent.  I 
find  no  more  serious  account  of  this  second  meeting  than  the  one 
Irving  thus  sends  to  his  child : 

"  My  Maggy, — Papa  is  hving  in  a  great  house  with  a  great  many 
men  who  preach.  The  house  is  Mr.  Drummond's  and  Lady  Harriet 
Drummond's.  They  have  two  daughters  and  two  little  boys.  .  .  . 
This  house  where  we  live  is  all  round  with  great  trees,  like  great- 
grandpapa's,  and  the  black  crows  build  their  nests,  and  always  cry 
caw,  caw,  caw.  There  is  a  sweet  little  river  that  runs  murmuring 
along,  making  a  gentle  noise  among  the  trees.  And  there  is  a  large, 
large  garden.  .  .  .  Now,  my  Maggy,  tell  yoiu"  j^apa  what  he  and  the 
great  many  preaching  gentlemen  are  doing  at  Albury  Park,  where 
Mr.  Drummond  and  Lady  Harriet  live  ?  We  are  all  reading  the 
Bible,  which  is  God's  Word — the  book  we  read  at  worship.  God 
speaks  to  us  in  that  book,  and  we  tell  one  another  what  He  tells  to 
us.  Every  morning,  about  half  past  six  o'clock,  a  man  goes  round 
and  awakens  us  all.  Then,  soon  after,  comes  a  maid,  like  Elizabeth, 
and  puts  on  a  fire  in  all  our  rooms,  and  then  we  get  up.  .  .  .  Then 
we  go  down  stairs  into  a  great  room,  and  sit  round  a  great  table,  and 
speak  concerning  God  and  Christ.  Here  is  the  table,  and  all  the 
gentlemen  about  it."     (Here  follows  a  rude  drawing  of  the  table, 


DR.  MARTIN'S  ACCOUNT  OF  ITS  RESULTS.  335 

with  the  names  of  all  the  members  of  the  conference  scribbled  in,  in 
their  places,  Irving's  own  seat  being  distinguished  by  the  title,  "  My 
Papa.")  "  But  it  is  time  for  dinner.  Farewell,  my  dear  Maggy. 
Mamma  will  tell  all  this  to  you,  and  you  must  tell  it  all  to  Miss  Mac- 
donald  and  little  brother. 

"  The  Lord  bless  my  Maggy ! 

"  Your  Papa,  Edward  Irving." 

The  Albury  Conference  once  more  produced  its  volume  of  rec- 
ords, travestied  by  a  lifeless  form  and  obsolete  treatment  out  of 
all  human  interest,  but  in  Irving's  domestic  chronicle  retains  no 
memorial  but  this  simple  description.  Immediately  after  its  con- 
clusion his  father-in-law,  Dr.  Martin,  writes  thus  to  one  of  his 
younger  daughters: 

"  We  had  a  long  letter  from  Isabella  the  other  day.  All  with  her 
seems  to  be  well.  Edward's  visit  to  Albury  had  not,  she  thinks, 
done  him  much  good,  in  body  at  least.  The  vehemence  with  which 
he  goes  after  every  object  that  impresses  him  is  extraordinary.  Some 
things  stated  at  Albury  had  impressed  him  much  with  the  ignorance 
of  the  poorer  population  of  London,  and  with  the  sin  of  those  who 
are  more  enlightened  in  not  doing  more  for  their  instruction  ;  and  he 
has  resolved  to  preach  every  night  to  the  poor  of  London  and  its  vi- 
cinity, Avhile  Mr.  Scott  is  to  do,  or  at  least  to  attempt  to  do,  the  like 
in  Westminster.  The  Lord  be  with  them !  But  there  are  limits  to 
mortal  strength ;  Mr.  Scott's  is  not  great,  and  Edward's,  though  more 
than  ordinary,  is  not  invincible.  I  suppose  his  conviction  of  the  near 
approach  of  the  second  Advent  has  been  increased  by  his  attendance 
on  the  late  meeting ;  and  viewing  it  as  the  hour  of  doom  to  all  who 
are  not  reconciled  to  God,  he  feels  it  the  more  imperatively  his  duty 
to  warn  all  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come.  After  giving  the  subject 
the  most  careful  and  impartial  consideration  I  can,"  adds  the  sober- 
minded  Scottish  pastor,  "I  am  unable  to  see  things  as  he  and  his 
friends  do ;  nay,  I  am  more  and  more  convinced  that  they  are  wi'ong. 
But,  supposing  them  to  be  right,  and  they  doubtless  imagine  they  are, 
his  conduct,  which  many  will  be  apt  to  represent  as  that  of  a  mad- 
man, is  that  of  a  generous  lover  of  his  fellow-creatures  and  a  faithful 
embassador  of  Christ." 

Such  was  not  the  spirit,  however,  in  which  Irving's  deviations 
from  the  ordinary  views  were  to  be  generally  received.  He  con- 
cluded this  year  with  enough  of  these  deviations  to  alarm  any, 
prudent  friend.  On.  the  subject  of  the  Millennium,  and  on  thati 
of  Baptism  (his  doctrine  on  which  differs  from  that  commonly 
known  as  Baptismal  Regeneration  by  the  most  inappreciable 
hair's-breadth),  the  authorities  of  the  Church  seem  to  have  h^d 
nothing  to  say  to  him,  and  to  have  tacitly  admitted  these  matters 
to  be  open  to  a  diversity  of  opinion.  How,  doing  this,  the  much 
more  abstruse  question  concerning  the  Humanity  of  Christ  should 


336  MUTTERINGS  OF  THE  COMING  STORM. 

have  been  exempted  from  the  same  latitude  and  freedom,  I  am  en- 
tirely at  a  loss  to  conceive,  seeing  it  is,  of  all  disputed  questions, 
perhaps  the  most  unfit  to  be  argued  before  a  popular  tribunal. 
But  the  mutterings  of  the  storm  were  already  audible ;  and  Ir- 
ving visibly  stood  on  a  tremulous  elevation,  not  only  with  dawn- 
ing lights  of  doctrine,  unseen  by  his  brethren  around  him,  but 
even  more  deeply  at  variance  in  spirit  with  the  time  and  all  its 
ways.  As  if  his  own  responsibilities,  in  the  shape  of  doctrine,  had 
not  been  enough,  he  had  identified  himself,  and  thrown  the  glory 
of  his  outspoken,  unhesitating  championship  over  that  which  was 
shortly  to  be  known  as  the  Eow  Heresy.  Every  where  he  had 
"committed  himself,"  thought  or  calculation  of  prudence  not  be- 
ing in  the  man.  But  at  present,  though  his  friends  did  not  all 
agree  with  him,  and  though  the  scribblers  of  the  religious  press 
were  already  up  in  arms  against  him,  no  one  seems  to  have  fear- 
ed any  interruption  of  his  triumphant  and  splendid  career.  Like 
other  invincible  generals,  he  had  inspired  his  army  with  a  confi- 
dence unconquerable  in  himself  and  his  destiny.  Some  of  the 
very  closest  in  that  half  ecclesiastical,  half  domestic  circle  which 
gathered  warmly  round  him  in  the  new  Church  at  Eegent  Square 
were  afterward  to  turn  upon  him,  or  sadly  drop  from  his  side  in 
horror  of  the  heresy,  to  which  now,  in  its  first  unconscious  state- 
ment, they  had  given  in  their  delighted  adhesion.  They  did  not 
know  it  was  heresy  for  long  months,  almost  years  afterward :  they 
believed  in  him  with  a  unanimity  and  enthusiasm  seldom  paral- 
leled. Downfall  or  confusion,  as  it  seemed,  could  not  approach 
that  fervent  and  unwearied  herald  of  God. 


LETTER  TO  DR.  CHALMERS.  337 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

1829. 

Degree  of  D.D. — The  great  Hbpe  of  the  Church. — Form  of  Baptism. — Irving's  Be- 
lief in  his  own  Orthodoxj'. — Misstatements  of  his  Doctrine. — The  Morning  Watch. 
— Words  of  Consolation. — Judd  Place. — Visit  to  Edinburgh. — Preparations  for  his 
Course  of  Lectures. — The  two  little  Ballad-singers. — Annan. — Edinburgh. — The 
General  Assembly. — He  appears  at  the  Bar. — His  Commission  rejected. — Lectures 
in  Hope  Park  Chapel. — Preaches  in  Dumfriesshire. — Employment  of  his  Summer 
Holiday. — In  Glasgow. — Bathgate. — "God  loves  you." — Incident  in  Kirkcaldy. 
— His  Views  of  Church  and  State. — Dedication  of  the  Book. — The  Representa- 
tives of  three  Generations. — Whisper  of  "Heretic." — His  Circle  in  London. — The 
Journeymen  Bakers.— Family  Sorrows. — Joseph  Wolff's  two  Greeks. — Their  Edu- 
cation and  Maintenance. — Weekly  Issue  of  Lectures. — The  third  Conference  at 
Albury. — Notes  of  the  Conference. — Communion. 

The  following  year  opened  witli  unabated  activity.  The  cour- 
age and  hopefulness,  equally  unabated,  with  which  Irving  entered 
upon  it,  will  be  seen  from  a  letter  addressed  to  Dr.  Chalmers,  and 
apparently  written  in  the  very  conclusion  of  December,  1828  (the 
date  being  torn  off),  in  which  it  will  be  seen  that  the  laborious 
man,  not  weaned,  among  all  his  other  triumphs,  from  academical 
ambition,  proposed,  and  was  ready  to  prepare  for  an  academical 
examination,  in  order  to  obtain  the  highest  title  in  theology.  This 
letter  was  written  immediately  after  Dr.  Chalmers's  entrance  upon 
the  duties  of  the  Divinity  Chair  in  Edinburgh. 

"  My  dear  and  honored  Friend, — I  desire  to  congratulate  you 
upon  the  welcome  which  you  have  received  in  the  University  of  Ed- 
inburgh, in  which  I  pray  that  you  may  have  much  wisdom  and  long 
life  to  labor.  I  agree  with  that  which  I  have  gathered  of  your  sen- 
timents with  respect  to  the  excessive  duties  of  the  chair,  beyond  the 
reach  of  any  single  man  to  discharge  them  aright.  Biblical  criticism 
should  be  the  chief  object  of  the  Hebrew  chair,  not  the  teaching  of 
the  letters  and  the  grammar ;  and,  certainly,  of  the  three  years  spent 
in  the  Greek  class,  at  least  one  should  be  occupied  in  the  critical 
study  of  the  New  Testament.  There  is  no  University  in  Europe 
(always  excepting  the  thing  called  the  London  University)  which 
would  be  so  ashamed  of  God  and  theology  as  yours,  against  which  I 
ought  not  to  speak,  for  she  is  my  Alma  Mater.  Then  the  Church 
History,  instead  of  dawdling  over  the  first  four  centuries,  should  es- 
pecially be  conversant  with  the  history  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
and  the  duties  incumbent  upon  a  parish  priest;  in  short,  what  be- 
longs to  the  Churchman  rather  than  the  theologian,  and  the  Hebrew 

Y 


338  DEGREE  OF  D.D. 

what  belongs  to  the  scholar.  Then  it  would  be  a  theological  faculty 
indeed ;  but  what  pretensions  these  two  classes  have  at  present  to 
that  title  I  am  at  a  great  loss  to  discover.  This  is  spoken  in  your 
own  ear,  for  it  but  ill  graces  what  I  am  now  to  turn  to. 

"  I  have,  you  know,  a  great  reverence  for  antiquity,  and  especially 
the  antiquity  of  learning  and  knowledge :  the  venerable  honors  of 
the  academy  have  ever  been  very  dear  to  me.  At  the  same  time,  I 
love  the  discipline  of  a  University,  and  set  a  great  value  upon  a  strict 
examination  before  any  degi'ee  is  conferred.  On  this  account,  when 
Sir  John  Sinclair  volunteered  more  than  five  years  ago  to  obtain  for 
me  the  degree  of  Doctor  in  Divinity,  I  rejected  his  ofler,  because  I 
held  it  against  all  academical  disciisline.  While  I  would  not  have 
the  thing  thus  attained  or  thus  conferred,  there  is  no  honor  upon  earth 
which  I  more  desire,  if  the  ancient  discipline  of  sitting  for  it  with  my 
theses  and  defending  them  in  the  Latin  tongue,  submitting  to  exam- 
inations of  the  learned  professors,  were  restored.  Now  I  wish  you 
to  inquire  for  me  what  is  the  ancient  discipline  of  the  University  in 
respect  to  this  degree ;  and  whether  it  be  the  privilege  of  a  Master  of 
Arts  to  ask  and  demand  examination  for  his  degree ;  and  how  long 
he  must  have  been  an  M.A.  to  entitle  him  to  do  so.  I  took  my  degree 
of  A.M.  in  the  year  1809,  that  is  nineteen  years  ago.  If  the  privilege 
were  granted  me  of  appearing  in  my  place,  and  submitting  myself  to 
trial,  I  should  immediately  set  about  diligent  preparations,  and  might 
be  ready  before  the  next  winter,  or  about  that  time.  I  leave  this  in 
your  hands,  and  shall  wait  your  answer  at  your  convenience. 

"  We  have  had  another  Albury  meeting,  and  are  more  convinced 
than  ever  of  the  judgments  which  are  about  to  be  brought  upon 
Christendom,  and  upon  us  most  especially,  if  we  should  go  into  any 
league  or  confederacy  with,  or  toleration  of,  the  papal  abomination. 
I  intend,  in  a  few  days,  to  begin  a  letter  to  the  Church  of  Scotland 
on  the  subject.  They  intend  setting  forth  quai'terly  a  Journal  of 
Prophecy,  which  may  stir  up  the  Church  to  a  consideration  of  her 
hopes.  I  think  there  is  some  possibility  of  my  being  in  Edinburgh 
next  May.  Will  any  of  the  brethren  permit  me  the  use  of  their 
Church  to  preach  a  series  of  sermons  upon  the  Kingdom,  founded 
upon  passages  in  the  New  Testament  ?  Sandy  Scott  is  a  most  pre- 
cious youth,  the  finest  and  the  strongest  faculty  for  pure  theology  I 
have  yet  met  with.  Yet  a  rough  sea  is  before  him,  and,  perhaps,  be- 
fore more  than  him.  I  trust  the  Lord  will  give  you  time  and  leisure 
to  consider  the  great  hope  of  the  Church  first  given  to  Abraham : 
'  That  she  shall  be  heir  of  the  world.'  Certainly  it  is  the  very  sub- 
stance of  theology.  The  second  coming  of  the  Lord  is  the  '•point  de 
vue^  the  vantage-ground,  as  one  of  my  friends  is  wont  to  word  it, 
from  which,  and  from  which  alone,  the  whole  purpose  of  God  can  be 
contemplated  and  understood.  You  will  sometimes  see  my  old  friend 
and  early  patron.  Professor  Leslie :  please  assure  him  of  my  grateful 
remembrances.  I  desire  my  cordial  afiection  to  Mrs.  Chalmers  and 
the  sisterhood.  FarcAvell.  The  Lord  prosper  your  labors  abundant- 
ly, and  thereto  may  your  own  soul  be  prospered. 

"  Your  faithful  and  affectionate  friend  and  brolher, 

"  Edwaed  Irving." 


FORM  OF  BAPTISM.  339 

This  letter,  sent  by  the  hand  of  a  relative,  Dr.  Macaulay,  who 
was  "  desirous  of  paying  his  respects  to  one  whom  he  admires  and 
loves  very  much,"  was  followed,  at  a  very  short  interval,  by  an- 
other, asking  advice  on  a  very  delicate  point  of  ecclesiastical  or- 
der, which  Irving  states  as  follows : 

"London,  5th  January,  1829,  13  Judd  Place,  East. 
"My  dear  Sir, — This  case  has  occurred  to  us  as  a  Session,  ou 
which  it  has  been  resolved  to  consult  you,  our  ancient  friend,  and  any 
other  doctors  or  jurists  of  the  Church  with  whom  you  may  please, 
for  the  better  and  fuller  knowledge  of  the  matter,  to  consult.  It  is, 
whether  the  Church  permit  baptism  by  immersion  or  not-  The  stan- 
dards seem  not  to  declare  a  negative,  but  only  to  affirm  that  baptism 
by  sprinkling  is  sufficient.  In  the  Church  of  England  the  rule  of 
baptizing  infauts  is  by  immersion,  and  the  exception  is  by  sprinkling. 
I  sought  counsel  of  our  Presbytery  in  this  matter,  which  once  occur- 
red in  an  adult,  as  it  has  now  occurred  in  an  infant.  They  seemed  to 
be  of  the  mind  that  there  was  no  rule,  but  only  practice,  against  it, 
and  advised,  upon  the  ground  of  expediency,  to  refrain.  .  .  .  The 
father,  who  is  a  member  of  the  Church,  is  a  most  pious  and  worthy 
man,  full  of  forbearance  to  others,  but  very  firmly,  and  from  much 
reading,  convinced  of  the  duty  of  baptizing  by  immersion  only.  He 
has  waited  some  time,  and  the  sooner  we  could  ascertain  the  judg- 
ment of  the  Church  the  better.  .  .  .  My  own  opinion  is,  that  our 
standards  leave  it  as  a  matter  of  forbearance,  preserving  the  sj^rink- 
ling ;  the  Church  of  England  the  same,  preserving  immersion.  I  am 
sorry  to  trouble  you  who  have  so  much  to  do,  but  the  mere  writing 
of  the  judgment  would  satisfy  us.  And  as  you  are  now  the  head 
of  the  theological  faculty,  as  well  as  our  ancient  fiiend,  the  Session 
thought  of  no  other,  at  whose  request  I  write.  .  .  . 

"  Your  affectionate  friend,  Edward  Irving." 

So  dutiful  and  eager  to  know  the  mind  of  the  Church  was  the 
man  whose  long  conflict  against  her  authorities  was  now  just  com- 
mencing. If  Dr.  Chalmers  answered  these  letters,  the  answers 
have  not  been  preserved ;  nor  have  I  the  least  information  what 
the  head  of  the  theological  faculty  said  to  that  old-world  applica- 
tion for  an  examination  and  trial  by  which  the  candidate  for  the- 
ological honors  might  loin  his  degree.  Irving  was  never  to  get 
within  sight  of  that  testimony  of  the  Church's  approval;  far  from 
that,  was  verging,  had  he  but  known  it,  upon  her  censures  and 
penalties.  But,  though  this  year  upon  which  he  had  just  entered 
was  one  of  the  most  strenuous  and  incessant  defense  and  assertion 
of  doctrine,  though  its  whole  space  wp-s  occupied  with  renewed 
and  ever  stronger  settings  forth  of  the  truth,  which  with  growing 
fervor  he  held  to  embody  the  very  secret  of  the  Gospel,  his  posi- 
tion, to  his  own  apprehension,  was  in  no  respect  that  of  a  heretic 


340  IRVING'S  BELIEF  IN  HIS  OWN  ORTHODOXY. 

assailed.  On  the  contrary,  he  conceived  himself  to  stand  as  the 
champion  of  orthodox  truth  against  a  motley  crowd  of  heretics ; 
and  with  this  idea,  calmly  at  first,  and  with  more  and  more  ve- 
hemence as  he  began  to  discover  how  great  was  the  array  against 
him,  devoted  himself  to  the  assertion  and  proof  of  a  doctrine 
which,  when  he  stated  it,  he  knew  not  that  any  man  doubted. 
Throughout  all  his  contentions  he  never  abandoned  this  position. 
First  surprised,  then  alarmed,  not  for  himself  but  for  the  Church, 
afterward,  and  not  till  a  long  interval  had  elapsed,  indignant,  he 
continued  steadily  to  hold  this  attitude.  Even  when  the  Church 
uttered  her  thunders,  he  stood  dauntless,  the  Church's  real  cham- 
pion, the  defender  of  her  orthodox  belief,  the  faith  once  delivered 
to  the  saints.  Such  was  his  position,  to  his  own  thinking,  in  the 
struggle  which  was  beginning.  He  did  every  thing  that  man 
could  do,  privately,  calmly,  with  unparalleled  forbearance  some- 
times, sometimes  with  vehemence  and  rashness,  to  set  forth  fairly 
and  fully  before  the  world  the  doctrine  he  held.  He  supported  it 
with  an  array  of  authorities  difficult  to  get  over ;  with  quotations 
from  the  fathers  and  standards  of  entire  Christendom,  with  argu- 
ments and  appeals  to  Scripture,  almost  always  with  a  noble  elo- 
quence which  came  warm  from  his  heart.  In  private  letters,  in 
sermons,  in  every  method  by  which  he  could  come  into  communi- 
cation with  the  world,  he  repeated,  and  expounded,  and  defended, 
this  momentous  matter  of  belief 

It  is  unnecessary  that  I  should  give  any  account  of  a  question 
which  he  states  so  fully  and  so  often  in  his  own  words,  nor  is  it 
my  business  to  pronounce  upon  the  right  or  wrong  of  a  theologi- 
cal question.  But  I  think  I  am  warranted  in  pointing  out  again 
the  deeply  disingenuous  guise  in  which  this  matter  was  first  set 
before  the  public.  When  the  difference  appears  thus,  according 
to  his  own  statement  of  it,  "Whether  Christ's  flesh  had  the  grace 
of  sinlessness  and  incorruption  from  its  proper  nature,  or  from  the 
indwelling  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  I  say  the  latter,"  it  is  a  difference 
which  certainly  may  exist,  and  may  be  discussed,  but  which  can 
not  shock  the  most  reverent  mind.  But  when,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  is  stated  as  an  heretical  maintenance  of  the  "  sinfulness 
of  Christ's  human  nature,"  the  matter  changes  its  aspect  entirely, 
and  involves  something  abhorrent  to  the  most  superficial  of  Chris- 
tians. But  in  this  way  it  was  stated  by  every  one  of  Irving's  op- 
ponents ;  and  attempts  were  made  to  lead  both  himself  and  his 
followers  into  speculations  of  what  might  have  happened  if  the 


THE  "  MORNING  WATCH."  341 

Holy  Ghost  had  not,  from  its  earliest  moment  of  being,  inspired 
that  human  nature,  which  were  as  discreditable  to  the  questioners 
as  aggravating  to  men  who  held  the  impossibility  of  sinfulness  in 
our  Savior  as  warmly  and  entirely  as  did  those  who  called  them 
heretics.  The  real  question  was  one  of  the  utmost  delicacy  and 
difficulty ;  a  question  which  the  common  world  could  only  alter 
and  travestie ;  re-presenting  and  re-confuting,  and  growing  indig- 
nant over  a  dognia  which  itself  had  invented.  Only  by  such  a 
statement  of  it,  which,  if  not  distinctly  false,  was  thoroughly  disin- 
genuous, could  it  at  all  have  been  brought  into  a  platform  ques- 
tion for  common  discussion  before  the  untrained  and  inexact 
public. 

In  the  early  spring,  the  first  number  of  the  Morning  Watch,  a  I 
quarterly  journal  of  prophecy,  to  which  he  alludes  in  his  letter  to  I 
Dr.  Chalmers  as  meditated  by  the  leading  members  of  the  Albury ' 
Conference,  came  into  being.  Its  editor  was  Mr.  Tudor,  a  gentle- 
man now  holding  a  high  office  in  the  Catholic  Apostolic  Church. 
(I  take,  without  controversy,  the  name  assumed  by  itself,  gladly 
granting,  as  its  members  maintain,  that  to  designate  it  a  sect  of 
Irvingites  is  equally  unjust  to  its  supposed  founder  and  itself.)  Ir- 
ving took  advantage  by  this  publication  to  explain  and  open  up 
the  assailed  doctrine,  already  popularly  known  as  the  doctrine  of 
the  Humanity,  reasserting  all  his  former  statements  with  renewed 
force  and  earnestness.  Besides  this,  the  chief  thing  which  appears 
to  me  remarkable  in  these  early  numbers  of  the  Morning  Watch 
is  the  manner  in  which  Irving  pervades  the  whole  publication. 
Amid  eight  or  ten  independent  writers,  his  name  occurs,  not  so 
much  an  authority  as  an  all-influencing  unquestionable  presence, 
naturally  and  simply  suggesting  itself  to  all  as  somehow  the  centre 
of  the  entire  matter.  They  speak  of  him  as  the  members  of  a 
household  speak  of  its  head ;  one  could  imagine  that  the  name 
might  almost  be  discarded,  and  "  he"  be  used  as  its  significant  and 
unmistakable  symbol.  To  realize  the  fullness  of  this  subtle,  un- 
spoken influence,  it  is  necessary  to  glance  at  this  publication, 
which  has  fallen  out  of  the  recollection  of  the  greater  part  of 
the  world.  I  do  not  remember  to  have  met  any  similar  instance 
of  unconscious,  unquestioned  pre-eminence.  No  man  there  but 
is  ready  to  stand  up  for  every  word  he  utters,  for  every  idea  he 
advances;  ready,  even  before  knowing  what  the  accusation  is,  to 
challenge  the  world  in  his  behalf  It  is  hero-worship  of  the  most 
absolute,  unconscious  kind — all  the  more  absolute  that  it  is  un- 


342       WORDS  OF  CONSOLATION.— JUDD  PLACE. 

conscious,  and  that  neither  the  object  nor  the  givers  of  that  loyal 
allegiance  are  aware  to  what  extent  it  goes. 

I  can  not  pass  over  the  beginning  of  this  year  without  quoting 
some  portion  of  a  letter  of  consolation  addressed  to  his  friend  Mr. 
Bridges,  in  Edinburgh,  who  had  just  then  lost  his  wife.  Irviug's 
own  wife  was  at  this  time  subject  to  the  ever-recurring  ailments 
of  a  young  mother,  and  often  in  a  state  of  health  which  alarmed 
her  friends ;  and  it  was  accordingly  with  double  emotion  that  he 
heard  of  the  death  of  another  young  mother,  she  who,  timid  of  his 
own  approach,  had  forgotten  all  her  alarm  at  the  sight  of  his  re- 
ception of  her  babies.  The  news  went  to  Irving's  sympathetic 
heart. 

"  My  deak  and  worthy  Friend, — ISTow  is  your  hour  of  trial,  and 
now  is  your  time  to  glorify  God.  Out  of  all  comparison,  the  heavi- 
est trial  of  a  man  is  ujdou  you.  Now,  then,  is  the  time  for  your 
proved  faith  to  show  its  strength,  and  to  prove  it  unto  honor  and 
glory  in  the  day  of  the  Lord.  The  Father  plants  us,  and  then  says, 
'  Blow  every  blast,  and  root  up  the  plant  which  I  have  lilanted :'  our 
faith  standing  fast  proves  that  He  has  planted  us  to  bring  Him  honor 
and  glory  against  a  fallen  world,  which  we  overcome  without  any 
visible  help.  The  Father  gives  us  as  sheep  unto  Christ,  and  says, 
'Now,  ye  wolves,  snatch  them  if  ye  can.'  The  afflictions  and  adver- 
sities of  the  world,  yea,  and  the  hiding  of  the  Father's  countenance, 
also  come  against  us ;  our  faith,  hoAvever,  stands  fast  in  the  Lord. 
Christ  is  glorified  as  the  good  Shepherd.  As  afiectiou  is  proved  by 
adversity,  so  is  faith  in  God  proved  by  trial ;  as  a  work  is  proved  by 
enduring  hardship,  so  is  the  work  of  the  Spirit  proved  by  sore  visita- 
tions of  God.  God  sendeth  them  all  in  order  to  bless  us,  and  glorify 
Himself  in  our  blessedness  with  Plimself.  Oh,  my  brother,  I  write 
these  things  to  you  because  I  know  you  are  of  the  truth ;  your  faith 
standeth  not  in  man,  but  God.  ...  I  believe  the  time  of  tribulation 
is  at  hand,  and  that  God  will  spare  us  that  wait  for  Him  as  one  that 
spareth  his  own  son  that  serveth  him.  .  .  .  Oh,  how  my  loving  and 
beloved  friends  are  removed !  They  are  taken  from  me  whom  God 
gave  me  for  comforters.  My  own  heart  is  sore  pressed ;  what  must 
yours  be,  my  excellent  and  bountiful  fx'iend  ?  But  I  wait  His  com- 
ing, and  wait  upon  His  will.  May  the  Lord  comfort  you  with  these 
words  which  I  have  written,  with  His  own  truth,  with  liis  own  spirit. 
"  Your  faithful  and  afliectionate  friend,         Edwaed  Irving." 

These  letters  are  all  dated  from  Judd  Place,  another  street  in 
the  same  locality,  where  he  had  again  entered  upon  the  possession 
of  his  own  house.  Here  he  remained  as  long  as  he  occupied  the 
Church  in  Eegent  Square.  There  are  various  doubtful  traditions 
in  existence  which  describe  how  he  used  to  be  seen  lying  upon 
the  sooty  London  grass  of  the  little  oasis  in  Burton  Crescent,  his 
great  figure  extended  upon  the  equivocal  green  sward,  and  all  the 


VISIT  TO  SCOTLAND.  343 

children  in  those  tiny  gardens  playing  about  and  around  him, 
which  was  most  like  to  be  the  case,  though  I  will  not  answer  for 
the  tale.  This  entire  district,  however,  most  undistinguished  and 
prosaic  as  it  is,  gathers  an  interest  in  its  homely  names,  from  his 
visible  appearance  amid  its  noise  and  tumult.  His  remarkable 
figure  was  known  in  those  dingy,  scorched  streets,  in  those  dread 
parallelograms  of  Bloomsbury  respectability.  The  greater  num- 
ber of  his  friends  were  collected  within  that  closely  populated  re- 
gion, to  which  the  new  Church  in  Eegent  Square  now  gave  a  cen- 
tre, as  it  still  gives  a  centre  to  a  little  Scotch  world,  half  unaware, 
half  disapproving,  of  Irving,  who  tread  the  same  streets,  and  pray 
within  the  same  walls,  and  are  as  separate  and  national  as  he. 

This  spring  was  once  more  occupied  by  thoughts  and  prepara- 
tions for  another  visit  to  Edinburgh,  on  the  same  high  errand  as 
had  formerly  engaged  him  there.  A  letter  of  anxious  instructions 
to  his  friend  Mr.  Macdonald,  about  the  necessary  arrangements  for 
the  course  of  lectures  he  meant  to  deliver,  shows  that  he  had  al- 
ready more  difl&culty  than  on  a  former  occasion  in  finding  a  place 
to  preach  in. 

"  I  yesterday  received  a  most  fraternal  letter  from  Dr.  Dickson," 
he  writes,  "  most  politely  and  upon  very  reasonable  grounds  of  dam- 
age and  danger  to  the  house,  refusing  me  the  use  of  the  West  Kii'k, 
and  I  am  perfectly  satisfied.  Indeed,  it  is  as  it  should  be,  and  as  I  an- 
ticipated it  would  be.  The  subject  I  have  to  open  is  too  common 
and  concerning  to  be  confined  to  the  walls  of  a  house :  it  ought  to  be 
open  as  the  day  to  all  hearers  from  the  streets  and  the  by-ways,  and 
from  every  where.  .  .  .  You  who  know  law,  and  are  wise  as  con- 
cerneth  this  world  as  well  as  concerneth  the  world  to  come,  see  if 
there  be  any  thing  to  prevent  me  preaching  in  the  asylum  of  the 
King's  Park  ;  and,  if  not,  then  signify  by  public  advertisement  in  one 
or  two  of  the  papers,  and  by  hand-bill  and  otherwise  to  this  effect : 
'  I  hereby  give  notice  that,  God  willing  and  prospering,  I  will  preach 
a  series  of  discourses,  opening  the  book  of  the  Revelation  in  regular 
order,  beginning  on  Tuesday,  the  19th  of  May,  at  six  o'clock  in  the 
evening,  and  continuing  each  evening  that  week;  but  in  the  week 
following,  and  to  the  end  of  the  series,  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing (not  to  interfere  with  the  hours  of  the  General  Assembly);  and 
earnestly  entreat  as  many  of  my  fellow  Churchmen  as  love  the  expo- 
sition of  the  holy  Word,  and  that  Book  which  is  specially  blessed 
and  forbidden  to  be  sealed,  to  attend  on  these  discourses  designed 
for  the  edification  of  the  Church.  The  place  of  meeting  will  be  in 
the  open  air  (here  insert  the  place),  where  our  fathers  were  not  afraid 
nor  ashamed  to  worship.  Edward  Irving,  A.  M., 

" '  Minister  of  the  National  Scotch  Church,  London.' 

"  Let  this  be  stuck  up  on  the  corner  of  every  street ;  and  for  the 
rest  we  will  trust  to  God.    I  believe  the  Lord  will  not  fail  mo  in  this 


344  THE  TWO  LITTLE  BALLAD-SINGERS. 

purpose,  from  which  nothing  on  earth  shall  divert  me.  I  will  do  it, 
though  they  should  carry  me  bound  hand  and  foot  to  prison  ;  so  aw- 
fully necessary  do  I  now  see  it  to  be.  .  .  .  Let  there  be  no  tent ;  a 
chair  on  which  I  can  sit  and  stand.  Choose  a  place  where  the  peo- 
ple may  slope  upward,  and  so  that  we  can  wheel  with  the  wind. 
Pray  much  for  me.  I  never  undertook  so  much  or  so  important  a 
thing.    Ask  the  prayers  of  all  who  will  not  laugh  it  to  scorn." 

These  arrangements  were,  however,  unnecessary.  Edinburgh 
did  not  see  that  sight  which  might  have  been  as  striking  as  any 
of  the  modern  occurrences  endowed  with  double  picturesqueness 
by  her  noble  scenery.  The  last  representative  of  the  ancient 
prophets,  heroic  antique  figure,  noways  belonging  to  vulgar  life, 
did  not  utter  his  message  under  the  shadow  of  the  hills,  with  his 
audience  ranged  on  the  grassy  slopes  above  him.  A  place  was 
provided  for  his  accommodation,  more  convenient,  if  less  noble, 
in  Hope  Park  Chapel,  situated  in  what  is  commonly  called  the 
south  side  of  Edinburgh ;  and  there  he  preached  this  second 
course  of  lectures,  which  he  seems  to  have  come  to,  in  spite  of  all 
obstacles,  with  a  still  deeper  sense  of  their  importance  than  the 
first. 

Before  going  to  Scotland,  however,  he  paid  a  short  visit  to  Bir- 
mingham, with  which  place,  or  rather  with  the  Scotch  congrega- 
tion there,  he  appears  to  have  had  a  great  deal  of  intercourse.  He 
seems  to  have  preached  three  sermons  there  during  his  short  stay; 
but  I  refer  to  it  only  for  the  sake  of  the  following  letter  to  his  lit- 
'tle  daughter : 

"  Mt  own  Meggy, — Papa  got  down  from  the  coach,  and  his  large 
book,  and  his  bag,  and  his  cane  with  the  gold  head.  And  a  little  rag- 
ged boy,  and  his  little  sister,  with  ballads  to  sell — not  matches,  but 
ballads — trudged  and  trotted  by  papa's  side.  The  boy  said, '  I  wull 
caiTy  your  bag,  sir.'  Papa  said, '  I  have  no  pennies,  little  boy,  so  go 
away.'  But  he  would  follow  papa,  he  and  his  little  sister,  poor  chil- 
dren !  So  papa  walked  on  with  his  bag  under  his  cloak  in  one  hand, 
and  his  book  and  his  staff  under  his  cloak  in  the  other.  It  was  dark, 
and  the  lamps  were  lighted,  and  it  was  raining,  but  still  the  little  rag- 
ged boy,  and  his  little  sister  with  the  ballads,  followed  papa ;  and  the 
boy  said,  'I  will  find  you  where  Mr.  Macdonald  lives.'  So  we  asked, 
and  walked  through  very  many  streets,  and  came  to  a  house.  And 
the  door  was  open  ;  and  I  said  to  the  woman,  'Is  Mr. Macdonald  in?' 
The  woman  said, '  No,  sir,  he  is  dining  out.'  Papa  said,  'What  shall 
I  do?  I  am  come  to  preach  for  him  to-morrow.'  She  said,  'J'here 
is  no  sermon  to-morrow — till  Saturday.'  Papa  said, '  Are  you  sure  ?' 
She  said, '  There  is  mass  in  the  morning.'  Now,  my  dear  Meggy, 
the  mass  is  a  very  wicked  thing,  and  is  not  in  our  religion,  but  in  a 
religion  which  they  call  papacy.     So  papa  knew  by  that  Avord  mass 


ANNAN.  345 

that  tliis  was  not  the  right  Mr.  Macdonald's,  but  another  one.  So 
away  papa  trudged,  his  bag,  his  book,  and  his  staff  under  liis  cloak, 
and  the  little  ragged  boy,  and  his  sister  with  the  ballads.  Papa  was 
angry  at  them  because  they  would  not  go  away,  and  had  brought 
hira  to  a  Avrong  place.  But  papa  had  pity  upon  them,  and  asked 
them  about  their  papa  and  mamma.  Their  papa  Avas  dead,  and  their 
mamma  was  in  bed  sick  at  home.  So  papa  took  pity  upon  them, 
and  gave  them  a  silver  sixpence,  and  they  went  away  so  glad.  I 
lieard  them  singing  as  they  ran  away  home  to  their  poor  mother. 
Now  papa  trudged  back  again,  not  knowing  where  to  find  the  right 
Mr.  Macdonald.  And  papa  took  his  bag,  and  put  his  cane  through 
it,  and  swung  it  over  his  shoulder  upon  his  back,  as  he  does  when  he 
carries  Meggy  down  stairs.  .  .  .  Now,  after  mamma  has  read  this, 
tell  it  over  to  Miss  Macdonald,  and  ask  her  to  write  papa  with  his 
stick  and  his  bag  over  his  back,  and  then  tell  the  tale  over  to  little 
brother,  and  kiss  him,  and  say, '  This  is  a  kiss  from  papa.' " 

The  picturesque  individuality  which  is  inevitable  to  the  man 
wherever  he  goes,  shows  in  the  most  tender  light  in  this  little  let- 
ter. The  big,  tender-hearted  stranger,  in  his  mysterious  cloak, 
with  the  little  vagrants  wandering  after  him  in  the  wet  Birming- 
ham streets,  paints  himself  more  effectually  than  the  kind  domes- 
tic friend,  whose  custom  it  plainly  was  to  make  pictures  for  his 
little  Maggy,  could  have  done ;  and  who  will  not  believe  that  this 
silver  sixpence  must  have  brought  luck  to  the  poor  little  ballad- 
sellers  so  unwittingly  immortalized  ? 

Irving  went  to  Edinburgh  as  usual  by  Annan,  from  which  place 
he  writes  to  his  wife : 

"Annan,  14th  May,  1829. 

"  I  am  arrived  safe  by  the  goodness  and  grace  of  God.  ...  I  have 
been  to  see  the  minister  and  provost,  and,  as  usual,  find  every  thing 
ready  arranged  to  my  mind.  This  night  I  begin  my  preaching  at 
seven  o'clock,  and  to-morrow  at  the  same  hour.  On  Saturday  I  go 
up  the  Avater  to  Ncav  Bridge  village,  on  General  Dironi's  j^roperty, 
to  preach  to  the  people  on  that  hand.  .  .  .  This  will  serAe  the  Ec- 
clefechan  and  Middlebie  people.  On  Sabbath  I  preach  tAvice  in  the 
open  air,  if  there  be  not  room  in  the  church.  Give  God  jDraise  with 
me  that  I  am  counted  Avorthy  to  preach  His  truth. 

"  I  made  a  strong  endeaA'or  to  gain  my  point  of  faith  over  the 
points  of  expediency  at  Manchester ;  I  can  not  say  that  I  succeeded, 
and  yet  I  am  not  Avithout  hopes  that  I  have.  They  incline  not  to 
haA'e  the  minister  till  they  have  the  house  respectably  set  forth ;  I 
protest  against  that,  because  I  see  no  end  to  it.  One  thing,  howev- 
er, I  have  prevailed  in,  for  Avhich  I  doubt  not  I  was  sent  to  Manches- 
ter. I  have  received  a  full  commission  to  provide  a  minister  for  Mr. 
Grant's  church  at  the  Avorks,  and  I  have  already  chosen  Mr.  John- 
stone, your  father's  assistant.  He  Avill  have  £100  from  the  Grants 
themselves  (munificent  princes  that  they  are !),  Avith  a  house  and  gar- 
den, and  their  favor,  Avhich  is  protection  from  all  Avant.  .  .  . 


346  EDINBURGH. 

"  Edinburgh,  19th  Maj,  60  Great  King  Street. 
"  At  Annan  I  went  on  with  my  laboi's  on  Thursday  and  Friday. 
.  .  .  But  the  assembly  on  Sunday  passed  all  bounds.  The  tent  was 
pitched  in  the  church-yard ;  and  that  not  holding  the  people,  we  went 
forth  to  Mr.  Dickson's  field,  Avhere  it  is  believed  nearly  ten  thousand 
-^'  people  listened  to  the  Word,  from  twelve  o'clock  to  half  past  five, 
with  an  interval  of  only  an  hour.  It  was  a  most  refreshing  day  to 
all  of  us.  I  passed  on  to  Dumfries  with  Margaret  and  her  baby  that 
night,  in  order  to  get  the  mail  next  morning,  and  so  I  arrived  safe, 
leaving  all  my  friends  well,  praised  be  the  Lord.  Before  I  left  An- 
nan, letters  came  from  Dr.  Duncan  Dumfries,  and  Mr.  Kirkwood,  en- 
treating me  to  preach  there ;  and  considering  it  was  so  ordered  of 
God  as  that  they  should  be  the  first  to  ask  for  my  vacant  Sabbath,  I 
consented  at  once,  and  shall  therefore  return  there  the  last  day  I  am 
in  Scotland.  For  in  that  part  there  is  a  strength ;  Kirkwood,  and 
the  Dows,  and  Burnside  are  firm  as  to  the  human  nature  of  Christ, 
which  none  here  is  except  Thomas  Carlyle.  James  Haldane  has 
written  a  pamphlet  against  me,  but  there  is  no  strength  in  it.  I  call- 
ed at  Dr.  Thompson's  last  night,  and  fixed  to  have  an  hour  with  him 
for  conversation.  Now  for  the  matter  which  I  have  to  do  in  Edin- 
burgh. Hope  Park  Chapel  is  the  place  I  am  to  preach  in,  if  it  will 
hold  the  people.  My  commission  every  body  pronounces  a  good 
commission.  But  it  will  be  stiffly  called  in  question,  and  I  fear  will 
have  a  hard  battle  of  it.  Let  the  Lord  decide  what  is  best  and  wis- 
est. .  .  .  Sometimes  I  am  troubled  by  the  reproach  of  men,  but  nev- 
er forsaken  or  overcome.  I  desire  an  unwearied  interest  in  yovir 
prayers,  and  the  prayers  of  all  the  flock.  My  letters  will  be  regular, 
but,  I  fear,  short,  for  very  much  is  laid  on  me." 

The  commission  referred  to  above  was  a  commission  from  the 
borough  of  Annan,  by  which  Irving  was  empowered  to  represent 
it  as  an  elder  in  the  approaching  General  Assembly.  It  was  the 
onlj  way  in  which  he  could  sit  in  that  ecclesiastical  Parliament ; 
and,  though,  somewhat  contradictory  to  his  own  lately  expressed 
opinion  that  the  position  of  ministers  and  elders  corresponded  to 
the  orders  of  bishop  and  priest,  was  in  entire  conformity  with  the 
ordinary  Presbyterian  idea  that  ministers  were  but  preaching  el- 
ders, and  were,  in  reality,  members  of  the  same  ecclesiastical  class. 
A  warm  discussion  arose  in  the  General  Assembly  when  his  com- 
mission was  presented.  It  was  one  of  those  questions  which,  with- 
out being  really  matters  of  party  difference,  are  invariably  seized 
upon  as  party  questions.  One  side  of  the  house  contended  for 
his  admission,  the  other  against  it.  His  defense  was  undertaken 
by  Dr.  Andrew  Thomson,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Evangelical 
party,  who  very  shortly  after  entered  the  lists  against  him  in  mat- 
ters of  doctrine,  but  manfully  stood  up  now  for  the  friend  of  Chal- 
mers and  Gordon ;  a  man  who,  if  not  actually  belonging  to  his 


HE  APPEARS  AT  THE  BAE.  34.7 

own  side,  was  leagued  in  the  warmest  amity  with,  many  of  its 
members.  Irving  himself,  before  the  matter  was  put  to  the  vote, 
appeared,  by  permission  of  the  Assembl}^,  at  the  bar  to  speak  for 
himself.  His  speech  is  too  long  to  quote ;  nor  does  he  make  any 
very  vehement  stand  for  his  rights ;  very  probably  feeling  that  it 
was  at  best  a  side  way  of  approaching  that  venerable  assembly, 
which  he  held  in  so  much  honor.  The  appearance  he  makes  is, 
indeed,  more  for  the  purpose  of  supporting  the  claims  of  his  con- 
stituents, and  their  right  to  elect  the  superior  instead  of  inferior 
degree  of  ruling  elder  if  it  so  pleased  them,  than  on  his  own  ac- 
count. But  he  takes  the  opportunity,  the  first  and  the  last  which 
he  ever  had,  of  recommending  to  the  Assembly  "to  take  a  pa- 
rental care  of  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  their  children  who  are 
now  dwelling  beyond  their  bounds."  In  this  appeal  he  waxes 
warm.  He,  too,  is  "beyond  their  bounds ;"  but  is  he  not  subject 
to  their  oversight  and  authority?  "If  I  disobey,'^  says  the  great 
orator,  who  could  see  into  the  mysteries  of  prophecy,  but  not  into 
the  slowly  opening  mists  of  the  immediate  years,  "  cs/h  you  not 
call  me  to  your  bar  ?  and,  if  I  come  not,  have  you  not  your  court 
of  contumacy  wherewith  to  reach  me  ?  If  I  offend  in  any  great 
matter — which  I  would  fain  hope  is  little  likely — can  you  not 
pronounce  against  me  the  sentence  of  the  lesser  or  the  greater  ex- 
communication ?"  These  words  detach  themselves  from  the  con- 
text to  us  who  know  what  came  after.  He  spoke  then  all  una- 
ware what  significance  time  was  preparing  for  the  unthought-of 
expressions,  evidently  fearing  nothing  of  such  a  fate.  "  I  was  en- 
abled to  deliver  myself  with  great  calmness  and  respect,  in  a  way 
which  seemed  very  much  to  impress  the  house,"  he  tells  his  wife 
— "stating  how  I  sought  not  to  intrude,  but  had  advertised  my 
constituents  to  consult  authorities  upon  the  subject."  And  when 
the  matter  was  at  length  decided  against  him,  personal  disappoint- 
ment scarcely  appears  at  all  in  the  record  he  gives : 

"Edinburgh,  26th  May, 
"  It  gave  me  no  pain  at  all  to  be  cast  out  of  the  Assembly,  except 
in  as  far  as  it  wronged  the  burgh  of  Annan,  and  all  the  burghs  in 
their  rights,  which  we  proved  beyond  a  question  are  to  send  a  min- 
ister or  elder.  .  .  .  The  attention  and  favor  which  I  received  was 
very  marked,  especially  from  the  commissioner  and  the  moderator; 
and  unbounded  was  the  wonder  of  men  to  find  that  I  had  not  a  rough 
tiger's  skin,  with  tusks,  and  horns,  and  other  savage  instruments. 
.  .  .  Upon  the  whole,  I  am  very  well  satisfied  with  this  event  in  my 
life.  .  .  .  My  lectures  are  decidedly  producing  an  impression  upon 
the  people.     The  work  of  the  Lord  is  prospering  in  my  hand.     The 


348  LECTURES  IN  HOPE  PARK  CHAPEL. 

glory  be  unto  His  great  name.  ...  It  is  the  custom  for  the  modera- 
tor to  choose  two  ministers  and  an  elder  to  walk  down  from  the  As- 
sembly-house to  the  Levee-room  in  Hunter  Square,  and  inform  the 
commissioner*  w^hen  the  Assembly  is  waiting  for  him.  He  honored 
me  on  Saturday  with  this  duty,  and  the  commissioner  asked  me  to 
dine  with  him,  when  I  enjoyed  myself  vastly  with  the  solicitor  gen- 
eral and  Sir  Walter  Scott,  who  were  sitting  over  against  me.  The 
moderator  has  sent  me  an  invitation  to  attend  the  Assembly,  and  sit 
in  the  body  of  the  house.  ...  It  is  hard  woi'k  standing  forth,  with 
an  extempore  sermon  of  two  hours,  every  morning  at  seven  o'clock. 

"29th  May. 

"  I  remain  here  till  Friday  night,  when  I  go  to  Dumfries  in  the 
mail,  and  from  there  I  come  to  Glasgow  on  Wednesday  to  preach, 
then  to  Paisley,  and  finally  to  Row.  Above  all  things,  I  rejoice  that 
I  shall  completely  open  the  Apocalypse.  I  am  Avonderfully  strength- 
ened. The  i^eople  come  out  willingly,  and  are  very  patient.  They 
are  generally  assembled  from  seven  to  half  past  nine.  It  tries  my 
strength,  but  I  have  strength  for  it.  .  .  .  There  is  a  great  work  to  be 
done  here,  and  I  think  God  has  chosen  me  for  the  unworthy  instru- 
ment of  doing  it.  The  number  of  ministers  who  attend  is  very  re- 
markable. I  could  say  much,  but  am  weary,  and  am  going  to  the 
Assembly.'  I  desire  my  love  to  Mr.  Scott  and  Miss  Macdonald,  my 
brotherly  love  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hamilton,  my  blessing  upon  the  head 
of  my  children,  and  my  whole  heart  to  you,  my  faithful  wife. 

"  4th  June. 

"  To-morrow  I  finish  my  lectures,  which  I  can  with  assurance  say 
have  produced  a  strong  and  lasting  impression.  The  one  thing  Avhich 
I  have  labored  at  is  to  resist  Liberalism  by  opening  the  Word  of  God." 

So  concluded  this  second  course  of  Edinburgh  lectures.  Hope 
Park  Chapel  was  crowded;  and  quiet  country  people,  trudging 
out  to  the  suburban  villages  in  the  evening,  or  into  the  busy  town 
in  the  early  summer  sunshine,  remember  vaguely  still,  without 
remembering  what  it  meant,  the  throng  about  the  door  of  the 
place ;  but  it  was  remote,  and  out  of  the  way,  and  very  different 
from  the  West  Kirk,  in  the  heart  of  Edinburgh  life,  which  he  bad 
occupied  the  previous  year.  The  same  amount  of  excitement 
does  not  seem  to  have  surrounded  him  on  this  second  occasion, 
though  he  himself  appears  to  have  been  even  more  satisfied  than 
formerly  with  the  effect  his  addresses  produced. 

And  now  another  course  of  ceaseless  preaching  followed,  prin- 
cipally in  his  native  district,  where  thousands  of  people  went  after 

*  It  may  be  well  to  explain,  for  the  information  of  readers  unacquainted  with  Scot- 
land, that  the  commissioner  is  the  representative  of  her  majesty  in  the  Scottish  As- 
sembly ;  and  that  by  way  of  making  up  for  a  total  want  of  any  thing  to  do  in  that 
Convocation  itself,  this  high  functionary  holds  a  sort  of  shadow  of  a  viceregal  court 
outside. 


PREACHES  IN  DUMFRIESSHIRE.  349 

him  wherever  he  appeared,  and  through  which  he  passed,  boldly 
preaching  his  assailed  doctrine  before  the  multitudes  who  won- 
dered after  him,  and  the  "  brethren"  who  were  shortly  to  sit  in 
judgment  upon  him. 

"  We  arrived  at  Dumfries,"  he  writes,  "  by  six  in  the  morning, 
when,  having  breakfasted  with  the  Fergussons,  I  took  some  rest,  and 
prepared  myself  for  meeting  a  company  of  clergymen  at  Miss  Goldie's, 
and  preaching  in  the  evening  for  Dr.  Scott,  to  Avhom  I  had  written  for 
tlie  old  church,  which  lie  readily  granted.  This  I  took  as  a  great  gift 
from  Providence,  for  it  is  like  the  metropolitan  church  of  our  county. 
I  opened  the  Apocalypse  as  far  as  in  one  lecture  could  be  done.  Next 
day  I  preached  in  the  Academy  grounds,  upon  the  banks  of  Nith,  to 
above  10,000  people,  in  the  morning,  from  the  eighth  Psalm  and  the 
second  of  Hebrews.  In  the  afternoon  I  preached  at  Holy  wood  to 
about  six  or  seven  thousand,  upon  the  song  of  the  Church  in  heaven, 
Rev.,  V.  The  surveyor  at  Annan  had  the  curiosity  to  measure  the 
ground  and  estimate  the  people.  He  made  it  as  many  as  thirteen 
thousand  ;  and  there  were  more  at  Dumfries.  My  voice  easily  reach- 
ed over  them  all.*  At  Holywood  I  was  nearly  four  hours,  and  at 
Dumfries  three  hours  in  the  pulpit ;  and  yet  I  am  no  worse.  ISText 
day  I  went  to  Dunscore,  which  stretches  away  up  from  the  right 
bank  of  the  hill  toward  Galloway.  I  visited  Lag,  the  persecutor's 
grave,  by  the  way,  and  found  it  desolate ;  though  surrounded  with 
walls  and  doors,  it  was  waste,  weedy,  and  foul.  There  is  not  a  mar- 
tyr's grave  that  is  not  clean  and  beautiful.  At  Dunscore,  Thomas 
Carlyle  came  down  to  meet  me.  It  is  his  parish  church,  and  I  rode 
up  with  him  to  Craigenputtock,  where  I  was  received  with  much 
kindness  by  him  and  his  wife.  .  .  .  My  dearest  wife,  what  I  owe  you 
of  love  and  gratitude !  The  Lord  reward  you,  and  enable  me  to  cher- 
ish you  as  my  own  self  From  Craigenputtock  I  rode  down  with 
Carlyle  on  Wednesday  morning,  and  met  the  coach  at  the  Auldgarth 
brig,,  and  came  on  to  Glasgow  that  night.  Alexander  Hamilton  I 
saw  at  Langholm.  He  and  his  sister  are  both  well.  And  at  Mauch- 
line  I  stopped  to  ask  for  Mr.  Woodrow's  parents,  who  are  also  well. 
I  slept  at  Mr.  Falconei-'s  last  night,  and  am  now,  after  many  calls, 
seated  in  James  Stevenson's,  beside  the  chapel  where  I  am  to  preach. 
ColHns  spoke  this  morning  to  me  as  a  heretic,  and  I  rose  and  left  him 
with  offense.  I  have  much,  much  to  bear.  Let  patience  have  her 
perfect  work.  There  were  assembled  at  Dunscore,  though  it  be  a 
lonely  place,  full  two  or  three  thousand  people.  These  are  my  com- 
forts, that  I  have  the  privilege  of  addressing  so  many  of  my  belov- 
ed brethren.  To-night  I  preach  in  the  chapel  of  ease,  proceed  to 
Paisley,  and  preach  to  them  to-morrow;  thence  to  Kosneath,  where 
I  preach  on  Saturday  at  four,  and  at  Row  on  Sabbath.  I  travel  back 
to  Edinburgh  on  Monday,  and  preach  at  Kirkcaldy  on  Tuesday  night ; 
after  which,  on  Wednesday,  I  take  shipping  for  home — sweet  home! 

*  ft  is  recorded  that  when  preaching  ae  Monimail,  in  Fife,  in  the  open  air,  his  ser-  J 
mon  was  heard  distinctly  by  a  lady  seated  at  her  own  window  a  quarter  of  a  mile  off;  / 
and  his  voice  was  audible,  though  not  distinctly,  at  double  that  distance. 


350  IN  GLASGOW. 

— the  dwelling-place  of  those  whom  I  am  most  bound  to  and  behold- 
en to  in  this  world.  My  worthy  father  and  mother  came  to  Dum- 
fries and  Holy  wood  all  well.  .  .  .  The  blessing  of  the  Lord  be  with 
all  the  flock.  God  help  me  this  night,  Friday.  I  was  much  sup- 
ported in  preaching  at  Glasgow,  and  did  the  cause  some  service,  as  I 
hope.  Tlie  Calton  weavers  came,  soliciting  me  to  preach  on  Monday 
night  for  the  destitute  among  them.  This  I  agreed  to,  and  shall  trav- 
el in  the  mail  at  eleven  o'clock,  and  reach  Kirkcaldy  on  Tuesday  fore- 
noon." 

It  is  difficult  to  realize  the  fact  that  these  intense  and  incessant 
labors  were  all  entirely  voluntary,  the  anxiously  premeditated 
offering  of  his  summer  holiday  to  his  Master  and  the  Church.  A 
local  paper  of  the  time  confirms  and  heightens  Irving's  brief  ac- 
count of  the  crowds  'which  followed  him  in  Dumfries.  The  jour- 
nalist, with  the  license  of  his  craft,  describes  {Dumfries  Courier^ 
June,  1829)  those  audiences  as  "innumerable  multitudes,"  and 
adds  that  not  less  than  12,000  or  13,000  people  attended  both  the 
Sunday  services.  In  Glasgow,  however,  for  what  reason  I  can  not 
tell,  or  whether  it  is  simply  for  want  of  evidence,  he  does  not  seem 
to  have  gained  the  ear  or  the  heart  of  the  community.  Glasgow, 
absorbed  in  the  prose  of  life,  had  perhaps  less  patience  than  other 
places  for  the  most  impracticable  of  theologians ;  or,  still  more 
likely,  never  could  forget  that  he  had  once  been  assistant  at  St. 
John's,  and  that  nobody  had  discovered  the  manner  of  man  he 
■was.  A  lady  who  knew  him  well,  and  was  at  the  moment  with 
him,  describes  with  graphic  vivacity  an  incident  in  this  Glasgow 
visit.  He  had  preached  to  a  disturbed  and  restless  audience, 
crowded  but  not  sympathetic ;  and  when  about  to  leave  the 
church,  found  a  crowd  waiting  him  outside,  full  of  vulgar  incipi- 
ent insult.  Some  of  the  by-standers  addressed  him  in  vernacular 
taunts:  "Ye're  an  awfu'  man,  Mr.  Irving:  they  say  you  preach  a 
Eoman  Catholic  baptism  and  a  Mohammedan  heeven ;"  and  the 
whole  position  looked  alarming  to  his  troubled  female  companion. 
Irving,  however,  faced  the  crowd  calmly,  took  off  his  hat,  bowed 
to  them,  and  uttered  a  "  fare  ye  well"  as  he  went  forward.  The 
multitude  opened,  swinging  back  "like  a  door  on  its  hinges,"  says 
the  keen  observer,  who,  half  running  to  keep  up  with  his  gigantic 
stride,  accompanied  him  through  this  threatening  pathway.  It 
was  the  only  place  in  which  popular  friendliness  failed  him.  One 
great  cause  of  this,  however,  is  said  to  have  been  the  warm  sup- 
port which  he  gave  to  Mr.  Campbell,  of  Row,  whose  "  new  doc- 
trine" had  been  for  some  time  alarming  the  orthodox  society  of 


BATHGATE.— "GOD  LOVES  YOU."  351 

the  "West,  so  that  in  Irving's  person  the  theological  crowd  of  Glas- 
gow saw  a  type  of  all  the  heresies  which  put  the  Church  and 
country-side  in  commotion.  But  after  all  this  lapse  of  years,  after 
the  strange,  lofty  political  principles  which  he  had  come  to  hold  so 
firmly  and  speak  out  so  boldly,  the  Calton  weavers.  Democrats  and 
Kadicals  to  a  man,  still  remembered  and  trusted  the  old  friend  who 
shared  their  miseries  without  ever  learning  to  distrust  them,  ten 
years  before,  in  the  dismal  days  of  Bonnymuir.  BasJus  divinum 
did  not  frighten  those  critics,  it  appears :  by  a  diviner  right,  long 
ago,  he  had  possessed  himself  of  their  hearts. 

After  this  he  seems  to  have  again  paid  a  flying  visit  to  Bath- 
gate, the  residence  of  his  brother-in-law ;  for  to  this  year  belongs 
a  beautiful  anecdote  told  of  him  in  that  place.  A  young  man  be- 
longing to  the  Church  there  was  very  ill,  "dying  of  consumption." 
Mr.  Martin  had  promised  to  take  his  distinguished  relative  to  see 
this  youth,  and  Irving's  time  was  so  limited  that  the  visit  had  to 
be  paid  about  six  in  the  morning,  before  he  started  on  his  farther 
journey.  When  the  two  clergymen  entered  the  sick-chamber, 
Irving  went  up  to  the  bedside,  and,  looking  in  the  face  of  the  pa- 
tient, said  softly,  but  earnestly,  "  George  M ,  God  loves  you ; 

be  assured  of  this — Qod  loves  youP  When  the  hurried  visit  was 
over,  the  young  man's  sister,  coming  in,  found  her  patient  in  a  tear- 
ful ecstasy  not  to  be  described.  "  What  do  you  think  ?  Mr.  Ir- 
ving says  God  loves  me,"  cried  the  dying  lad,  overwhelmed  with 
the  confused  pathetic  joy  of  that  great  discovery.  The  sudden 
message  had  brought  sunshine  and  light  into  the  chamber  of 
death. 

An  incident  of  a  similar  kind  occurred  about  the  same  time  in 
the  Manse  of  Kirkcaldy.  When  the  family  were  going  to  pray- 
ers at  night,  a  messenger  arrived,  begging  that  Irving  would  go 
to  fisit  and  pray  with  a  dying  man.  He  rose  immediately  to 
obey  the  call,  and  left  the  room ;  but,  coming  back  again,  called 
one  of  the  family  to  go  with  him.  On  their  return,  inquiries  were 
naturally  made  about  the  sufferer,  who  had  either  been,  or  ap- 
peared to  have  been,  unconscious  during  the  devotions  offered  by 
his  bedside.  "  I  hope  there  was  a  blessing  in  it  to  the  living,  at 
least,"  said  the  mother  of  the  house.  "  And  to  the  dying  also," 
answered  Irving ;  "  for  it  is  written,  'If  two  of  you  shall  agree  on 
earth  as  touching  any  thing  that  they  shall  ask,  it  shall  be  done 
for  them  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven.' "  It  was  for  this  sub- 
lime reason,  holding  the  promise  as  if  it  had  been  audibly  spoken 


852  HIS  VIEWS  OF  CHUKCH  AND  STATE. 

to  himself,  that  the  Christian  priest  turned  back  to  call  the  other 
whose  brotherhood  of  faith  he  was  assured  of,  to  hold  their  faith- 
ful Master  to  His  word. 

When  these  laborious  travels  were  concluded,  Irving  returned 
to  London  so  unexhausted,  it  would  appear,  that  he  was'  able  im- 
mediately after  to  prepare  another  bulky  volume  for  the  press. 
This  was  a  work  on  Church  and  State,  founded  upon  the  vision 
of  Daniel,  and  tracing  the  line  of  antique  history,  the  course  of  the 
Kings  and  of  the  Church,  through  Nebuchadnezzar,  Cyrus,  and 
Alexander,  up  to  fated  Eome,  in  all  its  grand  developments.     He 
himself  explains  the  book  to  have  been  an  expression  of  his  own 
indignant  sentiments  in  respect  to  the  late  invasions  of  the  British 
Constitution,  which,  according  to  his  view,  destroyed  the  standing 
of  this  country  as  a  Christian  nation;  these  being  specially  the 
abolition  of  the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts,  and  the  repeal  of 
Catholic  disabilities.     It  would  be  vain  to  attempt  to  vindicate 
Irving  from  the  charges  of  illiberality  and  intolerance  which  his 
decided  and  vehement  opposition  to  these  measures  may  naturally 
call  upon  him.     To  us,  in  the  present  day,  it  is  so  difficult  to  real- 
ize how  such  restraints  ever  could  have  existed,  that  to  under- 
stand the  character  of  any  serious  opposition  raised  to  their  repeal 
is  almost  impossible.     But  I  am  not  careful  to  defend  Irving  from 
such  imputations.     So  far  as  his  character  may  have  been  set  forth 
in  this  history,  so  far  will  his  sentiments  be  justified  as  the  natu- 
ral product  of  a  high-toned  and  lofty  mind,  always  occupied  with 
the  soul  of  things.     Such  a  man  is  not  always  right ;  maybe,  in 
practical  necessities,  mightily  wrong;  but  is  always  in  a  lofty  unity 
with  his  own  conclusions  and  convictions.     His  divine  right,  at 
least,  is,  if  nothing  else,  a  splendid  ideal,  always  pointing  forward 
to  the  sublime  realization  of  that  personal  reign,  the  divinity  of 
which  no  man  could  question,  and  giving  a  soul  to  the  loyalty  he 
required  by  converting  it  into  the  patience  of  the  saints,  all  con- 
scious of  a  government  yet  to  come,  in  which  right  and  law  should 
be  the  perfection  of  justice  and  truth;  and,  ready  for  that  hope, 
to  endure  all  things  rather  than  rebel  against  the  external  majes- 
ty, which  was  a  type  of  the  universal  King.     I  repeat,  I  do  not 
defend  Irving  for  holding  such  impracticable,  impossible  views. 
The  training  of  the  present  generation  has  been  all  accomplished 
in  a  world  from  which  those  ancient  restrictions  have  passed  away; 
but  such  as  find  it  possible  to  consider  the  matter  from  his  stand- 
point, elevated  as  it  was  upon  the  heights  of  loftiest  ideal  right, 


DEDICATION  OF  THE  BOOK.  353 

and  can  enter  into  his  theory  of  government,  whether  they  accept 
it  or  not,  will  need  no  exculpation  of  the  intrepid  champion,  who, 
holding  this  for  truth,  was  not  afraid  to  speak  it  out. 

The  book  was  dedicated,  with  an  affecting  union  of  family  af- 
fection and  the  loyalty  of  a  fervent  Churchman,  as  follows : 

"To  the  Reverend  Samuel  Martin,  D.D., 

My  venerable  Grandfather-in-law : 

The  Reverend  John  Martin, 

My  honored  Father-in-law : 

The  Reverend  Samuel  Martin, 

My  faithful  Brother-in-law : 

And  to  all  my  Fathers  and  Brethren, 

The  ordained  Ministers  of  the  Church  of  Scotland. 

"  Reverend  and  well-beloved,  the  peace  of  God  be  with  you  and 
with  your  flocks ;  the  blessing  of  the  great  Head  of  the  Church  pre- 
serve you  from  all  heresy  and  schism ;  and  the  Holy  Ghost  give  you 
plentiful  fruit  of  your  ministries. 

"  I,  who  am  your  brother  in  the  care  of  the  baptized  children  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  having  written  this  book  upon  the  responsi- 
bility of  the  Church  and  State  to  God  and  to  one  another,  can  think 
of  none  to  whom  it  may  be  so  well  dedicated  as  to  you,  the  heads 
of  the  Scottish  Church,  the  established  ministers  of  the  Scottish  king- 
dom. Accept,  I  pray  you,  the  ofiering  of  my  thoughts  and  labors, 
however  unworthy  the  great  subject,  as  a  tribute  of  my  gratitude  to 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  a  token  of  my  fealty  to  the  good  cause 
in  which  our  fathers  labored,  many  of  them  sealing  their  testimony 
with  their  blood. 

"  I  had  purposed,  if  God  had  permitted,  to  bring  before  the  last 
General  Assembly  of  the  Church  some  measure  which  would  have 
embraced  my  doctrine,  and  represented  the  sense  I  have  of  the  late 
acts  of  the  kingdom  respecting  Dissenters  and  Papists,  and  to  have 
done  what  in  me  lay  to  clear  the  Church  of  the  guilt  of  acquiescence, 
or  of  silence,  when  such  great  wickedness  was  transacted  by  the  es- 
tates of  the  kingdom,  whose  counselors  we  are  in  all  things  which 
concern  the  honor  and  glory  of  Christ-  But  the  Providence  of  God, 
which  is  wisest  and  best,  saw  it  good  to  prevent  this  purpose  of  my 
heart,  and  likewise  to  forbid  that  any  other  member  should  bring 
forward  such  a  measure.  Whether  this  was  permitted  in  judgment 
or  in  mercy,  time  will  show ;  but  my  present  conviction  is,  that  it 
was  in  judgment.  Of  this  my  purpose,  having  been  prevented  by  an 
all-wise  Providence,  I  feel  it  to  be  the  more  my  duty  now  to  dedicate 
the  substance  of  my  thoughts  on  these  subjects  to  you,  my  reverend 
fathers  and  brethren,  and  through  you  to  present  them  to  the  mother 

Church,  of  which  you  are  the  representatives. 

«  **  *  *  *  ♦  * 

"  I  can  not  conclude  this  dedication  without  one  word  of  a  more 

personal  and  domestic  kind,  addressed  to  ray  excellent  kinsmen,  the 

representatives  of  three  generations,  grandfather,  father,  and  son,  all 

laboring  together  in  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord.    It  recalls  to  our  minds 

Z 


354  WHISPER  OF  HERETIC. 

some  shadow  of  the  Patriai'chal  times  to  behold  a  man  within  one 
year  of  ninety  fulfilling  the  laborious  duties  of  a  Scottish  minister,  by 
the  side  of  his  son  and  his  son's  son,  and  with  as  much  vigor  as  they ; 
adhering  to  the  constant  practice  of  the  fathers  in  giving  a  double 
discourse  in  the  morning,  and  another  in  the  afternoon  of  the  Lord's 
day.  It  is  like  the  blessing  of  Caleb,  whose  natural  force  was  not 
abated  by  forty  years' journeying  in  the  wilderness,  and  by  the  wars 
of  taking  possession  of  the  promised  land.  So  mayest  thou,  venera- 
ble sire,  by  strength  of  faith  and  strength  of  arm,  gain  for  thyself 
thine  inheritance ;  and  may  the  mantle  of  thy  piety,  and  faithfulness, 
and  joy  descend  unto  thy  children  and  thy  children's  children,  and 
their  children  also. 

"  Now  fare  ye  all  well,  my  fellow-laborers.  The  God  of  grace  and 
consolation  bless  your  persons,  your  wives,  your  little  ones,  your 
flocks,  and  make  you  ever  to  abide  the  faithful  watchmen  of  the  spir- 
itual bulwarks  of  Old  Scotland,  which  have  been  strengthened  of 
God  to  stand  so  many  storms,  and  to  come  out  of  them  all  strong 
and  mighty,  rooted  in  the  truth,  and  adorned  with  the  beauty  and 
the  faithfulness  of  an  intelligent,  upright,  and  religious  people.  Fare- 
well, my  beloved  bretbren ;  remember  me  in  your  love,  faith,  and 
hope,  and  in  your  prayers  make  mention  of  those  from  among  your 
children  who  are  sojourning  beyond  your  borders,  and  endeavoring 
to  preserve  in  all  regions  of  the  world  the  honors  of  your  great  and 
good  name.  Edward  Irving. 

"National  Scotch  Church,  London,  July  6,  1829." 

While  Irving  was  in  Scotland,  Mr.  James  Haklane,  of  pious 
memory,  published  a  pamphlet  entitled  A  Refutation  of  the  Here-  _ 
tical  Doctrine  promulgated  hy  the  Rev.  Edioard  Irving  respecting  the 
Person  and  Ato7iement  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Clirist,  which  Irving  refer- 
red to  slightly  in  one  of  the  above  letters  as  having  "  no  strength. 
in  it."  This,  and  the  other  still  slighter,  but  more  painful  mention, 
that  "  Collins  spoke  to  me  as  a  heretic,"  were  the  only  marks  of 
the  gathering  storm  in  Scotland,  unless  the  stifled  demonstration 
of  the  Glasgow  mob  might  be  regarded  as  such.  The  position 
which  Irving  assumed  in  the  above  dedication  and  in  his  speech 
in  the  Assembly  was  clearly  that  of  a  man  certain  of  his  own  po- 
sition, and  resolute  that  the  name  of  heretic  was  one  that  could 
with  no  justice  be  applied  to  him.  This  certainty  he  never  relin- 
quished. Slowly  and  unwillingly  the  fact  dawned  upon  him  at 
last  that  he  was  called  a  heretic,  and  the  stroke  went  to  his  heart ; 
but  that  he  never  acknowledged  himself  to  be  so — always,  on  the 
contrary,  was  confident  in  the  perfect  orthodoxy  of  his  belief— is 
apparent  through  all  his  works. 

He  returned  to  London,  to  his  "beloved  flock,"  with  all  the 
comfort  of  a  man  who  knows  himself  undoubted  and  unrivaled  in 


THE  JOURNEYMAN  BAKERS.  355 

his  own  special  field.  There  no  mutterings  of  discontent  assailed 
him.  His  congregation  stood  round  him,  shoulder  to  shoulder, 
in  a  unanimity  of  affection  rarely  bestowed  upon  one  man.  The 
prophetic  brotherhood,  to  whose  company  he  had  gradually  drawn 
closer  in  late  years,  especially  under  the  stimulus  of  the  Albury 
Conferences,  seem,  like  the  congregation,  to  have  been  charmed 
by  the  magical  influence  of  a  heart  so  tender  and  so  true,  and  to 
have  given  themselves  up  to  his  half-conscious  sway  with  a  loy- 
alty and  simplicity  perhaps  as  remarkable  as  any  circumstance  of 
his  life.  Out  of  that  beloved  native  country,  which  had  been  but 
a  step-mother  to  Irving,  but  which  he  could  never  keep  his  heart 
or  his  fated  footsteps  from,  it  was  natural  that  he  should  go  back 
with  a  sense  of  relief  to  the  people  who  knew  him,  and  whom  he 
had  led  entranced  and  enthusiastic,  unconscious  whither,  into  all 
those  vivid  openings  of  truth  which  startled  unaccustomed  eyes 
with  a  hundred  side-gleams  of  possible  heresy.  He  returned  to 
his  pastoral  labors  always  more  zealous  and  earnest  in  his  work, 
if  that  were  possible.  I  insert  here  a  curious  document,  undated, 
and  evidently  intended  solely  for  distribution  among  the  class  to 
whom  it  is  addressed,  which  I  imagine  must  belong  to  this  period 
of  his  life,  and  which  will  show  how  minute  as  well  as  how  wide 
was  his  observation,  and  how  prompt  his  action  in  all  the  varied 
enterprises  of  his  calling.  It  is  addressed  To  the  Scottish  Journey- 
man Bakers  resident  in  London  and  its  neighborhood.  Social  Sci- 
ence did  not  exist  in  those  days,  but  Christian  charity  seems  to 
have  forestalled  statistics,  so  far,  at  least,  as  the  vast  field  of  Ir- 
ving's  labor  was  concerned. 

"  My  dear  Counteymen, — I  have  been  at  pains  to  make  myself 
acquainted  with  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  your  calling,  and  do  en- 
ter very  feeUngly  into  the  hardships  and  danger  of  your  condition, 
from  being  deprived  in  a  great  degree  of  the  ordinances  of  our  holy 
religion,  which  are  God's  appointed  means  of  grace  and  salvation. 
While  I  know  that  many  of  you  do  your  best  endeavor  to  profit  by 
the  means  of  grace,  I  know,  also,  that  many  more  have  a  desire  to  do 
so,  if  only  it  was  in  their  power ;  and  I  am  sure  the  most  of  you  will 
regret  with  me  that  not  a  few  of  you  are  fallen  into  carelessness,  and 
some  into  entire  neglect  of  their  invaluable  privileges  as  baptized 
members  of  Christ's  Church.  Moved  by  the  consideration  of  your 
peculiar  case,  and  desiring,  as  a  minister  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
to  spend  myself  for  the  sake  of  her  children  in  these  parts,  I  have 
come  to  the  resolution  of  setting  apart  two  hours  of  the  second  Sat- 
urday evening  in  the  month,  from  seven  till  nine  o'clock,  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  meeting  with  as  many  of  you  as  will  be  entreated  to 
come  together,  and  holding  some  profitable  discourse  with  you  con- 


356  FAMILY  SORROWS. 

cerning  the  things  which  belong  to  our  everlasting  peace.  These 
meetings  we  will  hold  in  the  Session  house  of  the  National  Scotch 
Church,  Regent  Square,  of  which  I  am  the  minister ;  and,  God  will- 
ing, we  will  begin  them  on  the  evening  of  the  14th  March,  at  seven 
o'clock. 

"  Take  this  in  good  part,  my  dear  countrymen,  and  believe  that  it 
proceeds  from  a  real  interest  in  your  welfare,  especially  in  the  wel- 
fare of  your  souls.  I  do  not  forget  that,  like  myself,  you  are  separ- 
ated from  father,  and  mother,  and  tender  relations ;  that  you  are  liv- 
ing in  a  city  full  of  snares  and  temptations ;  that  you  are  members  of 
Christ's  Church,  for  whom  He  died ;  and  that  I  am  appointed  one  of 
those  who  should  watch  for  your  souls.  Do,  therefore,  I  entreat  you, 
receive  this  invitation  with  a  welcome,  and  come  with  a  willing  mind 
to  meet  one  who,  though  unknown  to  you  in  the  flesh,  can  with  the 
heart  subscribe  himself  your  faithful  and  true  friend, 

"  Edward  Irving. 

"  P.  S. — ^Though  this  be  written  specially  with  a  view  to  the  young 
Scotchmen  of  the  baker  trade,  and  accommodated  to  meet  their  cir- 
cumstances, other  bakers  of  other  nations  will  be  welcome  even  as 
they;  for  are  we  not  all  the  disciples  of  one  Lord  and  Master?  and 
other  young  Scotchmen  of  other  trades,  who  may  find  this  suitable  to 
their  circumstances,  will  be  likewise  welcome." 

Whether  any  thing  came  of  this  brotherly  invitation  I  am  un- 
able to  say,  but  it  is  an  indication  of  the  extent  of  those  toils 
whicla  only  the  inevitable  hour  and  day,  time  and  space,  and 
nothing  else,  seem  to  have  limited. 

In  the  month  of  August  another  cloud  passed  over  the  house- 
hold— one  of  those  events  which  tell  for  so  little  in  the  history  of 
a  family,  but  which  make  all  the  diflference,  at  the  moment,  be- 
tween a  light  heart  and  a  sad  one,  and  deepen  all  other  shadows. 
A  child,  just  born  to  die,  came  and  went  on  one  of  those  August 
days.  Save  the  mention  of  its  name,  nothing  is  said,  even  in  the 
family  letters  of  this  hour-long  life,  as,  indeed,  nothing  could  be 
said ;  but  it  had  its  share  in  obscuring  that  personal  happiness, 
which,  though  it  can  never  be  the  end  of  life,  is  the  most  exqui- 
site of  all  stimulants  and  earthly  supports  in  its  great  conflict  and 
battle.  A  month  later  another  death  occurred  in  the  kindred ; 
that  of  the  old  man,  to  whom,  in  conjunction  with  his  descend- 
ants, Irving's  last  book  had  been  dedicated,  the  "  venerable  patri- 
arch" of  his  former  letters.  His  love  for  the  patriarchal  constitu- 
tion of  the  family,  as  well  as  for  the  grandsire  dead,  breathes 
through  the  following  letter,  addressed  to  Dr.  Martin,  of  Kirk- 
caldy : 

"  13  Judd  Place  East,  1st  Sept.,  1829. 
"  My  dear  Father-in-law^ — I  do  from  the  heart  sympathize  with 


JOSEPH  WOLFF'S  TWO  GREEKS.  357 

you,  and  all  your  father's  children  and  grandchildren,  in  the  visita- 
tion of  God  taking  from  you  your  venerable  head ;  that  most  dear 
and  precious  old  man,  for  whom  all  that  valued  venerable  worth  and 
long-tried  service  had  the  greatest  esteem  and  admiration.  To  me 
he  was  most  dear  in  every  respect,  as  the  faithful  and  diligent  minis- 
ter of  the  New  Testament,  as  the  reverend  patriarch,  as  the  scholar 
and  the  gentleman ;  and  I  honored  him  much  as  the  head  of  my 
■wife's  house.  .  .  .  Your  father  Avas  the  last  of  the  old  and  good 
school  of  Scottish  Churchmen.  That  race  is  now  gone,  and  we  have 
now  a  new  character  to  form  for  ourselves  according  to  the  new  exi- 
gencies of  the  times.  God  grant  us  grace  to  meet  Ilis  enemies  and 
establish  His  testimony  as  faithfully  as  our  fathers  did.  .  .  .  We  set 
out  to-morrow  for  Brighton.  Miss  Macdonald  goes  with  us.  Isa- 
bella is  getting  Avell ;  and  I  hope  Brighton,  where  Elizabeth  is,  will 
do  them  both  good.  Margaret's  eye  is  better  by  God's  goodness.  .  . 
Samuel  is  well ;  and  they  are  all  God  hath  spared  Avith  us — Edward, 
and  Mary,  and  Gavin  are  beyond  Avorldly  ailments. 

"  I  had  much  to  say  to  you  concerning  the  Church,  but  I  must  wait 
another  opportunity.  Watch  for  the  Lord  as  if  He  were  daily  to  ap- 
peal*— I  can  not  say  that  it  may  not  be  this  night.  ...  I  ask  your 
blessing  upon  me,  my  wife,  and  my  children,  night  and  morning.  Do 
not  forget  us,  and  plead  for  us  very  earnestly,  for  ours  is  no  ordinary 
post.  ...  I  pray  God  to  bless  and  comfort  all  the  family.  .  .  .  Fare- 
well! 

"  Your  affectionate  and  dutiful  son,  Edward  Irving." 

Early  in  this  year  (a  quaint  episode  which  I  had  almost  forgot- 
ten), Irving's  hands  had  been  suddenly  burdened  by  the  whim- 
sical liberality  of  the  missionary  Wolff,  who,  without  preface  or 
justification,  and  after  an  acquaintance  not  very  long,  if  suflS.cient- 
ly  warm  during  the  time  it  had  lasted,  sent  home  to  his  friend 
two  Greek  youths,  to  be  educated  and  trained  to  the  future  serv- 
ice of  their  countrymen.  They  were,  of  course,  totally  penniless, 
and  this  extraordinary  consignment  involved  the  maintenance, 
probably  for  years,  of  the  two  strangers.  Irving  announced  their 
coming  to  his  friend  Mr.  Story,  of  Eosneath,  in  whose  parish  he 
wished  to  place  his  unexpected  visitors,  with  a  certain  chivalrous 
magniloquence  of  speech,  as  if  to  forestall  all  comments  on  the 
singular  nature  of  the  charge  thus  put  upon  him.  "  Joseph  Wolff, 
my  much  esteemed  friend,"  he  writes,  "  and  Lady  Georgiana  Wolff, 
also  my  much  esteemed  friend,  have  given  me  another  proof  of 
their  esteem  by  sending  me  two  Greeks.  .  .  .  These  two  Greeks 
has  Joseph  Wolff  sent — wholly  intrusted  to  me — so  that  I  am  to 
them  as  father,  and  guardian,  and  provider,  and  every  thing, 
which  also  I  am  right  happy  to  be.  .  .  .  By  the  blessing  of  God, 
poor  though  I  am,  yet  rich  in  faith,  by  His  grace  I  will  take  upon 


358  WEEKLY  ISSUE  OF  LECTURES. 

myself  the  responsibility  of  their  charges  till  they  return  to  their 
native  Cyprus  again."  The  young  men  went  to  Kosneath  to  the 
parish  school  there,  where  they  remained  for  years.  In  an  after 
letter  Irving  unbended  from  the  high  ground  he  had  taken  at 
first,  and  confessed,  though  only  by  the  way,  that  this  charge  had 
been  "  rashly  devolved  upon  him  ;"  notwithstanding,  he  accepted 
it,  and  arranged  carefully,  as  well  for  the  economical  limitation  of 
their  expenses  as  for  the  pastoral  care  and  authority  which  he  ex- 
horted his  friend  to  wield  over  them.  I  do  not  suppose,  as  indeed 
it  would  be  unnatural  to  imagine,  that  the  cost  of  Mr.  Wolff's  lib- 
erality came  entirely,  or  even  chiefly,  out  of  Irving's  slender 
means.  Such  a  thing  could  only  have  been  possible  had  the  mat- 
ter been  secret ;  but  he  assumed  the  responsibility,  and  undertook 
all  those  expenses  without  any  apparent  hesitation,  never  dream- 
ing, it  would  appear,  of  declining  the  charge  so  rashly  devolved 
upon  him,  or  of  turning  it  off  on  other  hands. 

The  family  remained  for  some  time  at  Brighton  in  the  autumn 
of  the  year,  but  this  arrangement  conferred  no  special  leisure  upon 
their  head.  During  the  whole  time  of  their  absence  from  town 
he  continued  to  discharge  his  ordinary  pulpit  duties,  going  up  ev- 
ery Saturday,  to  be  ready  for  his  work.  Indeed,  Irving  seems  to 
have  at  last  worked  himself  into  the  condition,  so  common  to  la- 
borious men,  especially  those  whose  field  of  toil  is  in  London,  of 
finding  relaxation  only  in  a  change  of  work.  Absolute  rest  ap- 
pears to  have  been  unknown  to  him. 

During  this  year  he  began  to  issue,  in  weekly  numbers,  his  Lec- 
tures on  the  Revelations^  afterward  to  be  collected  in  the  more  dig- 
nified form  of  four  octavo  volumes.  These  little  rudely-printed 
brochures  were  each  prefaced  by  a  sonnet,  the  sentiment  of  which 
is  more  perfect  than  the  poetry ;  that  being,  indeed,  as  in  every 
case  where  Irving  used  this  vehicle  of  expression,  much  less  po- 
etical and  melodious  than  his  prose.  Notwithstanding,  I  do  not 
doubt  they  gave  a  more  grateful  utterance  to  his  own  heart  at  its 
highest  strain  of  emotion,  a  use  of  verse  which  is  not  to  be  des- 
pised. The  Horning  Watch  also  contained  various  papers  from 
his  hand — one  series  treating  of  the  Old  Testament  Pro2:)hecies  quoted 
in  the  Neio,  in  which  he  takes  occasion  again  and  yet  again  to  en- 
ter into  that  doctrine  of  our  Lord's  entire  union  with  us  in  the 
flesh,  which,  the  more  he  considered  and  meditated  on  it,  opened 
up  to  him  ever  new  and  tenderer  lights ;  and  articles  treating  ex- 
clusively of  the  same  subject,  some  from  his  own  pen,  some  in- 


THIKD  CONFERENCE  AT  ALBURY.  359 

spired  by  him — authorities,  arguments,  eloquent  expositions  of 
this  distinctive  crown  of  his  belief.  In  defense  of  this  he  stood 
forth  before  all  the  world,  fervently  convinced  of  its  supreme  im- 
portance ;  taking  infinite  comfort  in  his  own  splendid  but  troubled 
career — in  his  contentions  with  the  world — in  those  still,  domestic 
sorrows,  unperceived  by  the  world,  which  penetrated  the  depths 
of  his  heart  with  ever-returning  accesses  of  exquisite  sadness — 
from  the  thought  that  this  very  throbbing  flesh,  this  very  troubled 
soul,  was  the  same  nature  to  which  the  Lord,  by  conquering  all 
things  in  these  self-same  garments,  had  secured  the  victory.  It 
was  no  dogma  to  Irving ;  the  reality  of  the  consolation  and 
strength  which  he  himself  found  in  it  is  apparent  in  every  word 
he  writes  on  the  subject ;  he  fights  for  it  as  a  man  fights  for  some- 
thing dearer  than  life. 

Another  Albury  Conference  concluded  the  year.  This  was  the ; 
third ;  and  the  yearly  meeting  seems  now  to  have  become  a  reg-j 
ular  institution,  returning  with  the  return  of  winter.  The  bonds' 
formed  in  this  society  were  naturally  drawn  closer,  and  the  inter- 
est of  their  researches  intensified  by  this  repetition,  at  least  to  a 
man  who  entered  so  entirely  into  them  as  Irving  did.  Nothing 
of  the  position  he  himself  held  in  those  conferences  is  to  be  learn- 
ed from  his  own  report ;  but  the  significant  pre-eminence  in  which 
he  appears  in  the  pages  of  the  Moriiing  Watch^  their  organ  and 
representative,  infers  that  it  must  have  been  a  high  place.  jSTo 
doubt  the  little  interval  of  retirement,  the  repose  of  the  religious 
house,  inclosed  by  all  the  pensive  sights  and  sounds  of  the  wan- 
ing year,  the  congenial  society  and  congenial  themes,  the  with- 
drawal from  actual  life  and  trouble  in  which  these  serious  days 
passed,  amid  the  falling  leaves'  at  Albury,  must  have  been  deeply 
grateful  to  his  soul.  Whether  it  was  a  safe  or  beneficial  enjoy- 
ment is  a  different  matter.  There  he  attracted  to  himself,  by  that 
"  magnetic  influence"  which  Dr.  Chalmers  noted,  but  did  not  un- 
derstand, a  circle  of  men  who  were  half  to  lead  and  half  to  follow 
him  hereafter;  attracted  them  into  a  certain  loyal,  all-believing 
admiration,  which  he  himself  repaid  by  implicit  trust  and  confi- 
dence, as  was  his  nature — admiration  too  great  and  trust  too  pro- 
found. Nothing  of  this,  however,  appears  in  the  following  record 
of  the  third  conference  at  Albury. 

"Albury  Park,  30th  Nov.,  1829. 
"  My  dear  Wife, — I  have  enjoyed  great  tranquillity  of  mind  here, 
and  much  of  God's  good  presence  with  me,  for  which  I  desire  to  be 
very  thankful.     Our  meetings  prosper  very  well.     My  time  is  so 


360  MILLENNIAL  BLESSEDNESS. 

much  occupied  with  preparations  and  examinations  of  what  I  hear, 
that,  except  when  I  am  in  bed,  my  Bible  is  continually  before  me,  in 
the  margin  of  which  I  engross  whatever  illustrates  my  text.  This 
morning  I  have  been  alone,  being  minded  to  partake  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per with  the  rest  of  the  brethren.  I  find  Mr.  Dow  agrees  with  me  in 
feeling  his  mind  clear  to  this  act  of  communicating  with  the  Church 
of  England. 

"  We  are  not  without  some  diversities  of  opinion  upon  most  sub- 
jects, especially  as  to  the  Millennial  blessedness,  which  was  handled 
yesterday.  Lord  Mandeville  and  Mr.  Dodsworth  take  a  view  of  it 
different  from  me,  rating  the  condition  of  men  in  flesh  higher  than  I 
do,  and  excluding  death.  I  desire  to  think  humbly,  and  reverently 
to  inquire  upon  a  subject  so  high.  Mr.  Dow  has  gi-eat  self-possession 
and  freedom  among  so  many  strangers.  Mr.  Borthwick  is  very  pen- 
etrating and  lively,  but  Scotch  all  over  in  his  manner  of  dealing  with 
that  infidel  way  of  intellectualizing  divine  truth  which  came  from 
Scotland.  I  myself  have  too  much  of  it.  Mr.  Tudor  is  very  learned, 
modest,  and  devout.  Lord  Mandeville  is  truly  sublime  and  soul-sub- 
duing in  the  views  he  presents.  I  observed  a  curious  thing,  that 
while  he  was  reading  a  paper  on  Christ's  ofiice  of  judgment  in  the 
Millennium,  every  body's  pen  stood  still,  as  if  they  felt  it  a  desecra- 
tion to  do  any  thing  but  listen.  Mr.  Drummond  says  that  if  I  and 
Dodsworth  had  been  joined  together  we  would  have  made  a  Pope 
Gregory  the  Great — he  to  furnish  the  popish  quality,  not  me.  I  do 
not  know  what  I  should  furnish ;  but  the  church  bell  is  now  ringing. 

"We  have  just  returned  from  a  most  delightful  service.  .  .  .  Mr. 
Dodsworth  preached  from  Psalm  viii.,  4,  5,  6.  .  .  .  Our  subject  to- 
morrow is  the  parables  and  words  of  our  Lord  as  casting  light  upon 
His  kingdom,  opened  by  Dodsworth.  Next  day  the  Remnant  of  tho 
Gentiles  and  their  translation,  opened  by  your  husband ;  the  next, 
the  Apocalypse,  opened  by  Mr.  Whyte ;  and  the  last,  the  Signs  of  the 
Times,  opened  by  our  host.  This  will  enable  you  to  sympathize  with 
us.  .  .  .  Farewell !  The  Lord  preserve  you  all  unto  His  kingdom. 
"  Your  faithful  husband,  Edward  Irving." 

With  this  Sabbatical  scene,  in  which  Irving  was  a  simple  wor- 
shiper, concludes,  so  far  as  I  have  any  record,  this  year  of  strenu- 
ous labor  and  conflict.  Another  illness  of  his  wife's  still  farther 
saddened  its  termination.  The  sunshine  of  household  prosperity 
did  not  light  up  for  him  that  path  which  went  forward  into  the 
darkness.  But  he  went  on  boldly,  notwithstanding,  bating  noth- 
ing of  heart  or  hope. 


mVING'S  CULMINATING  PROGRESS.  3*61 


CHAPTER  XV. 

1830. 

A  new  Light. — Influence  of  Scott.— Mary  Campbell.— Campbell  of  Row. — Reli- 
<»ious  Fermentation  in  Clydesdale. — Tract  on  our  Lord's  Human  Nature. — The 
Man  of  Sorrows. — Beginning  of  the  Conflict. — Gift  from  Friends  in  Edinburgh. — 
The  Christian  Instructor.— Iry'mg's  Letter  to  Mr.  Dods. — Statement  of  his  own 
Belief. Invitation  to  brotherly  Conference. — Heart-sickness. — Letter  to  Dr.  Chal- 
mers.  Irving's  Confidence  in  his  Judgment. — Chalmers'  timid  Silence. — Prosecit- 

tion  of  Mr.  Maclean. — Unfair  Inquisition. — Proceedings  in  Mr.  Scott's  Case. — 
Deliverance  of  the  Presbytery. — Advice  in  the  Dreghorn  Case. — Necessity  for 
Caution  and  Patience.— Presbytery  of  London. — "God  send  better  Days." — Fer- 
nicarry,— Mary  Campbell. — The  Gift  of  Tongues. — The  first  Prophetess. — The 
Macdonalds.— The  Gift  of  Healing.— The  Manifestations  believed  by  many.— 
Eagerly  hailed  by  Irving. — Dr.  Chalmers  in  London. — Irving,  Chalmers,  and  Cole- 
ridge.— Fears  for  the  Church  of  Scotland. — Irving's  renewed  Appeal  to  his  "Mas- 
ter."— Farewell  of  Irving  and  Chalmers. — Little  Samuel's  Illness. — Irving's  new 
Surroundings. — His  miraculous  Heart. — Albury. — A  faithful  Wife. — The  chief 
Physician. — Serving  God  for  Naught. — Resignation. — Irving's  Visit  to  Ireland. — 
Powerscourt. — Dublin. — Little  Maggie's  Song. — "Out  of  the  Mouth  of  Babes  and 
Sucklings." — Congratulations. — Note  on  Samuel  Martin's  Bible. — Seamen's  Asy- 
lum.— Movement  in  the  Presbytery  of  London. — Dutifulness  to  the  Church. — A 
contumacious  Brother. — Irving  separates  from  the  Presbytery. — Gives  up  his  pro- 
posed Visit  to  Scotland. — Fright  and  Agreement  of  the  Presbytery. — His  Isola- 
tion.— Statement  by  his  Kirk  Session. — Petition  to  the  King. — Lord  Melbourne. 

From  year  to  year,  as  Irving  proceeded  farther  on  his  course, 
the  tide  of  thought  and  emotion  had  been  hitherto  rising  with  a 
noble  and  natural  progress.  He  had  now  reached  almost  to  the 
culmination  of  that  wonderful  and  splendid  development.  Every 
thing  he  had  uttered  or  set  forth  with  the  authority  ofhis  name 
had  been  worthy  the  loftiest  mood  of  human  intellect,  and  had 
given  dignity  and  force  to  the  high  position  he  assumed  as  a 
teacher  and  embassador  of  God.  All  his  discoveries  and  open- 
ings up  of  truth  had  operated  only,  so  far  as  his  own  mind  was 
concerned,  to  the  heightening  of  every  divine  conception,  and  to 
the  increase  and  intensification  of  the  divine  love  in  his  heart. 
But  another  chapter  of  life  had  commenced  for  the  great  preacher. 
That  a  man  whose  thoughts  were  sublimated  so  far  out  of  the  usual 
way,  and  whose  mental  vision  was  so  vivid  as  to  elevate  every 
thing  he  clearly  perceived  entirely  out  of  the  region  of  compro- 
mise into  that  of  absolute  verity,  should  have  gone  on  so  long  with- 


362  A  NEW  LIGHT. 

out  coming  in  contact  at  some  point  with  the  restrictions  of  author- 
ity, is  more  wonderful  than  that  the  common  orthodox  understand- 
ing, long  jealous  of  a  fervor  and  force  which  it  could  not  compre- 
hend, should  at  length  set  up  a  barrier  of  sullen  resistance  against 
his  advances.  The  conflict  had  fairly  set  in  when  the  year  1830 
commenced.  No  longer  the  politico-religious  journals  of  London, 
no  longer  stray  adventurers  into  the  world  of  controversy,  but 
the  authorized  religious  periodicals  of  his  own  country,  and  the 
divines  of  his  mother  Church,  were  now  rising  against  him ;  and 
while  the  storm  gathered,  another  cloud  arose  upon  the  firmament 
— another  cloud  to  most  of  the  spectators  who  watched  the  pro- 
gress of  this  wonderful  tragedy,  but  to  Irving  himself  another 
light,  still  more  beautiful  and  glorious  than  those  which  had  al- 
ready flushed  his  horizon  with  the  warmest  illuminations  of  grati- 
tude and  love.  Since  that  summer-day  of  1828  when  he  preached 
at  Kow,  and  agreed  with  Mr.  Alexander  Scott  to  come  to  his  as- 
sistance in  London,  and  work  with  him  entirely  unfettered  by  any 
pledge  as  to  doctrine,  that  powerful  and  singular  spirit  had  been 
his  close  companion  and  fellow-workman,  and  had  not  occupied 
that  place  without  influencing  the  open  and  candid  heart  of  his 
leader,  I  do  not  know  what  thread  of  unity  ran  through  Mr. 
Scott's  beliefs  at  this  time,  and  gave  his  faith  coherence.  All  that 
is  outwardly  apparent  of  him  through  the  long  vista  of  years  is  a 
determined  resistance  to  every  kind  of  external  limitation,  and 
fastidious  rejection  of  all  ecclesiastical  boundary  for  his  thoughts, 
combined  with  a  power  of  impressing  other  minds  around  him 
not  only  with  his  own  marvelous  powers  of  understanding,  but 
with  his  profound  spirituality  and  perception  of  divine  things. 
To  a  man  of  so  questioning  and  unsatisfied  a  mind,  slow  to  believe 
what  any  body  told  him,  and  apparently  rather  stimulated  to  con- 
tradiction than  to  reverence  by  the  utterances  of  authority,  the 
hope  of  direct  communications  from  heaven  afforded,  no  doubt,  a 
gleam  of  possible  deliverance  out  of  the  ever-increasing  problems 
and  perplexities  of  life  and  thought.  It  was  an  idea  which  al- 
ready, in  a  kind  of  grand  prophetic  reverie,  had  crossed  the  mind 
of  Irving.  So  far  back  as  1828,  he  himself  says  he  had  become 
convinced  that  the  spiritual  gifts  so  largely  bestowed  upon  the 
apostolic  age  of  Christianity  were  not  exceptional,  or  for  one  pe- 
riod alone,  but  belonged  to  the  Church  of  all  ages,  and  had  only 
been  kept  in  abeyance  by  the  absence  of  faith.  Yet  with  the  lofty 
reasonableness  and  moderation  of  genius,  even  when  treading  in  a 


INFLUENCE  OF  SCOTT.— MARY  CAMPBELL.  363 

sphere  beyond  reason,  Irving  concluded  that  these  unclaimed  and 
unexercised  supernatural  endowments,  which  had  died  out  of  use 
so  long,  would  be  restored  only  at  the  time  of  the  Second  Advent, 
in  the  miraculous  reign,  of  which  they  would  form  a  fitting  ad- 
junct. Such  had  been  his  idea  for  some  time,  when  the  restless 
soul  beside  him  began  to  work  upon  this  germ  of  faith.  "  He  was 
at  that  time  my  fellow-laborer  in  the  National  Scotch  Church," 
writes  Irving  some  time  afterward,  in  his  narrative  of  the  Facts 
connected  with  recent  Manifestations  of  Spiritual  Gifts,  published  in 
Fraser's  Magazine  for  January,  1832, 

"  And  as  we  went  out  and  in  together,  he  used  often  to  signify  to 
me  his  conviction  that  the  spiritual  gifts  ought  still  to  he  exercised 
in  the  Churcli ;  that  wc  arc  at  liberty,  and  indeed  bound,  to  pray  for 
them  as  being  baptized  into  the  assurance  of  the  '  gift  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,' as  well  as  of 'repentance  and  remission  of  sins.'  .  .  .  Though 
I  could  make  no  answer  to  this,  and  it  is  altogether  unanswerable,  I 
continued  still  very  little  moved  to  seek  myself  or  to  stir  up  my  peo- 
ple to  seek  these  spiritual  treasures.  Yet  I  went  forward  to  contend 
and  to  instruct  Avhenever  the  subject  came  before  me  in  my  public 
ministrations  of  reading  and  preaching  the  "Word,  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  ought  to  be  manifested  among  us  all,  the  same  as  ever  He  Avas 
in  any  one  of  the  primitive  churches." 

Mr,  Scott's  influence  did  not  end  here.  About  the  same  period 
at  which  he  was  engaged  in  quickening  this  germ  of  expectation 
in  the  breast  of  Irving,  circumstances  brought  him  in  the  way  of 
sowing  a  still  more  effectual  seed : 

"  Being  called  down  to  Scotland  upon  some  occasion,"  continues 
Irving,  "and  residing  for  a  while  at  his  father's  house,  which  is  in  the 
heart  of  that  district  of  Scotland  upon  which  the  light  of  Mr.  Camp- 
bell's ministry  had  arisen,  he  was  led  to  open  his  mind  to  some  of  the 
godly  peoj)le  in  these  parts,  and,  among  others,  to  a  young  woman 
who  was  at  that  time  lying  ill  of  a  consumption,  from  which  after- 
ward, Avhen  brought  to  the  very  door  of  death,  she  was  raised  up  in- 
stantaneously by  the  mighty  hand  of  God.  Being  a  woman  of  a  very 
fixed  and  constant  spirit,  he  was  not  able,  with  all  his  power  of  state- 
ment and  argument,  which  is  unequaled  by  that  of  any  man  I  have  ever 
met  with,  to  convince  her  of  the  distinction  between  regeneration  and 
baptism  with  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  when  he  could  not  prevail,  he  left 
her  with  a  solemn  charge  to  read  over  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  with 
that  distinction  in  her  mind,  and  to  beware  how  she  rashly  rejected 
what  he  believed  to  be  the  truth  of  God.  By  this  young  woman  it 
was  that  God,  not  many  months  after,  did  restore  the  gift  of  speak- 
ing with  tongues  and  prophesying  to  the  Church." 

This  singular  transaction  connects  the  history  together  in  its 
several  parts  with  wonderful  consistence  and  coherence.  The 
preaching  of  Mr.  Campbell,  of  Row,  which  had  stirred  the  whole 


364  CAMPBELL  OF  ROW.— ISABELLA  CAMPBELL. 

country-side  with  its  warm  and  single-minded  proclamation  of  an 
uncomplicated  Gospel ;  the  proceedings  against  him,*  then  going 
on  before  the  ecclesiastical  courts,  which  quickened  the  trades- 
men and  laborers  of  Clydesdale  into  a  convocation  of  learned 
doctors  deep  in  metaphysics  and  theology ;  the  repeated  appari- 
tion of  Irving — then,  perhaps,  the  most  striking  individual  figure 
in  his  generation,  and  who  spread  excitement  and  interest  around 
him  wherever  he  went — had  combined  to  raise  to  a  very  high  de- 
gree of  fervor  and  vividness  the  religious  feeling  of  that  district. 
Several  humble  persons  in  the  locality  had  become  illustrious  over 
its  whole  extent  by  the  singular  piety  of  their  lives — piety  of  an 
ecstatic,  absorbing  kind,  such  as  in  the  Catholic  Church  would 
have  brought  about  canonization,  and  which,  indeed,  does  every 
where  confer  a  spiritual  local  rank  equal  to  canonization.  Such 
was  Isabella  Campbell,  of  Fernicarry,  a  youthful  saint  who  had 
died  not  long  before  in  an  odor  of  sanctity  which  no  conventual 
virgin  ever  surpassed,  and  whose  life  had  been  published  with 
immense  local  circulation  by  Mr.  Story,  of  Eosneath.  It  is  unnec- 
essary to  describe  more  fully  the  singular  condition  of  mind  into 
which  the  entire  district  seems  to  have  been  rapt  at  this  special 
period,  since  it  has  already  been  done  with  fuller  knowledge  and 
more  perfect  detail  in  the  Memoir  of  the  admirable  minister  of 
Rosneath,f  written  by  his  son.  But  religion  had  at  this  crisis 
taken  a  hold  upon  the  entire  mind  of  the  population  which  it 
very  seldom  possesses.  It  was  not  only  the  inspiration  of  their 
hearts,  but  the  subject  of  their  thoughts,  discussions,  and  conver- 
sations. They  seem  not  only  to  have  been  stimulated  in  personal 
piety,  but  occupied  to  an  almost  unprecedented  degree  with  those 
spiritual  concerns  which  are  so  generally  kept  altogether  apart 

*  The  report  of  these  presbyterial  proceedings,  being  the  trial  of  this  saintly  and 
admirable  man  for  heresy  by  his  Presbytery,  in  the  very  centre  of  the  district  which 
had  been  instructed  and  influenced  by  him,  with  its  full  testimony  of  witnesses  for 
and  against  the  orthodoxy  of  the  reverend  "defender" — witnesses  of  all  descriptions, 
plowmen,  farmers,  small  shopkeepers,  Dunbartonshire  lairds — is  perhaps  one  of  the 
most  singular  records  ever  printed  ;  each  man  of  all  these  miscellaneous  individuals 
being  evidently,  not  only  in  his  own  estimation,  but  in  that  of  the  Presbytery,  a  com- 
petent informant  on  a  nice  point  of  doctrine ;  and  their  testimony  of  the  different 
senses  in  which  they  had  understood  their  minister's  sermons,  and  their  opinions 
thereupon,  being  gravely  received  as  influencing  the  important  question  of  a  clergy- 
man's character  and  position  in  the  Church.  Nowhere  but  in  Scotland  could  such  a 
body  of  evidence  be  brought  together. 

t  Memoir  of  the  Life  of  the  Rev.  Robert  Story,  by  Robert  Herbert  Stoiy,  IMinister 
of  Rosneath  :  Macmillan  and  Co. 


TRACT  ON  OUR  LORD'S  HUMAN  NATURE.  865 

from  tlie  common  tide  of  life.  On  such  a  state  of  mind  Mr.  Scott's 
pregnant  suggestion  fell  with  the  force  that  might  have  been  ex- 
pected from  it.  A  master  of  "statement  and  argument,"  as  Ir- 
ving declares  him  to  have  been,  he  bent  all  his  powers  to  laying 
this  train  of  splendid  mischief  I  trust  no  one  will  consider  that 
I  speak  with  levity,  or  in  the  slightest  degree  prejudge  what  was 
to  follow,  by  using  this  word.  But  the  position  is  so  remarkable, 
and  the  results  were  yet  so  much  more  so,  that  it  seems  to  me  a 
justifiable  expression;  all  the  more,  as  the  singular  man  who 
dropped  this  seed,  obeying  his  fastidious  instincts,  as  might  have 
been  predicted  of  him,  afterward  rejected  the  phenomena  which 
his  own  exertions  had  shaped  into  being. 

With  this  smouldering  fire  beginning  to  glow  in  unsuspected 
quiet,  and  with  a  longing  expectation  beginning  to  rise  in  the 
mind  of  Irving,  both  fanned  by  one  powerful  hand,  the  year  be- 
gan. Nothing  as  yet  had  come  of  that  expectation.  But  no  one 
can  watch  the  progress  of  events,  marking  how  Irving's  heart  grew 
sick  over  the  opposition  of  his  brethren,  and  how  the  deep  con- 
viction that  this  antagonism  was  against  a  fundamental  doctrine 
of  Christianity,  and  involved  the  Church  in  a  practical  denial  of 
her  Head,  overpowered  him  with  indignation  and  melancholy, 
without  perceiving  how  open  his  troubled  spirit  was  to  any  thing 
which  appeared  like  the  ineffable  joy  of  direct  support  and  vindi- 
cation from  heaven. 

In  January  his  tract,  entitled  the  Orthodox  and  Catholic  Doctrine 
of  Our  Lord^s  Human  Nature^  made  its  appearance — the  first  dis- 
tinct and  separate  publication  on  the  subject  which  he  had  given 
to  the  world  since  the  Incarnation  sermons  which  first  broached 
the  question.  It  was  a  controversial  reassertion,  strongly  defens- 
ive and  belligerent,  of  the  doctrine  which  he  had  before  stated 
with  calm  exposition  and  lofty  argument.  I  have  heard  many 
competent  authorities  say  that  there  are  rash  and  unjustifiable  ex- 
pressions in  this  little  book.  It  may  very  well  be  so ;  and,  con- 
sidering that  his  faith  in  this  respect  was  the  very  heart  and  soul 
of  his  Christianity,  it  is  not  wonderful  if  he  defended  it  with  even 
an  excessive  vehemence.  But  no  one  can  read  this,  or  any  of  his 
publications  on  the  subject,  without  observing  how  he  pauses  now 
and  then  at  every  point  of  his  argument,  lays  down  his  weapons, 
restrains  his  excited  actyDn,  and  with  a  simplicity  and  moderation 
that  becomes  pathetic  as  one  observes  how  it  is  repeated,  states 
over  again  the  plain  text  of  the  question  at  issue.     That  self-con- 


366  THE  MAN  OF  SORROWS. 

trol  and  affecting  earnestness  prove,  mucli  more  effectually  than 
any  heat  of  argument,  how  profoundly  important  he  held  it,  and 
how  deeply  bent  he  was  on  conveying  the  true  statement  of  his 
cherished  belief  to  every  ear  that  could  be  induced  to  hear.  To 
a  man  so  deeply  human,  there  was  no  comfort  in  the  passive  im- 
maculate image  of  a  Savior,  set  aside  from  our  temptations  by  a 
flesh  which  could  not  feel  them,  and  only  by  some  divine  fiction 
of  sympathy  entering  into  the  more  heavily  burdened  way  of  His 
hapless  creatures.  But  his  whole  nature  expanded  with  love  and 
consolation  when  he  saw  that  Savior  sensible  to  those  assaults 
which  rend  the  human  soul  asunder,  yet  keeping  perfect,  in  his 
strength  and  inspiration  of  Godhead,  the  flesh,  which  he  held 
against  all  the  forces  of  evil : 

"  I  believe,"  cries  Irving,  with  the  deepest  emotion, "  that  my  Lord 
did  come  down  and  toil,  and  sweat,  and  travail,  in  exceeding  great 
§orrow,  in  this  mass  of  temptation,  with  which  I  and  every  sinful 
man  am  oppressed ;  did  bring  His  Divine  presence  into  death-pos- 
sessed humanity,  into  the  one  substance  of  manhood  created  in  Adam, 
and  by  the  Fall  brought  into  a  state  of  resistance  and  alienation  from 
God,  of  condemnation  and  proclivity  to  evil,  of  subjection  to  the  dev- 
il ;  and  bearing  it  all  upon  His  shoulders  in  that  very  state  into  which 
God  put  it  after  Adam  had  sinned,  did  sufler  its  sorrows  and  pains, 
and  swimming  anguish,  its  darkness,  wasteness,  disconsolateness,  and 
hiddenness  from  the  countenance  of  God ;  and  by  His  faith  and  pa- 
tience did  win  for  Himself  the  name  of  the  Man  of  Sorrows,  and  the 
author  and  finisher  of  our  faith." 

This  was  the  very  essence  of  his  belief  And  when,  from  un- 
expected quarters  every  where  round  him,  he  discovered  that  oth- 
er men — that  his  fathers  and  brethren  in  his  own  Church,  dis- 
owned this  central  truth  which  gave  life  and  reality  to  the  Gos- 
pel, it  went  to  his  heart  like  a  personal  affliction.  It  was  not  that 
'they  differed  with  him  on  a  controverted  subject ;  the  matter  was 
different  to  his  grieved  and  wondering  perception.  To  hita  it  ap- 
peared that  they  denied  the  Lord.  The  deepest  heart  of  divine 
grace  and  pity,  the  real  unspeakable  redemption,  seemed  to  Irving 
overlooked  and  despised  when  this  wonderful  identity  of  nature 
was  disputed.  He  stood  wondering  and  sorrowful,  alwaj-s  in  the 
midst  of  his  argument  turning  back  again  to  simple  statement,  as 
if,  like  his  Lord,  he  would  have  asked,  "Do  ye  noiv  believe?" 

And  not  only  increasing  controversy,  but  actual  events,  began 
to  intensify  the  character  of  this  conflict.  The  first  parallels  of 
actual  warfare  were  opened  by  two  younger  men  than  himself, 
both,  I  presume,  his  disciples,  on  this  question  at  least ;  one  being 


GIFT  FROM  FRIENDS  IN  EDINBURGH.  367 

the  Eev.  H.  B.  Maclean,  of  London  Wall,  and  the  other  his  chosen 
friend,  Mr.  Scott.  Mr.  Maclean  received  a  presentation  to  a  Church 
in  Scotland,  and  Mr.  Scott  was  chosen  by  the  little  Scotch  congre- 
gation at  Woolwich  as  their  minister.  The  two  events  seem  to 
have  been  almost  simultaneous.  Writing  to  his  father-in-law 
about  the  prospects  of  a  young  minister  in  Scotland  whom  he 
seems  to  have  sought  an  opportunity  to  befriend,  Irving  thus  re- 
fers to  them  both : 

"  There  is  likely  to  be  a  vacancy  at  London  Wall  soon,  but  for  me 
to  interfere  in  it  would  be  to  mar  the  prospects  of  any  one ;  for  they 
have  foolishly  taken  it  into  their  heads  that  I  have  liad  a  great  hand 
in  making  Mr.  Maclean  a  Churchman  and  a  Millenarian,  instead  of  a 
Liberal  and  a  Nothingarian,  which  is  the  thing  that  goes  best  down 
in  these  latitudes.  The  Lord's  hand  hath  indeed  been  manifest  in 
the  settlement  of  Woolwich.  Almost  unanimously  hath  Mr.  Scott 
been  chosen,  who  had  not  a  man,  no,  not  one,  to  speak  for  him.  But 
lie  had  friends  in  a  higher  court ;  it  was  like  a  thunder-stroke  to  us 
all.  I  praise  God  for  it  above  all  measure ;  it  is  decidedly  the  most 
striking  iustance  of  an  overruling  Providence  which  hath  occurred  iu 
my  day." 

So  Irving  imagined  in  his  hopeful  and  brotherly  heart.  It  came 
to  little  save  controversy  and  discussion,  but  it  brought  closer  and 
nearer  the  turning-point  in  his  own  career.  Mr.  Scott,  who  was 
only  a  probationer,  had  to  go  through  his  "trials"  for  ordination, 
which  necessitated  the  preaching  of  various  discourses  before  the 
Presbytery,  whose  ears  it  may  be  supposed  were  specially  quick- 
ened and  critical.  Mr.  Maclean  had  to  be  subjected  to  the  still 
more  severe  ordeal  of  presby terial  examination  in  Scotland.  And 
thus  the  field  was  cleared  for  action. 

Just  at  this  time  Irving  seems  to  have  received  an  offering 
from  his  Edinburgh  friends  and  followers,  conveyed  to  him  by 
the  friendly  hands  of  Mr.  Matthew  Norman  Macdonald ;  a  sum  of 
money,  nearly  a  hundred  pounds,  which  he  proposes  to  make  use 
of  in  a  characteristic  fashion. 

"  My  present  feeling  is,"  he  writes, "  that  it  should  go  to  the  pur- 
chase of  books  which  are  profitable  for  the  understanding  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  ...  I  look  upon  it  as  a  gift  of  the  Church  of  Christ  to 
one  of  her  poor  ministers,  which  he  should  lay  out  for  the  greatest 
profit  of  the  Church  which  gave  it.  Your  letter,  which  expressed 
the  sentiments  of  my  unknown  benefactors,  did  my  heart  much  good 
in  the  midst  of  this  fearful  conflict  which  I  have  to  maintain  for  the 
faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints. 

"  I  have  one  desire  yet  unaccomplished,  which  is  to  expound  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebi'ews  in  the  metropolis  of  my  native  land  and 
mother  Church.     But  the  time  and  opportunity  must  be  left  to  God. 


368  IRVING'S  LETTER  TO  ME.  DODS. 

Meanwhile,  I  am  perfecting  myself  in  the  understanding  of  that  most 
wonderful  book.  I  perceive  that  the  controversy  which  is  now  aris- 
ing in  the  Church  is  not  merely  for  the  person  of  Christ,  but  for  the 
very  name  of  God,  whether  He  be  Love  or  not.  I  am  a  most  un- 
worthy man,  but  while  I  live  I  will  defend  the  honor  of  my  God, 
and,  above  all  places  of  the  earth,  in  the  land  of  my  fathers.  I  am  a 
most  diligent  observer  of  what  is  proceeding  there.  If  at  any  time 
I  can  be  of  service  with  lip  or  with  pen,  I  am  ready  unto  the  death 
to  serve  the  Church  of  Scotland,  which  I  believe  in  her  constitution 
to  be  the  most  apostolical  of  the  churches  existent  on  the  earth.  I 
entreat  you  all  to  reverence  her  ordinances,  and  to  stand  by  her  in 
the  perils  which  are  at  hand." 

The  mingled  love,  alarm,  and  indignation  with  which  be  began 
to  regard  his  country  also  gleams  forth  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Martin, 
in  which  be  gives  the  following  advice  to  a  young  Scotch  clergy- 
man who  had  consulted  him :  "  Tell  him  from  me  it  is  a  great  ad- 
vantage to  be  out  of  Scotland  for  a  while ;  Knox  and  Melville, 
and  almost  all  the  Reformers,  were  so ;  and  there  is  rising  in  your 
quarters  a  commotion  which  will  give  forth,  if  I  err  not,  fearful 
issues." 

To  these  northern  quarters,  where,  indeed,  it  did  not  require 
much  prophetic  foresight  to  perceive  the  gathering  of  a  storm,  Ir- 
ving's  eyes  were  now  turned  with  ever  closer  and  closer  interest. 
The  Christian  Instructor,  a  periodical  published  under  high  sanc- 
tion, and  in  some  degree  the  organ  of  the  evangelical  party  in  the 
Church,  had  now  entered  the  lists  against  himself.  The  criticism 
in  which  it  indulged  was,  I  understand,  sharp  and  unfriendly ;  and 
to  the  author  of  the  papers  in  which  he  was  specially  assailed,  the 
Eev.  Marcus  Dods,  Presbyterian  minister  at  Belford,  in  Northum- 
berland, and  afterward  known  as  the  author  of  a  work  on  the  In- 
carnation, partly,  I  believe,  originating  in  this  controversy,  the  fol- 
lowing letter,  a  production,  perhaps,  almost  unique  in  theological 
controversy,  was  addressed :  another  proof,  if  any  were  wanting, 
of  Irving's  inability  to  conceive  of  a  nature  less  candid,  manful, 
and  brotherly  than  his  own : 

"London,  13  Judd  Place,  East,  March  8,  1830. 

"  Mt  dear  Brother, — It  is  reported  to  me  (and,  indeed,  without 
any  signification  of  doubt,  a  friend,  who  wrote  me  the  other  day  a 
letter  from  Edinburgh,  approving  what  you  have  written,  speaks  of 
it  without  even  an  allusion  to  uncertainty)  that  you  are  the  author  of 
two  critiques  in  the  Christian  Instructor  upon  some  of  my  writings. 

"  I  do  not  ask  you  whether  you  are  or  not ;  indeed,  I  would  rather 
not  know  by  whom  they  are  written,  for  I  am  told  they  are  very 
severe  in  their  language  and  in  their  spirit,  though  I  can  only  speak 
from  report  of  others,  not  bemg  in  the  habit  of  reading  that  work. 


STATEMENT  OF  HIS  OWN  BELIEF.  369 

The  object  for  which  I  write  is  to  ask  the  favor  of  your  setting  down, 
in  a  brief  form,  what  is  the  doctrine  you  hold  on  this  subject,  that  I 
may  leisurely  consider  it  in  my  own  mind ;  for  I  am  assured  you 
would  not  write  on  such  high  subjects  without  having  well  consid- 
ered them.  And  I  will  set  down  for  your  perusal  the  sum  of  the 
doctrine  which  I  hold ;  of  which,  let  me  say,  till  within  these  two 
years,  I  never  knew  that  there  were  two  opinions  in  any  orthodox 
creed  and  true  Church.  I  believe,  then, 
"  1st.  That  all  things,  with  man  as  their  lord,  were  created  holy  and 

sinless. 
"  2d.  That  since  the  Fall  they  have  all,  with  man  as  their  head,  be- 
come altogether  sinful,  without  the  power  of  redeeming  them- 
selves. 
"  3d.  That  the  Eternal  Son  of  God,  very  God  of  very  God,  by  incar- 
nation unto  death,  and  resurrection  out  of  death,  redeemed 
man  the  head,  and  man's  inheritance. 
"  4th.  That  flesh  in  human  nature  was  created  all  good,  then  it  be- 
came all  evil,  then  in  Christ  it  became  all  holy,  and  by  the 
Resurrection  it  became  all  glory. 
"  5th.  That  by  generation  our  nature  is  all  sinful,  as  Adam's  was  after 
the  Fall ;  that  by  regeneration  it  is  strengthened  of  Christ  the 
regenerator,  the  second  Adam,  to  overcome  all  sin,  and  that 
by  resurrection  it  is  changed  into  Christ's  glory. 
"  6th.  That  sin  in  the  regenerate  ariseth,  not  from  the  weakness  of 
the  Spirit  of  Christ  in  them,  but  from  their  own  moral  wick- 
edness, which  they  give  place  to,  and  so  contract  guilt,  which 
needs  a  continual  atonement  or  forgiveness,  whereof  we  are 
assured  in  the  good  work  of  God's  having  united  himself  to 
our  nature  and  sanctified  it. 
"  '7th.  With  respect  to  the  experience  of  the  Son  of  God  in  our  na- 
ture, I  am  content  to  say  that  He  was  tempted  in  all  points 
like  as  we  are,  and  yet  never  sinned :  when  I  want  to  have 
this  truth  expanded  I  study  the  Psalms  and  the  Prophets, 
which  testify  of  Him. 
"Now,  dear  sir,  and  fellow-laborer  in  the  ministry  of  truth,  I  shall 
take  it  very  kind  if  you  will  set  down  in  a  form  somewhat  similar  to 
this  the  views  which  you  hold  upon  these  subjects,  that  I  may  con- 
sider them  at  my  leisure. 

"For  God  knoAvs,  who  knoweth  all  things,  that  I  have  no  desire 
upon  this  earth  but  to  know  His  truth  and  to  declare  it.  I  would 
rather  that  you  exhibited  your  views  in  a  summary  form,  than  that 
you  entered  into  criticism  upon  mine,  although  I  should  take  it  very 
kind,  if  you  should  notice  any  thing  wrong,  that  you  should  mention 
it.  If  you  lived  nearer  me,  I  should  think  nothing  of  coming  to  con- 
verse with  you  at  large  upon  these  great  points  of  our  common  faith. 
It  is  not  the  first  nor  the  second  time  that  I  have  traveled  100  miles 
to  converse  with  men  who  were  making  the  deep  things  of  God  their 
meditation. 

"  Though,  certainly,  the  having  heard  that  these  articles,  so  severe 
on  my  writings,  as  I  am  informed,  were  written  by  you,  was  the  oc- 
casion of  this  letter,  I  beg  there  may  be  no  reference  whatever  to  that 

Aa 


370  HEAET-SICKNESS. 

subject,  for  what  I  do  not  know  I  do  not  need  to  think  about,  and, 
if  I  did  know  that  you  had  said,  or  written,  or  done  the  severest 
things  to  me,  what  is  that  but  a  call  for  me  to  forbear,  and  endeavor 
either  to  know  your  truth  or  to  make  you  know  mine  ?  If  you  say, 
Why  not  read  the  articles  ?  my  reason  is,  that  for  many  years  I  have 
walked  by  the  rule  of  not  reading  any  thing  personally  addressed  to 
me,  unless  the  name  of  the  person  who  writes  it  be  subscribed.  And 
this  I  do  as  the  only  way  of  honoring  our  Lord's  rule,  given  in  the 
18th  chapter  of  Matthew,  for  the  redress  of  all  personal  offenses,  re- 
quiring that  the  persons  should  know  one  another. 

"  Let,  therefore,  every  thing  connected  with  that  subject  be  as  far 
from  your  mind,  when  you  answer,  as  it  is  from  mine  while  I  write 
this  letter.  Let  us  just  regard  each  other,  as,  in  truth,  we  are,  two 
brethren — two  fellow-laborers  in  the  vineyard  of  our  Lord.  I  write 
this  without  the  knowledge  of  any  one,  my  wife  lying  asleep  upon  the 
sofa  beside  me,  and  my  porritch  cooling  before  me. 

"  If  ever  you  come  to  London  we  shall  talk  this  matter  over  at 
large :  you  shall  be  welcome  to  my  house,  as  every  brother  is.  Fare- 
well !  May  God  bless  you  and  bless  your  labors,  and  lead  us  into  all 
truth !     This  is  the  prayer  of  your  faithful  brother  and  fellow-laborer. 

"  Edward  Irving, 
"  Minister  of  the  National  Scotch  Church." 

I  am  not  informed  what  answer  Mr,  Dods  made  to  this  remark- 
able letter,  but  its  noble  charity  and  candor  certainly  did  not  in 
any  way  change  the  character  of  the  violent  opposition  offered  to 
Irving  and  his  doctrines,  gradually  increasing,  as  they  were  more 
fully  known,  and  rising  into  public  prosecution,  directly  after,  in 
the  cases  of  Messrs.  Maclean  and  Scott.  Though  his  labors  con- 
tinued abundant  as  ever,  and  though,  amid  all  the  gathering  tu- 
mult of  controversy,  glimpses  of  the  much-laboring  man  appear 
in  the  domestic  letters  of  his  relatives  at  this  period,  in  which  we 
can  perceive  him  as  deeply  absorbed  in  pastoral  duties  as  if  these 
alone  were  the  occupation  of  his  life,  yet  a  deep  sadness  was  hence- 
forth visible  in  his  own  estimation  of  his  warfare.  To  the  bottom 
of  his  heart  he  was  disappointed  with  the  decision  of  Scotland 
against  him ;  and  from  the  time  that  he  began  to  foresee  that  deci- 
sion, a  tone  of  melancholy  pervaded  all  that  he  said  of  himself. 
"  Sufferings  and  trials,  my  dear  friend,  are  the  good  of  faith,"  he 
wrote,  during  this  spring,  to  an  old  and  beloved  companion: 
"they  work  patience,  and  patience  is  the  way  to  perfection.  I 
have  a  fiery  conflict ;  my  enemies  have  now  become  those  of  my 
own  household,  the  members  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  ;  but  I 
am  only  the  more  confirmed  in  my  faith  of  a  present  Savior  and 
of  a  future  reward.  Oh,  my  dear  William  Graham,  let  your  disap- 
pointments and  trials  in  this  world  wear  you  into  the  fold  of  the 


LETTER  TO  DR.  CHALMERS.  371 

grace  of  God,  our  blessed  Lord  and  Savior !"  This  was  the  result 
his  own  disappointments  and  trials  produced:  they  threw  him 
more  and  more  upon  that  Divine  sympathy,  which,  more  and 
more  as  it  consoled  him,  he  felt  to  come  from  the  human  bosom 
of  a  Savior  who  knew  in  all  their  reality  the  troubles  of  the  flesh 
— the  sick  heart  and  the  disappointed  soul. 

To  the  correspondence  of  this  period,  while  stiiMhe  only  public 
assaults  upon  himself  were  by  means  of  the  pr^,  and  while  no 
authoritative  censure  had  been  yet  proclaimed  upon  either  of  his 
followers,  belMigs  also  the  following  letter  to  Dr.  Chalmers — a  let- 
ter of  confidence  and  friendship  so  undoubting,  that  it  is  wonder- 
ful to  believe  that  it  met  with  little  response.  It  is  prefaced  by  a 
petition  from  the  Session  of  Regent  Square,  that  the  distinguished 
Scotch  preacher,  who  was  to  visit  London  during  the  summer, 
should  preach  in  their  Church,  After  preferring  which  request, 
Irving  proceeds  to  unbosom  himself  with  all  the  freedom  of 
friendship : 

"I  need  not  say  liow  unabated  is  my  esteem  of  you,  and  how  sin- 
cere my  gratitude  to  you ;  and  I  believe  that  the  wicked  and  shame- 
less attacks  upon  me  have  no  great  effect  upon  your  mind.  You  are 
a  professor  of  theology ;  I  am  a  theological  minister,  orthodox  to  the 
faith,  and  who  can  discern  the  unsoundness  of  a  multitude  as  well  as 
an  individual.  If  those  papers  in  the  Instructor,  of  which  I  have 
heard  scraps,  atid  seen  extracts,  and  know  the  substance,  be  the  opin- 
ions of  the  ministers  of  the  Scottish  Church,  then  it  is  time  that  you, 
the  professor  of  theology,  and  all  orthodox  men,  should  join  together 
to  resist  the  tide  of  error.  I  feel  a  dependence  ujion  the  largeness 
of  your  comprehension  and  the  charity  of  your  heart,  and  your  cau- 
tiousness to  take  offense,  which  is  refreshing  to  my  spirit  forecasting 
the  future.  And  really  I  am  ashamed,  in  the  sight  of  English  schol- 
ars, to  see  a  man,  pretending  to  judge  these  great  questions,  talking 
about  Monothelos  hhnself,  and  6  \pi\bq  dvdpojTrog,  signifying  an  ordi- 
nary man.  .  .  .  These  things  ashame  me  in  the  presence  of  English 
scholars.  I  know  not  what  apology  to  make  for  the  Christian  In- 
structor, confounded  as  it  generally  is  with  my  worthy  and  kind 

friend,  I)r.  T .     If  he  is  ever  to  become  your  colleague,  get  him 

at  least  better  instructed  in  the  nomenclature  of  the  heresies,  so  that 
he  shall  not  mistake  the  name  of  an  opinion  (one-wilier)  for  the  name 
of  a  man  [Monothelos]. 

"I  remember,  when  I  dined  with  you,  you  opened  to  me  your 
views  concerning  a  first  theological  class,  which  should  open  the  sub- 
ject as  a  branch  of  liberal  education.  It  is  curious  that,  in  looking 
over  the  printed  acts  of  the  Assembly  from  1690  to  1720,1  should 
find  a  recommendation  or  act  to  the  same  effect.  I  can  not  lay  my 
hand  upon  it  now,  being  in  the  country ;  but  before  you  come  to 
town  I  Avill.     Wlien  you  come  to  town,  I  will  be  glad  to  be  of  all 


872  CHALMERS'  TIMID  SILENCE. 

service  to  you  that  I  can.  My  family  are  at  present  at  Bayswater, 
hard  by  Kensington,  where  Wilkie  lives,  for  the  health  of  my  wife 
and  youngest  child.  I  hope  the  Lord  is  restoring  them.  I  have 
many  things  to  bear,  but  the  Lord  and  His  truth  sustain  me.  I  gath- 
er strength  and  confidence  daily.  The  Lord  prospers  my  ministry. 
The  addition  to  my  church  within  the  last  year  has,  in  communicants 
alone,  been  near  to  one  hundred  and  eighty  persons ;  and  great,  great 
fruit  have  I  of  ray  labors  among  the  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England. 
There  is  not  a  ^pner  of  this  part  of  the  island  where  the  subject  of 
Prophecy  and  the  Second  Advent  have  not  in  the  Church  firm  and 
able  supporters.  And  for  the  heresy  of  our  Lord's  humanity,  when 
a  friend  of  mine,  passing  from  one  diocese  to  another^ad  to  give  an 
account  of  his  faith  on  that  head,  they  would  not  belief  that  any  one 
could  doubt  that  our  Lord  took  humanity  under  the  conditions  of  the 
Fall.  These  were  the  Bishops  of  Gloucester  and  London ;  and  yet 
the  present  most  zealous  prosecutor  of  Mr.  Maclean  preached  to  the 
people  of  Irvine  a  whole  sermon  to  prove  that  He  took  man's  nature 
before  the  Fall ;  and  others  of  his  co-pfesbyters  did  the  same.  .  .  . 
Oh,  if  there  be  any  truth  in  the  land,  if  the  Church  of  Scotland  be  not 
given  up  of  God,  these  men  will  be  yet  made  to  pay  for  it.  '  Let 
nothing  be  done  through  vainglory.'  You  see  how,  being  now  a  pro- 
fessor of  theology,  and  I  asj^iring  to  become  a  doctor  thereof,  I  Avrite 
accordingly.  Farewell,  honored  and  beloved  sir.  ...  I  pray  God  to 
strengthen  you  for  all  His  will,  and  to  endow  you  for  your  most  mo- 
mentous station.  ... 

"  Your  faithful  and  dutiful  friend,  Edward  Irving." 

Nothing  can  be  more  remarkable  than  the  contrast  between  Ir- 
ving's  repeated  appeals  to  his  friend's  standing  as  professor  of  the- 
ology and  the  conduct  of  Dr.  Chalmers  during  the  eventful  and 
momentous  period  which  had  just  commenced.  During  the  fol- 
lowing year,  several  men,  of  the  highest  character  and  standing, 
were  ejected  from  the  Church  of  Scotland  on  theological  grounds 
— grounds  which  Dr.  Chalmers,  occupying  the  position  of  Doctor^ 
'par  excellence^  in  the  Scottish  Church  of  the  time,  should  have 
been  the  foremost  to  examine,  and  the  most  influential  in  pro- 
nouncing upon.  Dr.  Chalmers  quietly  withdrew  from  the  require- 
ments of  his  position  in  this  respect.  That  he  pursued  his  special 
work  nobly,  in  the  face  of  all  the  agitation  of  the  period,  is  a  small 
excuse  for  a  man  who  was  so  little  of  a  recluse  and  so  nmch  of  a 
statesman :  it  is,  perhaps,  the  chapter  in  his  life  least  honorable  to 
the  most  eminent  Scotch  Churchman  of  his  day.  He  was  not 
bold  enough,  at  that  crisis,  to  put  that  "largeness  of  comprehen- 
sion and  charity  of  heart,"  in  which  Irving  trusted,  into  competi- 
tion with  the  vulgar  fervor  which  swept  the  popular  Assembly 
into  anathema  and  deposition.  "Amid  this  conflict  of  opinion, 
of  which  he  was  far  from  being  an  unmoved  spectator,  Dr.  Chal- 


PROSECUTION  OF  MR.  MACLEAN.  373 

raers  preserved  unbroken  silence,"  says  his  biographer.  It  seems 
exactly  the  course  of  procedure  which  Dr.  Chalmers  ought  not  to 
have  adopted;  and  this  becomes  all  the  more  apparent  in  the 
light  of  Irving's  frank  appeals  to  the  professor  of  theojpgy — he 
whose  business  it  was  to  discriminate  most  closely,  and  set  forth 
most  authoritatively  the  difference  between  truth  and  error.  The 
conflict  which  had  begun  in  the  Irvine  Presbytery  against  Mr. 
Maclean,  and  that  which  was  in  full  course  in  the  Dunbarton 
Presbytery  against  Mr.  Campbell,  were,  however,  matters  with 
which  authority  or  learning  had  nothing  to  do ;  no  council  of 
doctors  or  fathers,  no  gravely-elect  judicial  body,  examined  into 
those  delicate  and  difficult  questions.  The  country-side  sat  upon 
them  in  its  array  of  witnesses ;  the  Presbytery,  an  indiscriminate 
and  miscellaneous  crowd  of  ministers,  by  no  means  distinguished 
(as,  indeed,  no  mass  of  men  can  be  distinguished)  for  clearness  of 
perception,  theological  learning,  or  judicial  wisdom,  decided  the 
matter,  or  else  referred  it  to  the  decision  of  a  synod  and  assembly 
equally  miscellaneous  and  indiscriminate.  Meanwhile,  the  chief 
representative  of  what  is  called  in  Scotland  the  theological  facul- 
ty, sat  apart  and  preserved  unbroken  silence,  leaving  the  ship  at 
a  crisis  of  its  fate,  the  army  at  the  most  critical  point  of  the  battle, 
to  the  guidance  of  accident  or  the  crowd.  It  is  impossible  not  to 
feel  that  this  abandonment  of  his  position  at  so  important  a  mo- 
ment was  such  an  act  of  cowardice  as  must  leave  a  lasting  stain 
upon  the  reputation  of  one  of  the  greatest  of  modern  Scotsmen. 

In  March  the  first  steps  of  ecclesiastical  prosecution  were  taken 
against  Mr.  Maclean.  This  gentleman,  the  same  to  whom  Irving's 
noble  Charge  was  addressed  at  his  ordination,  htd  been  presented 
to  the  Church  and  parish  of  Dreghorn,  in  Ayrshire,  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  year,  where  his  coming  was  hailed  by  the  presentation 
of  a  petition  from  some  of  the  heritors  and  members  of  the  Church 
to  the  Presbytery,  calling  their  attention  to  his  heretical  opinions. 
The  appeal  of  these  theological  critics  was  met  by  the  ecclesiasti- 
cal court  t©  which  it  was  presented  in  the  promptest  manner. 
Their  action  was  rapid  but  singular.  They  drew  out  a  series  of 
questions,  which  the  young  clergyman  was  called  upon  to  answer ; 
entering  fully,  and  in  an  artful,  suggestive  way,  likely  to  lead  him 
to  the  fullest  committal  of  himself,  into  the  doctrine  in  dispute — 
or,  rather,  into  their  own  statement  of  the  doctrine  in  dispute — in 
which  it  was  called  "the  peccability  of  our  Lord's  human  nature," 
and  specially  insisj^ing  upon  explanations  as  to  what  our  Lord 


874  UNFAIR  INQUISITION. 

might  have  done  had  he  not  been  possessed  and  anointed  by  the 
Holy  Ghost — a  possibihty  wholly  disowned  and  rejected  by  the 
assailed  individual,  who  was  thus  placed  at  the  bar  under  com- 
pulsion 4)f  criminating  himself.  Mr.  Maclean  was  inexperienced, 
and  perhaps  not  overwise,  perhaps  rash  and  self-devoted,  as  is 
seemly  for  a  young  man.  He  accepted  the  questions,  and  an- 
swered them  in  detail,  with  natural  effusiveness  and  a  want  of 
prudence  which  is  very  obvious,  though  it  is  difficult  to  condemn 
it.  A  harassing  process  immediately  commenced.  No  informa- 
tion upon  the  state  of  the  parish  which  possessed  a  population  so 
ripe  for  controversy,  and  thoroughly  prepared  to  take  the  field  at 
a  moment's  notice,  is  affiDrded  us ;  but  the  theological  parishioners 
held  to  their  protest,  and  from  Presbytery  to  Synod,  and  from 
Synod  to  Assembly,  the  case  was  dragged  and  combated.  The 
interest  of  Irving  in  this  matter  was  naturally  of  the  deepest  kind, 
yet,  perhaps,  scarcely  so  exciting  as  the  more  immediate  contest, 
in  which  he  himself  was  called  upon  to  take  part,  in  the  ecclesias- 
tical court  of  which  he  was  a  member.  There  Mr.  Scott,  being 
called  to  go  through  the  trials  necessary  for  his  ordination  to  the 
Scotch  Church  at  Woolwich,  stumbled  upon  the  same  point,  and 
kept  the  Presbytery  to  repeated  meetings,  which,  by  a  chance  per- 
haps unparalleled  before  in  the  annals  of  the  Presbytery  of  Lon- 
don, were,  in  right  of  their  connection  with  the  distinguished  name 
of  Irving,  reported  anxiously  in  the  newspapers,  the  Times  itself 
pausing  to  remark  and  comment  upon  the  proceedings  of  the 
Scotch  ecclesiastical  tribunal.  These  proceedings,  indeed,  seem, 
according  to  the  newspapers,  to  have  made  a  wonderful  ferment 
in  the  perplexed  ^orld,  which  still  watched  the  progress  of  a  man 
in  whom  it  could  not  choose  but  be  interested  for  good  or  for  evil. 
Mr.  Scott,  being  in  delicate  health,  had  requested  that  his  trial  dis- 
courses might  be  delivered  to  the  Presbytery  alone,  without  ad- 
mitting the  public,  and  his  desire  had  been  agreed  to.  This  fact, 
which  looks  innocent  enough,  is  taken  up  and  commented  upon 
by  the  various  papers  of  the  day  with  an  interest  and  vehemence 
amazinsc  to  behold.  It  is  denounced  as  a  violation  of  the  Tolera- 
tion  Act  by  various  voices  of  the  public  press,  little  apt  to  interest 
themselves  in  the  proceedings  of  Scotch  Presbyteries;  and  the 
Record^  with  pious  spitefulness,  does  not  hesitate  to  add,  that  "  the 
privacy  was  adopted  at  the  suggestion  of  Messrs.  Irving  and  Scott, 
as  the  means  of  concealing  from  the  public  the  actual  views  and 
feelings  of  the  Presbytery :  illustrating  the  truth  of  Scripture, 


DELIVERANCE  OF  THE  PRESBYTERY.         375 

'  He  that  doeth  evil  hateth  the  light,  neither  cometh  to  the  light, 
that  his  deeds  may  be  made  manifest  that  they  are  wrought  in 
God.'  "  The  same  paper  declares  that,  "  If  the  Presbytery  refuse 
Mr.  Scott  ordination,  they  must  necessarily  call  upon  Mr.  Irving 
to  recant,  or  resign  his  charge.  It  is  gratifying  to  find  so  much 
firmness,  intelligence,  and  faithfulness  in  the  Presbytery  of  Lon- 
don." This  commendation,  however,  seems,  from  the  point  of 
view  adopted  by  the  Record^  to  have  been  somewhat  premature, 
as"  the  immediate  conclusion  of  the  Presbytery  was  one  which, 
without  deciding  the  question  so  far  as  Mr.  Scott  was  concerned, 
gave  equal  satisfaction  and  consolation  to  Irving.  He  gives  the 
following  account  of  it  in  the  preface  to  a  little  work,  entitled 
Christ'' s  Holiness  in  the  Fleshy  which  was  published  in  the  follow- 
ing year : 

"  About  this  time  it  pleased  God  to  try  the  fixitlifulness  of  the  min- 
isters of  the  Scotch  Church  in  London  by  this  great  question.  A 
pi'eacher  being  called  to  one  of  the  churches  in  connection  with  the 
Presbytery,  applied  to  tliem  for  ordination,  and  his  trials  proceeded 
with  approbation  till  they  came  to  this  question  of  our  Lord's  human 
nature,  and  there  they  stuck  fast.  It  Avas  thought  good  to  have  a 
private  conference  of  all  the  brethren,  both  ministers  and  elders,  upon 
this  question,  at  which  we  came  unanimously  to  the  conclusion  of 
doctrine  which  is  embodied  in  the  third  part  of  this  tract,  in  the  draw- 
ing up  of  which  I  had  no  more  hand  than  the  others,  and  none  at  all 
in  the  submitting  of  it.  It  was  the  pure  and  unsolicited  deliverance 
of  the  unanimous  Presbytery.  By  that  deliverance  I  am  willing  that 
every  sentence  which  I  have  written  should  be  tried." 

A  more  full  account  of  the  same  satisfactory  deliverance  is  giv-' 
en  in  the  two  following  letters,  the  first  of  which,  addressed  to  Mr. 
Macdonald,  is  chiefly  occupied  with  the  twin  case  of  Dreghorn  : 

"London,  13  Judd  Place,  East,  21st  May,  1830. 
"  My  dear  Friexd, — To  set  your  mind  at  rest  with  respect  to  the 
orthodoxy  of  our  opinions  on  the  great  subject  of  the  human  nature 
of  our  blessed  Redeemer,  I  need  only  to  report  what  was  the  conclu- 
sion to  which  we  came  in  our  Presbytery  last  night,  with  one  consent 
— '  That  the  human  nature  of  our  Lord  Avas  of  the  virgin's  substance, 
perfectly  and  completely  sanctified  or  purified  in  the  generation  of  it 
by  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  underwent  no  process  or  pro- 
gress of  purification.'  1  fear  there  is  a  point  of  difference  between  us 
and  some  of  the  Edinburgh  theologians,  who  look  upon  this  work  as 
a  physical  work,  changing  the  natural  substance  of  His  humanity, 
whereas  it  is  the  whole  truth  to  believe  that  it  was  a  divine  indwell- 
ing of  Godhead  power,  and  not  a  physical  change  in  the  created 
thing,  in  the  creature  part.  But  as  to  the  holiness  of  it,  flesh  and 
soul,  there  is  no  question,  and  ought  never  to  have  been  any,  were  it 
not  that  the  Church  had  been  asleep,  and  awaked  in  bad  humor,  and 


376  ADVICE  IN  THE  DKEGHORN  CASE. 

spake  angrily,  and  about  things  before  her  eyes  were  well  opened. 
This  is  all  to  be  borne  with,  and  will,  if  you  prevent  things  from  being 
precipitated.  I  write  to  you  as  a  lawyer  at  present,  to  give  you  mv 
views,  not  of  the  theological,  but  constitutional  doctrine  of  this  mo- 
mentous case. 

"  No  one  will  doubt  that  a. Presbytery  has  power  to  put  questions 
to  a  preacher,  even  after  he  has  been  ordained  ;  but'  hoAv  jealous  the 
Church  is  of  this  power  is  evidenced  in  her  instructions,  even  at  ordi- 
nation, not  to  insist  afresh  upon  the  catechetical  questions  which  have 
been  already  gone  through  at  licensing,  and  likewise  in  this,  that  it 
has  never  been  done,  that  I  know  of,  since  the  time  that  Principal  N* 
was  removed  from  London  to  Edinburgh.     Study  that  case,  and  see 
how  cautiously  both  the  Presbytery  and  the  Assembly  conducted 
themselves.     God  grant  the  same  discretion  to  the  Assembly  now 
sitting !     Granting  the  power  to  put  questions  for  their  satisfaction, 
I  doubt  vei-y  much  their  power  to  put  a  series  of  Avritten  questions, 
and  require  written  answers  in  any  case  Avhatever.     I  do  not  knoAV 
an  instance  of  it,  and,  if  permitted,  I  see  it  would  lead  to  this — that 
the  ruling  powers  of  a  Presbytery  may  put  every  probationer  or  stu- 
dent into  the  condition  of  either  giving  way  to  their  oj^inionativeness, 
or  standing  the  issue  of  an  ecclesiastical  process.  ...  To  ask  the  ac- 
cused party  to  purge  himself  by  declarations,  what  is  it  but  inquisi- 
tion, pure  inquisition  ?  .  .  .  Next,  what  have  they  made  of  their  an- 
swers?    They  resolve  themselves  into  a  committee  of  the  whole 
house,  in  order  that  they  may  have  freedom  from  restraint  and  from 
responsibility,  and  then  they  report  to  themselves.     What  is  the  use 
of  a  committee  ?     It  is  to  give  grave  consideration  to  the  matter,  to 
afford  delay,  to  explicate  it  thoroughly,  to  deal  with  it  Avisely,  and  to 
prepare  the  matter  for  the  judgment  of  the  whole  court.     Ah  me! 
that  Maclean  had  taken  my  advice,  and  done  what  John  Campbell 
has  wisely  done ;  but  should  not  a  young  man  and  inexperienced  be 
•protected  from  oppi-ession  ?     Now  is  the  time  for  the  Assembly  to 
intrench  itself  behind  the  forms  of  justice,  in  order  to  protect  justice 
from  that  tempest  of  public  opinion  which  Satan,  through  his  minis- 
ters, the  press-gang  of  anonymous  writers,  has  raised.     Oh,  my  friend, 
the  son  of  faithful  men,  stand  for  substantial  justice  in  this  case,  and, 
if  no  more  can  be  done,  postpone  the  matter  till  the  storm  be  over. 
It  ought  to  be  treated  as  Boradale's  case,  and  Nisbet's,  and  Simpson's, 
and  Campbell's  were,  by  appointing  a  committee  of  discreet  and  tem- 
perate divines  to  converse  with  Mr.  Maclean,  and  to  report  to  the  As- 
sembly, and,  if  their  repoi't  be  satisfactory,  the  Presbytery  of  Irvine 
should  be  required  to  proceed  according  to  the  rules  of  the  Church, 
and  to  erase  these  questions  and  answers  from  their  minutes.     With 
a  petition  containing  grave  charges  before  you  of  a  most  excellent 
minister  of  the  Church,  tried  and  proved,  to  proceed  by  putting  him 
to  the  question,  and  condemning  him  upon  his  own  declaration,  is, 
granting  the  grounds  were  good,  the  most  pure  piece  of  inquisition 
ever  practiced.     Remember,  the  question  of  orthodoxy  is  at  issue ;  I 
maintain  the  spirit  of  the  Irvine  questions  to  be  thoroughly  hetero- 
dox ;  and,  if  God  spare  me,  I  will  prove  it  to  be  so.     The  question 

*  The  name  is  illegible  in  the  MS.,  and  I  do  not  know  what  is  the  case  referred  to. 


PRESBYTERY  OF  LONDON,  377 

of  orthodoxy  is  at  issue ;  now,  when  was  a  question  of  orthodoxy 
settled  at  a  sederunt  of  the  General  Assembly  ?  The  rule  of  the  As- 
sembly's orthodoxy  is  not  Wilson  of  Irvine.  .  .  .  The  rule  of  her  or- 
thodoxy is  the  Confession  of  Faith ;  this  Maclean  is  willing  to  sub- 
scribe. .  .  .  God  appear  for  the  right  and  for  the  truth !  Say  to  the 
Prophetic  Society  that  I  Avill  come  and  preach  for  them  whenever  I 
can  get  away,  and  they  can  get  a  church.  My  wife  is  well,  the  chil- 
dren but  delicate,  and  poor  Scott  is  sick ;  the  Lord  tries  me  sore,  but 
gives  me  not  over  to  death.  The  Avork  of  the  Lord  prospers  might- 
ily.    Your  faithful  friend  and  the  friend  of  your  dear  children, 

"Edwd,  Irving." 

The  next,  which  treats  of  the  same  contest,  but,  as  it  had  oc- 
curred in  London  in  Mr.  Scott's  case,  is  addressed  to  Dr.  Martin, 
and  refers,  at  the  commencement,  to  the  stupid  commotion  raised 
about  the  Presbytery's  private  meeting,  and  supposed  breach  of 
the  Toleration  Act : 

"27th  May,  1830. 
"  My  dear  Sir, — You  may  have  been  concerned  about  these  most 
foolish  and  false  reports  in  the  newspapers  about  our  Presbytery,  and 
about  me  personally.     The  simple  truth  was  that,  according  to  the 
custom  of,  I  believe,  most  Presbyteries,  Ave  permit  the  yovmg  men  to 
have  their  questionary  trials  private,  if  they  please,  which  Mr.  Scott 
desiring,  to  the  custom  we  deferred ;  although  a  young  man  so  learn- 
ed and  accomplished  in  all  kinds  of  discipline  I  have  never  met  with, 
and  as  pious  as  he  is  learned,  and  of  great,  very  great  discernment  in 
the  truth,  and  faithfulness  Godward  and  manward.  .  .  .  But  in  the 
correspondence  I  have  taken  no  part,     Mr.  Hamilton  merely  contra- 
dicted the  falsehoods.     However,  I  am  such  rare  game  that  I  believe 
it  has  furnished  all  the  provincial  and  even  metropolitan  newspapers 
with  a  rare  hit  at  me,  and  I  have  the  blessed  privilege  of  being  evil 
spoken  of  for  the  Lord's  name  sake.     Nevertheless,  I  Avas  afraid  that 
our  Presbytei-y  should  have  been  brought  under  the  influence  of  the 
idol '  public  opinion,'  and  also  that  they  should  have  drunk  into  the 
form  of  heterodoxy,  Avhich  is  Avorking  among  the  Dissenters  here, 
and  I  think  in  some  parts  of  our  Church  also,  though,  I  am  glad  to 
say,  utterly  rejected  by  the  Church  of  England.     This,  hoAvever, 
proved  groundless,  Avhen  we  came  together  this  day  week  for  con- 
ference in  committee,  and  found  that  Ave  could  unanimou  ly  agree 
upon  the  much  disputed  subject  in  this  proposition — 'That  the  hu- 
man nature  of  our  Lord  was  of  the  virgin's  substance,  sanctified  and 
purified  by  the  Avork  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  generation,  and  sus- 
tained always  in  the  same  state  by  the  same  Avork  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  underwent  no  process  or  progress  of  purification.'     That  is  to 
say,  was  holy  at  the  first  as  at  the  last ;  and  from  the  first  to  the  last 
only  by  the  Avork  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  that  the  same  Avoi-k  always. 
So,  Avhat  I  have  been  contending  for,  I  have  the  happiness  of  seeing 
at  least  our  Presbytery  unanimous  to  receive.     They  have  attempted 
to  fasten  upon  me  the  charge  of  making  our  Lord's  human  nature 
undergo  a  process  or  progress  of  sanctification  ;  that  is,  that  there  is 
a  time  at  Avhich  it  Avas  not  so  holy  as  it  Avas  at  another  time.     It  is  a 


378  THE  VIRGIN-SAINT  OF  FERNICARKY. 

false  charge,  aud  most  of  those  that  bring  it  know  that  it  is  false,  if 
they  have  read  ray  writings  like  honest  men.  For  the  rest,  I  have 
not  time  to  say  any  thing,  excej^t  that  I  am  more  and  more  shocked 
and  ashamed  at  the  state  of  verbalism  in  which  the  Church  reveals 
itself  to  be.  I  think,  so  far  as  this  generation  of  believers  is  concern- 
ed, the  Incarnation  had  as  well  never  have  been  :  a  word  would  have 
done  it  all.  But  these  things  can  not  stand.  There  must  either  be 
a  more  vital,  real,  and  matter-of-fact  theology,  or  no  church,  no  holi- 
ness. I  have  sought  to  put  a  system  of  facts  and  of  God  under  their 
system  of  words  and  lessons  ;  and  for  this  they  call  me  a  blasphemer! 
Woe  is  me !  woe  is  me !  God  send  us  better  days  !  Farewell !  The 
Lord  strengthen  you  for  the  maintenance  of  His  truth. 

"  Your  faithful  and  afiectionate  son,  Edwd.  Irving." 

While  these  struggles  were  progressing  at  different  points  of 
the  compass — Maclean,  at  Dreghorn,  entangled  in  a  mean  and  har- 
assing series  of  examinations,  in  which  his  orthodoxy  was  tossed 
from  hand  to  hand  of  two  parties  of  peasant  witnesses,  whose  rec- 
ollection or  non-recollection  of  his  sermons  was  the  sole  ground 
on  which  to  prove  him  guilty  ot  not  guilty ;  while  Scott,  more 
fortunate  in  his  judges,  had  fallen  sick,  and  brought  the  compli- 
cated argument,  as  regarded  himself,  to  a  temporary  suspension — 
the  other  influence  to  which  I  have  referred  was  rising  upon  the 
stormy  firmament.  In  the  little  farm-house  of  Fernicarry,  at  the 
head  of  the  Gairloch,  the  saintly  Isabella  Campbell,  whose  name 
has  been  already  mentioned,  had  lived  and  died  a  life  of  such  un- 
usual and  expressive  sanctity  as  to  draw  pilgrims  to  her  couch 
and  to  her  home  from  many  quarters,  and  to  confer  upon  her 
haunts  a  singular  and  touching  local  celebrity.  The  spot  where 
tliis  peasant-girl — elevated  by  simple  devotion  and  holiness  into 
one  of  those  tender  virgin-saints  whom  Nature,  even  under  the 
severest  Protestant  restrictions,  can  scarcely  choose  but  worship 
— was  accustomed  to  pray  is  still  one  of  the  shrines  of  the  dis- 
trict. It  was  at  one  time  a  retirement  of  delicate  simplicity — a 
lonely  nook  on  the  hill-side,  close  by  the  devious  and  picturesque 
channel  of  a  tiny  mountain  stream.  The  burn  still  leaps  in  tiny 
waterfalls  down  its  ledges  of  rock  uijdisturbed  by  that  gentle 
memory ;  but  some  enthusiast  pilgrim  has  built  a  wall,  a  memo- 
rial of  rude  homage  and  affecting  bad  taste,  round  the  mountain 
ash  and  little  knoll,  which  the  girl-saint  had  made  into  a  sanctua- 
ry. When  Isabella  died,  a  portion  of  her  fame — her  pilgrim  vis- 
itors— her  position  as  one  of  the  most  remarkable  persons  in  the 
country-side,  a  pious  and  tender  oracle — descended  to  her  sister 
Mary.    This  was  the  young  woman  "  of  a  very  fixed  and  constant 


HER  SISTER  MARY.  379 

spirit,"  as  Irving  describes,  whom  Mr.  Scott,  a  few  months  before, 
had  vainly  attempted  to  convince  that  the  baptism  with  the  Holy 
Ghost  was  distinct  from  the  work  of  regeneration,  but  was  as  much 
to  be  looked  and  prayed  for  as  the  ordinary  influences  of  the  Spir- 
it. Mary  Campbell  seems  to  have  been  possessed  of  gifts  of  mind 
and  temperament  scarcely  inferior  to  genius,  and,  with  all  the  per- 
sonal fascination  of  beauty  added  to  the  singular  position  in  which 
her  sister's  fome  had  left  her — visited  on  terms  of  admiring  friend- 
ship by  people  much  superior  to  her  in  external  rank,  and  doubt- 
less influenced  by  the  subtle  arguments  of  one  of  the  ablest  men 
of  the  day — it  is  impossible  to  imagine  a  situation  more  danger- 
ous to  a  young,  fervid,  and  impressionable  imagination.  For  the 
circumstances  under  which  that  spark  took  light,  I  can  only  refer 
my  readers  again  to  the  Memoir  of  Mr.  Story,  of  Eosneath,  where 
they  are  fully  and  with  great  graphic  power  set  forth.  The  actu- 
al event  is  described  by  Irving  as  follows : 

"  The  handmaiden  of  the  Lord,  of  whom  he  made  choice  on  that 
night  (a  Sunday  evening  in  the  end  of  March),  to  manifest  forth  in 
her  His  glory,  had  been  long  afflicted  with  a  disease  whicli  tlie  med- 
ical men  pronounced  to  be  a  decline,  and  that  it  would  soon  bring 
her  to  her  grave,  Avhithev  her  sister  had  been  hurried  by  the  same 
malady  some  months  before.  Yet,  while  all  around  her  were  antici- 
pating her  dissolution,  she  was  in  the  strength  of  faith  meditating 
missionary  labors  among  the  lieathen  ;  and  this  night  she  was  to  re- 
ceive the  preparation  of  the  Spirit ;  the  preparation  of  the  body  she 
received  not  till  some  days  after.  It  was  on  the  Lord's  day ;  and 
one  of  her  sisters,  along  with  a  female  friend,  Avho  had  come  to  the 
house  for  that  end,  had  been  spending  the  whole  day  in  humiliation, 
and  fasting,  and  prayer  before  God,  with  a  special  respect  to  the  res- 
toration of  the  gifts.  They  had  come  up  in  the  evening  to  the  sic^ 
chamber  of  their  sister,  who  was  laid  on  a  sofa,  and,  along  with  one 
or  two  others  of  the  household,  were  engaged  in  prayer  together. 
When  in  the  midst  of  their  devotion,  the  Holy  Ghost  came  with 
mighty  power  upon  the  sick  woman  as  she  lay  in  her  weakness, 
and  constrained  her  to  speak  at  great  length  and  with  superhuman 
strength,  in  an  unknown  tongue,  to  the  astonishment  of  all  who  heard, 
and  to  her  own  great  edification  and  enjoyment  in  God  ;  '  for  he  that 
speaketh  in  a  tongue  edifieth  himself  She  has  told  me  that  this  first 
seizure  of  the  Spirit  Avas  the  strongest  she  ever  had,  and  that  it  was 
in  some  degree  necessary  it  should  have  been  so,  otherwise  she  would 
not  have  dared  to  give  way  to  it." 

It  was  thus  that  the  agitating  and  extraordinary  chapter  in  the 
history  of  the  modern  Church,  which  we  have  hereafter  to  deal 
with,  began.  It  is  not  in  my  province,  happily,  to  attempt  any 
decision  as  to  what  was  the  real  character  of  these  marvelous  phe- 


380  THE  GIFT  OF  TONGUES. 

nomena.  But  the  human  circumstances  surrounding  their  earli- 
est appearance  are  remarkable  enough  to  claim  the  fullest  expo- 
sition. The  first  speaker  with  tongues  was  precisely  the  individ- 
ual whom,  under  the  supposition  that  they  were  no  more  super- 
natural than  other  elevated  utterances  of  passion  or  fervor,  one 
would  naturally  fix  upon  as  the  probable  initiator  of  such  a  sys- 
tem. An  amount  of  genius  and  singular  adaptability,  which 
seems  to  have  fitted  her  for  taking  a  place  in  society  far  above 
that  to  which  she  had  been  accustomed ;  a  faculty  of  representing 
her  own  proceedings  so  as,  whether  wrong  or  right,  to  exculpate 
herself,  and  interest  even  those  who  were  opposed  to  her ;  a  con- 
viction, founded  perhaps  upon  her  sister's  well-known  character, 
and  the  prominent  position  she  herself  was  consequently  placed 
in,  that  something  notable  was  expected  from  her ;  and  the  joint 
stimulus  of  admiration  and  scoffing,  all  mingled  with  a  sincere 
desire  to  serve  God  and  advance  his  glory,  were  powerful  agen- 
cies in  one  young,  enthusiastic,  and  inexperienced  spirit.  And 
when  to  all  these  kindling  elements  came  that  fire  of  suggestion, 
at  first  rejected,  afterward  warmly  received,  and  blazing  forth  at 
last  in  so  wonderfully  literal  an  answer,  it  is  impossible  not  to  feel 
how  many  earthly  predisposing  causes  there  were  which  corre- 
sponded with,  even  if  they  did  not  actually  produce,  the  result. 
In  saying  so  much,  I  leave  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  the  "  tongues" 
entirely  out  of  the  question.  I  do  not  judge  Mary  Campbell, 
much  less  the  numerous  others  who,  without  the  excitement  of 
Mary  Campbell's  special  surroundings,  afterward  exhibited  the 
same  power.  But  I  should  not  be  fulfilling  the  task  I  have  un- 
^rtaken  if  I  did  not  point  out  the  dubious  cradle  from  which  so 
wonderful  a  development  proceeded,  and  the  singular  position  of 
influence  and  universal  observation  occupied  by  this  young  wom- 
an— her  consciousness  that  she  stood  full  in  the  eye  of  the  little 
world  that  surrounded  her — her  personal  fascination  and  mental 
powers.  Such  an  opportunity  of  acting  upon  what,  in  a  limited 
horizon,  seems  the  universal  mind,  scarcely  occurs  to  a  member 
of  the  humbler  classes  once  in  a  generation ;  to  a  woman,  perhaps 
not  once  in  a  thousand  years.  Altogether  this  youthful  female 
figure,  appearing  out  of  the  troubled  expectant  country  as  with  a 
message  from  heaven ;  this  inspired  creature,  fair,  and  delicate, 
and  young,  with  all  the  hopes  and  purposes  of  youth  removed  into 
superlative  spiritual  regions — nothing  more  earthly  than  a  mis- 
sion to  the  heathen  occupying  her  solitary  musings — is  one  which 


THE  MACDONALDS.— GIFT  OF  HEALING.  381 

nobody  can  turn  from  without  wonder  and  interest,  and  which 
naturally  awoke  the  highest  excitement  in  the  already  agitated 
district  to  which  she  belonged. 

Nor  was  this  all.  On  the  opposite  shores  of  Clyde,  in  the  little 
town  of  Port  Glasgow,  dwelt  a  family  distinguished,  like  these  two 
young  Campbells,  for  a  profound  and  saintly  piety,  which  had 
marked  them  out  from  their  neighbors,  and  attracted  to  them 
many  friends  out  of  their  own  condition.  The  leading  members 
of  this  h^sehold  were  two  brothers,  according  to  all  report,  men 
of  the  sooerest  steadfast  life,  quietly  laboring  at  their  business,  and 
in  no  way  likely  to  be  the  subjects  of  ecstatic  emotion.  But  with 
results  more  startling  and  wonderful  still,  the  newly-awakened 
power  glided  over  the  loch  and  river  to  the  devout  and  prayerful 
house  of  the  Macdonalds.  Touching  first  upon  an  invalid  sister, 
it  then  burst  upon  the  elder  brother  with  an  impulse  more  extra- 
ordinary than  any  mere  utterance.  James  Macdonald  had  return- 
ed from  the  building-yard,  where  he  pursued  his  daily  business, 
to  his  midday  dinner,  after  the  calm  usage  of  a  laboring  man. 
He  found  the  invalid  of  the  household  in  the  agonies  of  this  new 
inspiration.  The  awed  and  wondering  family  concluded  with 
reverential  gravity  that  she  was  dying,  and  thus  accounted  to 
themselves  for  the  singular  exhibition  they  saw.  "At  dinner- 
time James  and  George  came  home  as  usual,"  says  the  simple 
family  narrative,  "  whom  she  then  addressed  at  great  length,  con- 
cluding with  a  solemn  prayer  for  James,  that  he  might  at  that  time 
be  endowed  with  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Almost  instant- 
ly, James  calmly  said, '  I  have  got  it.'  He  walked  to  the  window, 
and  stood  silent  for  a  minute  or  two.  I  looked  at  him,  and  al- 
most trembled,  there  was  such  a  change  upon  his  whole  counte- 
nance. He  then,  with  a  step  and  manner  of  the  most  indescriba- 
ble majesty,  walked  up  to  's  bedside,  and  addressed  her  in 

these  words  of  the  20th  Psalm :  '  Arise,  and  stand  upright.'  He 
repeated  the  words,  took  her  by  the  hand,  and  she  arose."  After 
this  wonderful  event,  with  inconceivable  human  composure,  the 
homely  record  continues,  "  we  all  quietly  sat  down  and  took  our 
dinner;"  an  anti-climax  to  the  extraordinary  agitation  and  excite- 
ment of  the  scene  just  described,  which  no  fiction  dared  attempt, 
and  which  nothing  but  reality,  always  so  daring  in  its  individual 
opposition  to  recognized  laws  of  nature,  could  venture  to  have  add- 
ed to  the  description.  The  young  woman  was  not  merely  raised 
from  her  sick-bed  for  the  moment,  but  cured;  and  the  next  step 


382  TUE  MANIFESTATIONS  BELIEVED  BY  MANY. 

taken  by  the  brother  so  suddenly  and  miraculously  endowed,  was 
to  write  to  Mary  Campbell,,  then  apparently  approaching  death, 
conveying  to  her  the  same  command  which  had  been  so  effectual 
in  the  case  of  his  sister.  The  sick  ecstatic  received  this  letter  in 
the  depths  of  languor  and  declining  weakness,  and,  without  even 
the  hand  of  the  newly-inspired  to  help  her,  rose  up  and  declared 
herself  healed.  I  do  not  pretend  to  account  for  these  extraordi- 
nary circumstances.  Whatever  natural  explanation  they  may  be 
capable  of,  I  do  not  believe  it  possible  to  account  for  tlmpi  by  sup- 
posing any  thing  like  trickery  or  simulation  beneath.  They  take 
their  place  among  the  many  other  unresolvable  wonders  which 
have  from  time  to  time  perplexed  the  world ;  but,  whatever  the 
cause,  the  result  was  real.  Mary  Campbell,  who  before  this  time 
had  been  confined  to  bed,  from  this  moment,  without  any  inter- 
val, returned  to  active  life ;  became,  as  was  natural,  the  centre  of 
double  curiosity  and  interest ;  spoke,  expounded,  gave  forth  the 
utterances  of  her  power  in  crowded  assemblies,  and  entered  into 
the  full  career  of  a  prophetess  and  gifted  person.  The  Macdon- 
alds,  less  demonstrative  and  more  homely,  went  on  upon  their 
modest  way,  attracting  crowds  of  observers,  without  being  there- 
by withdrawn  from  the  composed  and  sober  course  of  their  exist- 
ence ;  and  thus  a  new  miraculous  dispensation  was,  to  the  belief 
of  many,  inaugurated  in  all  the  power  of  apostolic  times  by  these 
waters  of  the  West. 

When  these  extraordinary  events  became  known,  they  reached 
the  ear  of  Irving  by  many  means.  One  of  his  deacons  belonged 
to  a  family  in  the  district,  who  sent  full  and  frequent  accounts. 
Others  of  his  closest  friends, — Mr.  Story,  in  whose  immediate  par- 
ish the  wonder  had  first  arisen,  and  Mr.  Campbell,  whose  teaching 
had  helped  to  inspire  it — looked  on  with  wistful  scrutiny,  eagerly 
hopeful,  yet  not  fully  convinced  of  the  reality  of  what  they  saw. 
Mr.  Erskine,  of  Linlathen,  went  upon  a  mission  of  personal  inqui- 
ry, which  persuaded  his  tender  Christian  soul  of  the  unspeakable 
comforts  of  a  new  revelation.  Almost  every  notable  Christian 
man  of  the  time  took  the  matter  into  devout  and  anxious  consid- 
eration. Even  Chalmers,  always  cautious,  inquired  eagerly,  and 
would  not  condemn.  On  Irving  the  effect  was  warmer  and  more 
instantaneous.  Assured  of  the  personal  piety  which  nobody  could 
gainsay,  and  doubtless  moved  with  a  subtle,  unconscious  propiti- 
ating influence,  conveyed  by  the  fact  that  his  own  distinctive 
teachings  were  echoed  in  what  seemed  divine  aniens  and  confirm- 


DR.  CHALMERS  IN  LONDON.  383 

ations  through  those  burdens  of  prophecy,  he  does  not  seem  to 
have  hesitated  for  au  instant.  One  of  the  immediate  circle  round 
him,  an  Englishman  and  a  lawyer,  went  down  to  Port  Glasgow  to 
examine  and  report.  A  subtle  agitation  of  hope,  wonder,  and  cu- 
riosity pervaded  the  Church,  which,  under  Irving's  half-miracu- 
lous realizations  of  every  truth  he  touched,  must  have  been  fully 
prepared  for  the  entirely  miraculous  whenever  it  should  appear 
with  reasonable  warrant  and  witness.  The  future  palpitated  be- 
fore the  earnest  leader  and  his  anxious  followers.  If  their  con- 
troversies did  not  slacken,  broken  lights  of  a  consolation  which, 
if  realized,  would  be  unspeakable  and  beyond  the  hopes  of  man, 
came  to  brighten  that  troubled,  laborious  way.  It  was  a  moment 
of  indescribable  hope  and  solemn  excitement,  when,  to  the  strain- 
ed eyes  and  ears,  and  throbbing  hearts  which  stood  watching  on 
the  threshold  of  revelation,  nobody  could  predict  or  conceive  what 
wonderful  burst  of  glory  any  moment  might  bring. 

The  following  letters  appear,  however,  to  have  been  written  in 
the  suspense  of  this  crisis,  before  any  absolute  manifestation  of 
the  new  gifts  had  been  made  in  England.  In  this  interval  Dr. 
Chalmers  once  more  visited  London,  and  seems,  according:  to  the 
details  in  Irving's  letters,  to  have  preached  not  only  on  a  Sunday, 
but  also  at  some  week-day  services  in  the  National  Scotch  Church. 
At  this  moment  Irving's  much-tried  household  was  again  in  deep 
anxiety  and  distress.  The  little  Samuel  had  been  for  some  time 
ill — so  ill  that  the  troubled  house  was  unable  to  offer  the  ordinary 
hospitalities  to  the  visitor,  but  had  to  fulfill  those  duties,  so  im- 
perative to  the  habits  of  Scotsmen,  vicariously  through  Mr.  Ham- 
ilton ;  and  the  anxious  father  was  even  afraid  to  be  out  late  in 
the  evening,  his  ^Lmxg  baby  holding  stronger  to  his  heart  than 
even  his  much-pri^l  friend,  to  whom  once  more  he  thus  express- 
es affection : 

"  Believe  me  when  I  say  that  in  regard  to  the  preaching  also,  it  is 
the  entire  love  and  high  admiration  which  I  have  of  you  that  makes 
me  feel  it  so  desirable.  I  am  sore  beleaguered,  and  have  almost 
been  beaten  to  the  ground ;  but  my  God  hath  sustained  me,  through 
your  means.  The  time  will  come,  and  perhaps  is  not  far  distant, 
when  I  shall  begin  to  be  understood  and  valued  according  to  the  sin- 
cerity of  my  heart ;  but  if  not,  let  me  die  the  death  of  the  righteous 
One,  who  was  crucified  as  a  blasphemer,  and  let  my  latter  end  be  like 
His." 

This  was  the  last  encounter,  so  far  as  mutual  help  and  sympa- 
thy were  concerned,  of  these  two  singularly  nnlike  men.     They 


884  IRVING,  CHALMERS,  AND  COLERIDGE. 

■went  together  once  more,  before  they  parted,  to  visit  Coleridge, 
as  they  had  gone  together  to  visit  him  when  life  and  hope  were 
at  their  brightest  for  Irving,  and  every  thing  seemed  possible. 
Strangely  different  must  this  second  visit  have  been.  Seven  years 
before,  Chalmers,  half-wondering,  half-amused,  had  watched  the 
young  preacher  in  the  early  flush  of  his  fame,  sitting  at  the  feet 
of  the  sage ;  both  of  them  equally  curious,  and  half-decipherable 
to  the  eyes  bright  with  characteristic  genius,  which  yet  did  not 
know  that  development  of  uncongenial  and  mysterious  light. 
Now  the  two  elder  men  watched  the  younger  with  regret,  amaze- 
ment, and  impatience  equal  to  their  mutual  incomprehension.  He 
had  left  the  calm  regions  of  philosophy  far  apart  and  behind.  He 
had  left  th6  safe  limits  of  ecclesiastical  restraint.  The  divine  and 
the  philosopher  gazed  at  him  with  a  certain  mournful  admiration 
and  affectionate  anger.  Coleridge  "poured  out  an  eloquent  trib- 
ute of  his  regard"  into  the  ears  of  Chalmers,  "  mourning  pathetic- 
ally that  such  a  man  should  be  throwing  himself  away."  They 
did  not  comprehend,  neither  the  one  nor  the  other,  that  nothing 
in  this  palpitating  human  world  could  be  abstract  to  that  passion- 
ate, splendid  human  soul ;  that  it  was  as  truly  his  mission  to  ren- 
der up  love  and  life,  to  break  his  heart,  and  end  his  days  in  con- 
flict with  the  shows  of  things,  and  vehement  protestation  for  the 
reality,  as  it  was  theirs  to  dream,  to  ponder,  to  legislate,  to  abide 
the  bloodless  encounters  of  argument  and  thought.  They  watch- 
ed him  going  on  to  his  passion  and  agony  with  wondering  hopes 
that  advice  and  remonstrance  might  yet  save  him,  unperceiving 
that  the  agony  and  passion  by  which  this  man  was  to  prove  the 
devotion  of  a  loyal  heart  to  his  Master's  name  and  person,  and 
unspeakable  certainty  of  spiritual  verities,  jps  indeed  the  true 
object  and  purpose  of  his  life.  " 

While  Chalmers  was  still  in  London,  but  apparently  on  the  eve 
of  quitting  it,  and  after  they  had  taken  leave  of  each  other,  the 
following  letter  seems  to  have  been  written. 

"  13  Judd  Place,  East,  June  2d,  1830. 

"  My  dear  akd  kind  Feiend, — I  have  at  last  found  the  document 
I  referred  to.  You  will  find  it  in  the  printed  Acts  of  the  year  1704, 
Act  xxviii.,  and  from  the  6th  of  certain  '  Overtures  concerning  Schools 
and  Bursaries,  and  for  instructing  youth  in  the  principles  of  religion,' 
and  is  as  follows  :* 

"  There  are  very  many  Acts  of  the  Church  scattered  through  these 

*  It  is  unnecessary  to  quote  the  extract  made  by  Irving,  which  bears  reference  to 
Chalmers's  idea  of  making  theology  one  of  the  branches  of  liberal  education. 


IRVING'S  APPEAL  TO  CHALMERS.  385 

years  following  the  Restoration  concerning  the  advancement  of  learn- 
ing, which  Avould,  I  think,  strengthen  your  hands  very  much  in  any 
undertaking  to  that  effect. 

"  I  had  thought  to  see  you,  to  thank  you  in  person  for  your  great 
kindness  to  me  and  my  Church  on  this  occasion  ;  but  the  state  of  my 
poor  boy's  health  prevents  me  leaving  home  for  a  night.  Accept  of 
them  now,  and  be  assured  of  my  willingness  to  repay  unto  Christ  and 
His  Church  the  kindness  which  by  you  He  hath  shown  unto  me ;  and 
whenever  any  opportunity  occurs  of  serving  you  personally,  be  as- 
sured of  my  readiness. 

"  I  perceive  two  things  in  Scotland  of  the  most  fearful  omen :  First, 
self-sufficient  ignorance  of  theological  truth,  and  a  readiness  to  pride 
themselves  in  and  boast  of  it,  and  to  call  every  thing  speculation 
Avhich  proposes  to  advance  the  bounds,  or  rather  narrow  limits  of  the- 
ological knowledge.  My  doctrine  on  our  Lord's  human  nature  is  as 
literally  the  doctrine  of  the  Confessions  of  the  Church  as  can  be,  viz., 
That  He  took  the  human  nature  of  the  Virgin,  that  it  was  thoroughly 
and  completely  sanctified  in  the  generation  by  the  work  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  underwent  no  process  or  progress  of  sanctification.  Yet, 
through  ignorance  of  the  person  and  office  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  I  per- 
ceive the  greatest  horror  to  prevail  against  this  truth,  and  a  readiness 
to  adopt  one  or  other  of  the  errors — either  that  His  nature  was  in- 
trinsically better  than  ours,  or  that  it  underwent  a  physical  change 
before  its  assumption  into  the  person  of  the  Son.  If  you  would  see, 
within  a  short  compass,  the  three  opinions  brought  to  the  test  of  the 
Confessions  of  Faith,  I  recommend  to  you  a  short  anonymous  tract, 
entitled  The  Ojnnio7is  circulating  concerning  the  Human  Nature  of 
our  Lord  broitght  to  Trial  before  the  Westminster  Confession  of 
Faith.  You  ought  to  give  some  study  to  this  point,  and  stand  in 
the  breach  for  the  truth.  I  have  thoroughly  gone  through  the  sub- 
ject of  the  Incarnation,  and  if  it  served  you,  could  at  any  time  give 
you  the  history  from  the  beginning  of  the  controversies  on  this  sub- 
ject, and  of  its  present  form.  The  second  thing  which  grieves  and 
oppresses  my  heart  with  respect  to  poor  Scotland  is  the  hardness  of 
heart  manifested  in  the  levity  and  cruelty  with  wiiich  they  speak  of 
others ;  the  zeal  and  readiness  with  which  they  rush  to  overthrow 
such  men  of  God  as  John  Campbell ;  the  union  of  all  parties  to  this 
end;  the  scorn  with  which  they  regard  the  signs  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
beginning  to  be  again  vouchsafed  to  the  Church ;  and,  if  not  scorn, 
the  mere  juryman  way  of  considering  them,  as  the  House  of  Com- 
mons might,  without  any  respect  to  any  existing  promise,  or  proba- 
bility, or  doctrine  of  any  kind  upon  the  subject — also  without  any 
regard  to  the  discernment  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  us,  and  even  as  if 
the  Holy  Ghost  were  merely  a  sharpener  of  our  natural  faculties  to 
detect  imposture  or  to  know  sincere  persons.  The  substance  of  Mary 
Campbell's  and  Margaret  Macdonald's  visions  or  revelations,  given 
in  their  papers,  carry  to  me  a  spiritual  conviction  and  a  spiritual  re- 
proof which  I  can  not  express.  Mr.  Cunningham,  of  Lainshaw,  said 
to  me  the  other  day  that  he  had  seen  nothing  since  the  apostles'  days 
worthy  to  be  compared  Avith  a  letter  of  Mary  Dunlop's  which  is  writ- 
ten to  a  person  in  this  city.     Thomas  Erskine  and  other  persons  ex- 

Bb 


386  FINAL  PARTING  OF  IRVING  AND  CHALMERS. 

press  themselves  more  overpoAved  by  the  love,  and  assurance,  and 
unity  seen  in  their  prayers  and  conversations  than  by  the  works. 
Oh,  my  friend !  oh,  my  dear  master !  there  are  Avorks  of  the  Spirit 
and  communions  of  the  Spirit  which  few  of  us  ever  dream  of!  Let 
us  not  resist  them  Avlien  we  see  them  in  another.  Mind  my  Avords 
when  I  say,  '  The  Evangelical  party  in  the  Church  of  Scotland  will 
lay  all  flat  if  they  be  not  prevented.'  I  desire  my  true  love  to  Mrs. 
Chalmers  and  Miss  Anne.  May  God  give  you  a  prosperous  journey! 
"  Your  faithful  friend  and  brother,  Edward  Irv^ing." 

To  all  these  appeals,  the  man  whom  Irving  addressed,  with 
touching  loyalty  to  the  past  and  its  associations,  as  "  my  dear 
master,"  seems  to  have  made  no  response  whatever.  If  he  exam- 
ined that  momentous  question  at  all,  or  re-examined  it  at  the  en- 
treaty of  his  friend,  whose  very  life  was  involved  in  its  considera- 
tion, no  record  remains  to  prove  it.  He  left  the  controversy  to 
be  settled  by  the  nameless  Presbyters  of  Irvine  and  Annan,  vol- 
untarily making  his  own  learning  and  influence  useless  in  a  con- 
troversy most  deeply  momentous  to  the  Church,  and  which  only 
the  doctors  and  fathers  of  the  Church  ought  to  have  given  any 
deliverance  upon.  At  the  crisis  then  existing,  I  repeat,  Chalmers 
and  his  equals  permitted  this  matter,  and  also  the  equally  impor- 
tant process  of  Mr.  Campbell,  of  Eow,  to  be  discussed  and  virtu- 
ally settled  by  an  untrained  country  population  •  a  manner  of 
procedure,  I  presume,  justified  by  the  laws  of  Pr^ytery,  but  in 
the  profoundest  discordance  not  only  with  reason  and  justice,  but 
with  the  true  spirit  of  a  system  which  professes  to  hold  its  author- 
ity, not  from  the  people,  but  from  God. 

As,  I  believe,  they  never  met  again  after  this  year,  I  add,  though 

a  little  out  of  chronology,  the  farewell  mention  which  Chalmers 

makes  in  his  diary  of  their  final  parting. 

"Oci.,  1830.  Had  a  very  interesting  call  from  Mr.  Irving  between 
one  and  two,  Avhen  I  Avas  in  bed.  He  stopped  two  hours,  Avherein 
he  gave  his  expositions ;  and  I  gave,  at  greater  length  and  liberty 
than  I  had  ever  done  before,  my  advices  and  my  views.  We  parted 
from  each  other  Avith  great  cordiality,  after  a  prayer  Avhich  he  him- 
self offered  Avith  great  pathos  and  piety." 

So  the  two  made  everlasting  farewells,  so  far  as  this  world  was 
concerned,  and  parted  in  life,  spirit,  and  career,  each  retaining  a 
longing  love  for  the  other.  The  friendship  of  Chalmers,  which 
was  not  strong  enough  to  draw  him  personally  into  the  conflict, 
or  to  give  him  any  sympathetic  understanding  of  the  entire  devo- 
tion with  which  Irving  abrogated  reason  itself  in  obedience  to 
what  he  believed  the  voice  of  God,  was  yet  enough  to  raise  him 


LITTLE  SAMUEL'S  ILLNESS.  387 

above  the  vulgar  lamentations  which  broke  forth,  at  Irving's  death, 
over  his  misused  talents  and  sacrificed  life.  The  great  Scotch  di- 
vine knew  well  that  his  friend's  life  was  not  wasted ;  and  with 
cumbrous  but  grand  phraseology,  and  a  laboring  of  tears  in  his 
voice,  made  that  eulogium  of  "  the  Christian  grafted  upon  the 
Old  Roman,"  by  which  he  acknowledged  his  consciousness,  not- 
withstanding separation  and  estrangement,  of  this  primitive  hero- 
ic soul. 

In  the  mean  time,  however,  all  the  tumults  in  Irving's  life  were 
veiled  over,  and  all  its  hopes  subdued  by  the  fluttering  of  a  baby 
life,  as  it  waned  and  declined  toward  the  grave,  which  already 
had  swallowed  up  so  many  blossoms  of  his  existence.  This  pro- 
found domestic  anxiety  gave  him,  as  was  natural,  a  deeper  trem- 
bling interest  in  the  miraculous  reports  that  reached  him.  The 
command  of  intense  and  undoubting  faith  which  had  raised  Mary 
Campbell  from  her  sick-bed  might  still  raise  that  declining  infant, 
whose  baby  days  were  numbered.  From  the  little  bedside  he 
gazed  out  wistfully  upon  the  horizon,  where  miraculous  influences 
seemed  hovering,  but  had  not  yet  revealed  themselves;  hoping 
in  the  prayers  of  the  Church,  in  the  faith  of  the  saints,  in  the  in- 
tervention of  the  Lord  himself,  when  earthly  hope  was  over.  It 
is 'not  possible  to  enter  into  this  phase  of  his  life  without  perceiv- 
ing the  heart-breaking  glimmer  of  terrible  hope  and  expectation 
which  mingles  with  the  elevated  and  lofty  anticipations  of  a  new 
outpouring  of  the  Spirit,  and  gives  a  certain  color  to  the  father's 
hopes  and  prayers. 

"  My  darling  boy,"  he  writes,  "  is  very  poorly.  We  have  no  de- 
pendence upon  human  help.  Nothing  but  that  power  of  hearing  and 
answering  prayer  offered  by  the  Church,  for  the  testimony  of  which, 
as  still  resident  in  the  Church,  I  have  stood  these  many  years,  and  for 
which  these  despised  Row  people  are  now  suffering,  can  bring  my 
dear  Samuel  from  his  present  weakness  back  again  to  strength.     Oh, 

my  dear  A ,  tell  me  when  this  distinction  of  the  works  of  the 

Spirit  into  ordinary  and  extraordinary  arose  ?  There  is  no  such  thing 
in  the  Scriptures.  I  believe  the  Holy  Ghost  is  as  mighty  in  the 
Church,  and,  but  for  our  unbelief,  would  be  as  apparent,  as  ever  He 
was.  I  pray  you  to  be  upon  your  guard  against  speaking  evil  of  any 
mighty  work  which  you  may  hear  of  in  the  Church,  for  in  the  last 
days  God  will  pour  out  His  Spirit  upon  all  flesh." 

Such  seems  to  have  been  as  yet  his  attitude  in  respect  to  the 
supernatural  commotions  in  the  west  of  Scotland ;  and  there  is  no 
evidence  that  as  yet  they  had  extended  to  London,  or  appeared 
in  his  own  immediate  surroundings.     Those  surroundings,  how- 


388  IRVING'S  MIRACULOUS  HEART. 

ever,  had  modified  and  changed  as  the  years  grew.  New  friends, 
bound  together  by  the  close  and  peculiar  links  of  prophetic  study ; 
new  followers,  detached  out  of  other  churches  by  his  influence, 
and  adhering  to  him  with  all  the  closeness  of  choice  and  personal 
election,  had  joined  the  old  friends  and  faithful  Churchmen  of 
former  days  with  a  more  jealous  and  fervid  allegiance.  Minds, 
to  whose  latent  enthusiasm  his  eloquence  gave  the  quickening 
thrill,  and  who  had  followed  him  so  far  with  ever-rising  thoughts, 
that  it  became  natural  now  to  follow  him  whithersoever  his  fervent 
inspiration  might  lead,  and  to  believe  in  every  thing  he  thought 
possible,  had  glided  into  the  circle  closest  to  him,  surrounding  his 
anxious  soul,  in  its  troubles,  with  a  dangerous  readiness  of  sym- 
pathy and  assent.  Among  them  were  men  on  whose  friendship 
he  reposed  with  all  the  characteristic  trust  of  his  nature,  and  wom- 
en who  served  him  unweariedly  with  willing  pen  as  amanuenses, 
proud  of  their  ofiQ.ce.  These  closest  friends  watched  with  himself, 
with  kindred  eagerness,  the  flushings  of  light  upon  the  distant 
firmament.  And  to  him  it  was  always  easier  to  believe  the  mirac- 
ulous than  the  mean  and  common.  By  right  of  his  nature,  he 
understood  a  thousand  times  better  how  God  could  bestow  and 
lavish  the  extraordinary  gifts  of  His  grace,  than  how  the  poor 
practicabilities  of  human  nature  could  limit  the  Divine  profusion. 
It  is  indeed  important  to  remember,  while  entering  upon  this  most 
momentous  period,  how  much  attuned  to  the  miraculous  was  his 
fervid  genius  and  absolute  lofty  tone,  and  how  much  the  sublima- 
tion of  his  mind  gave  to  all  the  course  of  nature  that  aspect  of 
daily  miracle  which  its  wonderful  successions  present  more  or 
less  to  every  thoughtful  eye. 

In  July  another  prophetical  meeting  was  appointed  to  be  held 
at  Albury.  His  child  was  still  ill,  indeed  hourly  progressing  to- 
ward his  end ;  but  supported  by  the  thought  that  this  was  a  sa- 
cred duty,  and  the  direct  service  of  his  Master,  and  also  by  the 
assurances  given  him,  by  many  of  his  anxious  friends,  of  the  pray- 
ers they  had  presented,  with  full  assurance  of  faith,  for  the  in- 
fant's life,  Irving  ventured  to  leave  the  troubled  household,  where 
his  wife  was  supported  by  the  presence  of  her  mother  and  sisters. 
With  what  tremblings  of  love  and  faith  he  went  will  be  seen  from 
the  following  letters : 

"Albury  Park,  1st  July,  1830. 
"  My  dearest  Wife, — While  I  am  serving  God  in  the  house  of 
our  common  Husband,  Christ,  you  are  serving  Him  in  the  house  of 
me,  your  husband,  and  both  of  us  together  fulfilling  the  portions 


ALBURY.— A  FAITHFUL  WIFE.  389 

which  our  God  hath  allotted  us.  .  .  .  Much  have  I  thought,  and 
much  have  I  prayed  to  God  for  you  and  our  dear  children,  especially 
for  our  beloved  Samuel ;  and  though  I  can  not  say  that  God  hath 
given  me  assured  faith  of  his  recovery,  I  can  say  that  He  hath  given 
me  a  perfect  resignedness  to  His  will,  which  I  believe  to  be  the  pre- 
cious preparation  for  the  other.  For,  until  our  faith  and  prayer  spring 
out  of  resignation,  'Not  my  will, but  Thine  be  done,'  it  is  asking  amiss 
to  gratify,  not  the  life  of  God,  but  the  life  of  nature,  which  in  us,  and 
all  the  members  of  Christ,  ought  to  be  crucified  and  dead.  Last  night 
I  was  troubled  Avith  some  visions  and  dreams  which  afflicted  me ;  but 
this  morning,  having  arisen  early,  I  found  great  consolation  in  prayer 
to  God.  In  my  prayers  I  seem  to  forget  my  own  trials  in  the  trials 
of  the  Church.  I  am  carried  away  from  my  own  pain  to  the  wound 
of  the  daughter  of  my  people.  It  is  very  curious  how  I  am  always 
brought  back  to  the  children  through  you,  my  partner  in  their  care, 
and  now  the  whole  bearer  of  it.  '  Be  careful  for  nothing,'  but  in 
every  thing,  by  prayer  and  supplication,  make  your  request  known 
unto  God,  and  the  peace  of  God,  which  passeth  all  understanding, 
shall  keep  you.  We  arrived  here  at  half  past  four,  not  in  time  to 
write ;  and  I  took  up  the  time  till  dinner  in  expressing  some  thoughts, 
preparatory  to  my  next  number  of  the  Apocalypse.  .  .  .  The  subject 
to-day  has  been  the  Jews,  which  always  yields  much  matter.  Mr. 
Leach  opened  it,  and  several  have  spoken  this  forenoon  with  very 
great  power.  I  feel  as  if  far  more  light  had  been  afforded  me  upon 
this  subject  than  at  any  time  heretofore.  I  would  say  there  has  been 
more  of  the  spiritual,  and  less  of  the  literal — more  of  the  results  of 
wisdom,  and  less  of  mere  knowledge  or  learning.  I  trust  it  will  so 
continue.  Ah  me !  how  little  do  they  know  who  speak  evil  of  this 
meeting,  what  it  really  is !  To  me  it  is  the  greatest  spiritual  enjoy- 
ment in  this  world.  I  try  to  devote  myself  with  entire  heart  to  my 
Father's  business,  and  to  repose  you  and  my  dear  babes  with  entire 
confidence  upon  His  care.  If  I  am  often  invaded  by  the  thoughts 
and  fears  of  a  father,  I  lift  up  my  soul  to  Him  who  is  the  Father. 
What  a  blessing  to  have  a  faithful  wife !  Had  you  not  been  what 
God's  grace  has  made  you,  I  would  not  have  been  here.  Had  you 
signified  your  av ish  that  I  should  remain,  or  even  faltered  in  your  con- 
sent, I  should  not  have  been  here.  To  you,  my  dear  wife,  the  Church 
owes  whatever  benefit  I  may  be  of  now;  and  surely  I  never  felt  more 
the  duty  of  addressing  myself  to  the  Lord's  work.  Indeed,  but  for 
your  bearing  and  forbearing  with  me,  what  might  I  at  this  day  not 
have  been,  who  am  now  your  devoted  husband,  and  desiring  to  be 
the  faithful  servant  of  God  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  God  reward 
you  with  much  enjoyment  and  profit  in  your  love  to  me,  for  it  has 
been  very  great !  It  has  come  to  rain  most  fearfully  for  the  last 
hour,  and  is  now  pouring  down  in  torrents.  God  pity  the  beasts  of 
the  earth,  and  let  them  not  want.  The  hay  is  very  much  damaged 
here.  I  desire  my  most  dutiful  love  to  your  mother,  and  my  heart- 
felt thanks  for  her  love  to  us  all;  ...  .  and,  oh,  remember  me  lov- 
ingly to  dear  Maggie,  and  tell  her  to  stir  up  the  gift  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  that  is  in  her !  and  for  dear  Samuel,  God  rest  and  restore  him ! 
Farewell,  my  well-beloved  wife.     I  desire  you  always  to  think  of  me 


390  THE  CHIEF  PHYSICIAN. 

as  entirely  one  with  you,  even  as  you  are  with  me.  My  kind  conso- 
lations to  Dr.  Carlyle,  and  my  afiectionate  love  to  George.  Also  re- 
member me  Avith  kindness  to  both  the  servants. 

"  Your  faithful  and  aifectionate  husband,         Edwd.  Ikvixg." 

"  Albury,  2d  July,  1830. 
"  My  very  dear  Wife, — I  desire  to  be  thankful  for  the  consola- 
tion of  the  letter  of  the  two  physicians,  and  I  pray  you  to  thank  them 
both  for  me  for  all  their  care  and  kindness.  Also  I  am  satisfied  to 
know  that  Dr.  Farr  agrees  with  the  judgment  which  they  have  formed 
and  been  acting  on ;  and  I  desire  that  George  and  Dr.  Calryle  should 
consult  together,  and  do  for  the  dear  babe  whatever  they  can,  and 
do  it  in  faith  as  far  as  they  are  enabled ;  joining  prayer  of  faith  to 
their  use  of  means.  Withal  my  confidence  is  with  the  chief  Physi- 
cian, and  I  feel  only  the  more  trust  as  I  see  the  case  to  be  the  more 
extreme.  One  thing  I  know,  that  my  soul  hath  been  much  hum- 
bled, and  my  hard  heart  much  melted  by  this  visitation  of  the  Lord. 
All  the  brethren  here  seem  deeply  to  sympathize  Avith  us,  and  I  think 
there  is  much  grace  upon  the  l)rethreu.  .  .  .  Mr.  Cunningham  is  gone 
away.  His  company  has  been  very  pleasant  and  profitable.  He  is 
in  very  deed  a  man  of  God.  He  considers  himself  to  have  been  put 
out  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  for  the  testimony  of  the  universal 
atonement.  If  indeed  it  be  so,  he  is  honored.  My  dear,  we  must  not 
treat  Christ  as  a  common  physician,  or  believe  that  He  has  not  reme- 
dies becaiise  the  physicians  have  none.  May  the  Holy  Spirit  grant 
us  strong  and  lively  faith  for  our  dear  child !  My  love,  you  must 
take  care  of  yourself,  and  not  undertake  so  much  Avithout  looking  up 
for  very  much  strength  by  much  faith.  Let  not  your  much  labor  for 
dear  baby  proceed  of  carefulness,  but  of  a  confidence  in  God  for 
strength;  and  if  God  Aveaken  you,  consider  it  as  His  sign  that  you 
should  confide  more  to  others.  .  .  .  Mr.  HaAvtrey,  Mr.  Bayford,  and 
I  come  in  to-morrow,  taking  a  chaise  from  RijDley.  I  shall  be  home 
about  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening. 

"  Your  faithful  and  affectionate  husband,         Edwd.  Irving." 

On  the  3d  of  July  he  appears  to  have  returned  home,  and  on 
the  6th  this  child  of  prayer  gave  up  its  little  life,  and  left  another 
blank  in  the  household  so  often  invaded.  Miracle  did  not  inter- 
pose to  give  joy  to  God's  devoted  servant.  During  the  whole  of 
this  last  dread  discipline  of  his  life,  he  served  God  divinely  "for 
naught,"  receiving  none  of  the  extraordinary  graces  he  believed 
in.  Already  the  last  trial  had  begun.  Miraculously  from  the 
edge  of  the  grave,  Mary  Campbell  and  Margaret  Macdonald  in 
Scotland,  and  others  in  England  shortly  after,  near  and  visible  to 
his  eyes  and  his  faith,  were  brought  back  in  safety  to  fulfill  their 
existence.  But  it  was  not  so  that  God  dealt  with  His  loyal  and 
forlorn  soldier.  The  draught  of  joy,  of  glorious  proof  and  assur- 
ance, that  would  have  refreshed  his.  soul,  was  withheld  from  his 
lips.     If  he  turned  away  sighing,  with  a  pang  of  disappointment 


RESIGNATION.  391 

added  to  bis  sorrow,  be  never  paused  or  slackened  on  tbat  account 
in  tbe  faitb  wbicb  did  not  depend  upon  personal  blessings,  but 
watcbed,  witb  an  interest  unabated,  tbe  new  miraculous  dispensa- 
tion, wbicb  bad  not  saved  bis  cbild,  but  wbicb  yet  be  trusted  in 
as  divine  and  true. 

It  was  tbis  cbild,  I  tbink,  wbo  died  so  late  in  tbe  week  as  to 
leave  no  time  for  tbe  afflicted  fatber  to  find  a  substitute  for  bis 
Sunday  duties.  He  preacbcd  in  bis  own  cburcb  tbe  day  after, 
taking  for  bis  text  tbe  words  of  David — "I  sball  go  to  bim,  but 
be  will  not  return  to  me."  Persons  wbo  were  present  bave  de- 
scribed to  me,  almost  witb  a  sob  of  recollection,  tbe  beart-break- 
ing  patbos  and  solemnity  of  tbis  service ;  and  no  one  can  bave 
read  bis  letters  at  tbe  time  of  bis  first  cbild's  deatb  without  being 
able  to  realize  in  some  degree  tbe  outburst  of  ineffable  anguisb 
and  rejoicing  wbicb  must  bave  been  wrung  from  bim  by  sucb  a 
necessity.  Tbey  say  be  went  tearless  and  fasting  tbrougb  tbat 
dark  Sabbatb ;  and  coming  in  from  bis  pulpit,  went  straight  to' 
tbe  little  coffin,  and  flinging  bimself  down  by  it,  gave  w^ay  to  tbe 
agony  of  a  strong  man's  grief — grief  wbicb  was  balf  or  wholly 
prayer — an  outcry  to  tbe  one  great  Confidant  of  all  bis  troubles, 
tbe  faithful  Lord  wbo  yet  bad  not  interposed  to  save. 

Shortly  after,  Irving  took  his  mourning  wife  and  tbe  one  little 
daughter  wbo  was  still  spared  to  bim,  and  whose  bealtb  seems  to 
bave  been  fragile  enough  to  keep  them  anxious  on  her  account 
also,  to  Albury,  from  whence  he  writes  to  Mrs.  Martin  an  account 
of  their  journey  and  welfare;  after  arriving  "in  tbe  cool  of  one 
of  tbe  sweetest  evenings  wbicb  was  ever  seen,"  as  be  says  witb  a 
sacramental  bush  of  grief  breathing  from  bis  words — 

"  Maggie  has  been  running  about  with  all  manner  of  cheerfulness 
and  joy.  The  day  is  delightful,  and  the  scene  one  of  the  most  en- 
chanting you  ever  saw.  The  house  is  large  and  cool ;  the  manners 
of  it  put  every  one  at  their  ease ;  and  I  fondly  hope  it  may  be  the 
means  of  restoring  my  wife  and  child.  I  desire  to*  express  my  great 
sense  of  your  kindness  to  them  and  to  us  all  during  the  late  trial  of 
divine  Providence,  as  during  others  which  you  have  witnessed  and 
shared  with  us.  We  must  not  murmur,  but  seek  to  know  the  end 
of  the  Lord,  and  to  submit  to  His  gracious  will.  Many  a  time  I  de- 
sire to  be  with  my  children,  and  I  hope  Ave  shall  be  all  gathered  to 
His  congregation  ere  long ;  for  I  believe  the  day  of  His  coming  draw- 
eth  nigh,  and  that  before  tliese  judgments  fall  out  we  shall  be  taken 
to  Himself  and  receive  the  morning  star.  I  can  not  but  feel  the 
greatest  interest  in  the  things  taking  place  in  Scotland.  Tlie  Church 
of  Christ  is  recovering  from  a  long  sleep,  and  the  false  brethren  ■who 
are  mingled  with  the  true  are  ready  to  resist  her  new  activity ;  and. 


392  IRVING'S  VISIT  TO  IRELAND. 

a  third  party  of  worthy  and  pious  people  are  perplexed  what  to  think 
of  it.  I  pray  you,  and  all  who  wish  well  to  the  Church,  but  can  not 
clearly  discern  your  way  in  the  conflict  of  opinions,  to  observe  the 
fruits  of  the  two  parties,  and  in  this  way  to  discover  the  true  from 
the  false  prophets.  This  is  the  counsel  of  our  great  Counselor, '  By 
their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them.' " 

The  melancholy  family  took  their  autumn  holiday  sadly,  and, 
so  far  as  Irving  was  concerned,  laboriously  as  always.  From  Al- 
bury  they  went  to  Ireland,  to  visit  Lady  Powerscourt,  from  whose 
house  Mrs.  Irving  writes  to  her  sister.  The  first  portion  of  the 
letter  refers  to  Mr.  Scott,  who  had  apparently,  by  this  time,  quite 
withdrawn  from  his  contest  with  the  London  Presbytery ;  his  dif- 
ficulties lying  not  in  the  way  of  one  doctrine  alone,  but  branching 
out  into  many  varieties  of  doubt  and  hesitation.  He  had  objec- 
tions to  being  ordained,  objections  to  the  Confession  of  Faith,  ob- 
jections indeed,  apparently,  to  every  limit  which  restrained  his 
own  powerful  but  wayward  thoughts. 

"  On  the  Wednesday  before  Ave  left  fpr  Ireland,"  says  Mrs.  Irving, 

"  we  dined  at  Miss  F 's,  to  see  and  hear  our  dear  friend.     What 

wonderful  power  the  Lord  gives  him !  His  complaints  are  no  bet- 
ter, in  some  respects ;  but  he  is  enabled  to  speak,  to  teach,  and  ex- 
hort for  many  hours  every  day,  to  the  edification,  and  comfort,  and 
awakening  of  many  of  the  body  of  Christ.  Many  feel,  while  listen- 
ing to  him,  that  they  are  listening  to  a  dying  man.  Well,  be  it  so ; 
let  us  in  every  thing  be  given  up  to  the  good  will  of  God.  To  our 
short  sight  there  appears  much  need  of  him,  and  such  like ;  and  if 
there  be  need  of  him  for  the  Church's  sake,  he  will  be  spared.  He 
preached  a  most  powerful  discourse  that  evening,  besides  having  ex- 
pounded and  exhorted  for  between  four  and  five  hours  during  the 
day.  If  able,  he  takes  all  the  Wednesday  evenings  while  Edward  is 
absent.     On  Monday  we  left  London  at  7  A.M.,  and  reached  Bath 

before  7  P.M.  .  .  .  Shortly  after,  some  gentlemen,  whom  Mr.  E 

has  induced  to  study  the  Scriptures  with  him,  assembled  to  spend  the 
evening  with  us.  These  kind  friends  had  made  arrangements  for  Ed- 
ward preaching  at  Bath.  He  did  jDreach,  and  Avas  said  to  have  had 
a  larger  congregation  than  Avas  ever  seen  before  at  Bath  in  a  morn- 
ing. We  dined  early,  and  our  kind  host  accompanied  us  in  his  OAvn 
chaise  to  Bristol.  Several  other  friends  followed  us.  .  .  .  Here  again 
Edward  preached  to  a  large  and  croAvded  audience.  The  packet  Avas 
not  to  sail  for  Dublin  till  5  P.M.,  so  Ave  spent  part  of  the  morning 
walking  about ;  and  EdAvard  passed  a  pleasant  hour  Avith  the  Rev. 
Robert  Hall.  .  .  . 

"  We  landed  about  10  P.M.  on  the  Dublin  quay ;  so  we  went  to  a 
hotel  for  the  night,  and  next  forenoon  proceeded  to  PoAverscourt. 
Here  Ave  met  a  kind,  hearty  Avelcome.  .  .  .  Next  morning  Ave  drove 
out  a  fcAV  miles  to  visit  a  Avaterfall.  ...  On  our  return  at  three 
o'clock  there  Avas  a  great  gathering  to  hear  EdAvard  preach.    After 


DUBLIN.  393 

dinner,  Lady  Powcrscouvt  and  Edward  set  out  to  a  Mr.  Kelly's,  near 
Dublin,  Avherc  he  met  many  clergymen.  On  Sabbath  he  preached 
twice  in  Dublin :  on  Monday  he  again  preached  twice,  and  came 
here  to  a  late  dinner;  there  were  several  clergymen  to  meet  him. 
Tuesday  he  preached  at  Bray.  On  Wednesday  he  attended  a  cler- 
ical meeting ;  upward  of  thirty  clergymen,  some  laymen,  and  a  few 
ladies  present.  Lady  Powerscourt  and  I  staid  at  a  clergyman's  near 
Dalgony,  where  dear  Edward  arrived  at  half-past  five  o'clock,  snatch- 
ed a  hasty  dinner,  and  jH-eached  at  a  little  after  six  to  a  large  and 
most  attentive  audience — a  most  delightful  and  profitable  discourse, 
and  which,  we  have  since  learned,  made  a  very  deep  impression  on 
many,  and  Avas  understood  by  the  poorest  of  the  people.  .  .  .  On 
Thursday  morning  wo  went  together  and  attended  a  meeting  of  the 
Bible  Society  at  Wicklow.  Edward  preached  thirteen  times  in  eight 
days." 

This  gigantic  holiday  work  seems  to  have  been  imposed  upon 
him,  without  the  slightest  compunction,  wherever  be  went ;  par- 
ties assembling  to  make  all  they  could  out  of  the  great  preacher, 
after  a  twelve  hours'  journey,  and  private  conferences  filling  up 
every  hour  which  was  not  occupied  in  public  labor.  "  You  know 
well  from  my  feeling  and  acting  with  regard  to  dear  Edward," 
says  his  wife,  with  wifely  simplicity,  "that  I  am  not  one  who  am 
continually  in  fear  about  health  when  a  man  is  doing  the  Lord's 
work."  And,  indeed,  there  seems  no  leisure,  in  this  incessant 
round  of  occupation,  either  for  fears  of  health  or  precautions  to 
preserve  it.  An  account  of  his  preaching  in  Dublin  on  this  occa- 
sion is  given  in  one  of  the  Irish  papers  of  the  time  {Saimders^s 
News-Letter^  18th  Sept.,  1830),  as  follows: 

"  The  Rev.  Edward  Irving,  who  our  readers  may  recollect  is  min- 
ister of  the  Caledonian  chapel  in  London,  preached  an  able  and  ad- 
mirable discourse  yesterday  at  the  Scots  chapel.  .  .  .  This  place  of 
worship  was  not  only  crowded  to  suifocation,  but  several  hundreds 
assembled  outside  on  benches  placed  for  their  accommodation  in  the 
yard.  The  reverend  preacher  was  placed  at  the  southwest  window, 
the  frame  of  which  had  been  previously  removed,  from  which  he  was 
audibly  heard  by  the  external  as  well  as  internal  portion  of  the  con- 
gregation. We  observed  many  highly  respectable  Roman  Catholic 
gentlemen  present ;  among  them  were  Messrs.  Costello,  Nugent,  and 
other  members  of  the  late  Catholic  Association." 

A  month  later,  on  his  return  to  London,  Irving  himself  thus 
related  the  most  beautiful  incident  of  his  Irish  travels  to  his  sis- 
ter-in-law Elizabeth,  who  was  then  at  Kirkcaldy,  in  the  paternal 
bouse. 

"London,  13th  October,  1830. 
"  My  dear  Sister, — Though  I  have  but  a  very  short  moment,  I 


394  LITTLE  MAGGIE'S  SONG. 

will  not  let  Mr.  Hamilton  go  without  sending  you  my  love  and  bless- 
ing. I  leave  to  him  to  inform  you  how  our  matters  in  the  Presby- 
tery at  present  stand,  both  with  respect  to  Mr.  Scott  and  myself.  Of 
this  I  have  no  fear,  that  the  Lord  is  the  strength  of  all  His  faithful 
people,  and  that  Ave  are  contending  for  the  foundation  of  the  truth 
when  we  maintain  that  Christ  was  holy  in  spite  of  the  law  of  the 
flesh  working  in  Him  as  in  another  man,  but  in  Him  never  prevailing 
as  it  does  in  every  other  man.  It  was  my  tui-n  to  preach  before  the 
Presbytery,  and  1  spent  two  of  the  most  gracious  hours  of  my  life  in 
opening  the  subject  of  the  Church  as  a  co-essential  part  of  the  pur- 
pose of  God,  with  the  Incarnation  of  the  Son,  unto  which  this  was  the 
preparation  and  likewise  the  way,  and  all  the  means  and  all  the  life 
of  it.  Mr.  Brown,  our  missionary,*  sees  in  all  respects  with  me,  and 
said  thei-e  was  not  a  word  in  my  discourse  wherein  he  took  not  pleas- 
ure, and  that  the  statement  on  the  humanity  was  in  every  tittle  satis- 
factory to  him. 

"  My  dear  Isabella  and  Maggie  are  at  Lady  Olivia  Sparrow's ;  .  .  . 
Miss  Macdonald  is  there  also:  they  are  well.  .  .  .  What  do  you 
think  of  this  little  song  ? 

"  '  Come,  my  little  lambs, 
And  feed  by  my  side, 
And  I  will  give  you  to  eat  of  my  body, 
And  to  drink  of  the  blood  of  my  flesh. 
And  ye  shall  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost, 
And  whosoever  believeth  not  on 'me 

Shall  be  cast  out ; 
But  he  that  believeth  on  me 

Shall  feed  with  me 
Beside  my  Father.' 

"It  has  not  metre  nor  regular  measure,  and  yet  there  is  a  fine 
rhythm  in  it,  and  I  dare  say  your  father  would  say  it  might  be  very 
well  set  to  music.  You  will  say,  who  made  it  ?  I  will  tell  you. 
When  the  Countess  of  Powcrscourt,  after  her  noble  and  Christian 
entertainment  of  us,  thought  it  good  to  bring  us  in  her  own  carriage 
to  the  waterside  at  Kingstown,  and  the  boat  Avas  not  arrived  by  rea- 
son of  the  terrible  Avest  Avind,  Ave  Avent  into  the  inn  ;  and  Isabella,  as 
her  case  required,  Avas  resting  on  the  sofa.  Lady  Powerscourt  sitting 
before  the  fire  Avith  Maggie  on  her  knee,  and  I  betAveen  her  ladyship 
and  my  Avife.  Maggie  broke  the  silence ;  for  God  had  given  us  all 
three  much  love  for  one  another,  and  Ave  Avere  silent,  being  loth  to 
part.  Maggie  said:  'Lady  PoAA^erscourt,  shall  I  sing  you  a  song?' 
'  Yes,  Maggie,'  said  her  ladyship.  Whereupon  the  child,  modulating 
her  voice  most  SAveetly,  poured  forth  these  divine  Avords.  When  she 
Avas  finished,  her  ladyship  said, '  Does  not  that  comfort  you  ?'  But  I 
Avist  not  it  Avas  the  child's  making,  and  understood  not  what  she 
meant ;  but  perceiving  she  Avished  not  to  explain  farther  (it  Avas  for 
fear  of  begetting  vain  conceit  in  the  child),  I  said  no  more ;  but  Mag- 
gie left  her  ladyship's  knee,  and  went  to  the  other  side  of  the  room. 

*  This  pcntleman  had  succeeded  Mr.  Scott  when  the  latter  was  called  to  the 
Woolwich  Church,  and  was  in  reality  Irving's  assistant  or  curate. 


CONGRATULATIONS.  %  395 

Then  I  said  to  Isabella, '  Where  did  Maggie  learn  that  song,  and  Avho 
taught  it  her  ?'  She  said, '  Nowhere,  and  no  one  taught  her.'  I  call- 
ed the  child  and  said, '  Maggie,  my  dear,  Avho  taught  you  that  song  ?' 
She  said,  'Nobody.  I  made  it  one  day  after  bathing;'  and  so  I 
thought  upon  the  words, '  Out  of  the  mouth  of  babes  and  of  sucklings 
I  have  ordained  praise,'  and  I  Avas  comforted.  Read  it  to  your  father 
and  mother,  and  tell  my  dear  sister  Margaret  to  set  it  to  a  tune  and 
sing  it  of  an  evening  at  her  house  Avhen  she  goes  home ;  and  think 
of  the  sweet  and  of  the  sad  hours  she,  as  avcU  as  you,  dear  Elizabeth, 
have  passed  Avith  us.  Give  my  love  to  your  dear  parents,  as  also 
mine,  and  to  all  the  family.  Be  filled  Avith  love,  my  dear  child,  to  all 
uion,  and  have  the  mind  of  Christ.  Think  not  of  yourself,  but  of 
your  Lord,  and  of  the  glory  of  your  God.  ...  Bo  steadfast  and  im- 
movable in  the  truth,  and  give  up  all  things  for  it,  FareAvell !  God 
be  Avith  you,  and  bless  you  and  your  husband,  and  bring  you  back  in 
safety ! 

''  From  your  faithful  brother  and  pastor,         Edward  Irving." 

Thus  the  five-year-old  Maggie,  sole  blossom  at  that  time  of  the 
two  saddened  lives  she  cheered,  comforted  her  father's  soul.  He 
paints  the  little  picture  with  minute  quaint  touches,  which  would 
be  like  Dutch  painting  were  they  not  always  fuM  of  a  pathetic 
tenderness  which  has  no  accordance  with  that  name.  The  scene 
lives  before  us  in  all  its  profound  simplicity  and  silent  emotion, 
distinct  and  vivid  as  reality.  It  is  pleasant  to  know  that  this 
child  was  very  like  her  father;  grew  up  to  have  his  voice,  his 
features,  something  of  his  power  of  .winning  hearts ;  and  died  in 
fall  womanhood,  but  in  youth,  untouched  by  any  vulgar  fate. 
The  "dear  sister  Margaret,"  whom  he  exhorts  to  sing  this  touch- 
ing childish  utterance,  was  then  a  bride,  just  about  going  to  her 
new  home  in  the  hereditary  manse  of  Monimail,  where  her  ven- 
erable grandsire  had  died  not  very  long  before.  To  her  and  to 
her  husband  the  following  letter  of  congratulation  was  shortly 
thereafter  addressed : 

"Brampton  Court,  October,  1830. 
"My  dear  Margaret  and  James, — I  am  just  setting  out  to  preach 
at  Huntingdon,  and  take  up  my  pen,  before  starting,  to  give  you  my 
benediction.  May  the  Lord  fulfill  upon  you  the  prayers  AAdiich  Ave 
have  prayed  for  you,  and  make  you  as  those  that  preceded  you  at 
Monimail!  I  can  not  present  to  you  tAvo  better  examples.  Dear 
Margaret,  be  in  dutiful  subjection  to  your  husband,  and  strengthen 
his  hands  in  every  good  Avork — '  good  Avorks  in  her  husband  to  pro- 
mote.' Dear  James,  be  a  loving  husband,  a  guardian,  and  a  guide  to 
our  Margaret ;  she  is  a  precious  person.  God  be  your  guide  and 
your  portion !  His  truth  is  your  common  rule,  and  His  love  your 
communion  and  felloAvship.  .  ,  . 

"  Your  faithful  brother,  Edward  Irving." 


396  •  SEAMEN'S  ASYLUM. 

From  Brampton  Court,  from  which  this  letter  is  written,  he 
was,  as  usual,  overwhelmed  with  supererogatory  labors.  "  Dear 
Edward  hurried  down  from  London  again,  to  be  with  me  as  soon 
as  possible,"  writes  his  wife.  "There  are  a  goodly  number  of 
hearers,  and  hearers  all  day  long  here,  so  that  yesterday  Edward 
spoke  almost  constantly  from  nine  in  the  morning  till  eleven  at 
night,  what  with  expositions,  dictating  for  an  hour,  and  answering 
questions."  How  either  mind  or  body  sustained  this  perpetual 
pouring  forth,  it  seems  difficult  to  imagine;  but,  though  this  very 
letter  proves  that  he  still  ivrote^  dictating  to  some  of  his  faithful 
amanuenses,  it  is  a  relief  to  believe  that  much  of  this  must  have 
been  extempore.  Years  before,  he  had  written  a  brief  and  strik- 
ing note  on  Samuel  Martin's  Bible.  "  My  brother,  no  man  is  fur- 
nished for  the  ministry  till  he  carHunclasp  his  pocket  Bible,  and 
wherever  it  opens,  discourse  from  it  largely  and  spiritually  to  the 
people."  Nothing  but  such  a  capacity  could  have  carried  him 
through  the  incessant  calls  upon  him,  which,  indeed,  are  curious 
exemplars  how  those  pious  nobles  who  are  nursing  fathers  and 
mothers  to  religion,  having  laid  hold  upon  such  a  notable  and 
willing  laborer,  do  their  best  to  work  him  to  death. 

It  is  very  evident,  at  the  same  time,  that  he  never  had  a  thought 
or  conception  of  saving  himself  A  glimpse  of  another  unsus- 
pected branch  of  labor  gleams  out  in  a  speech  reported  in  the 
newspapers  as  having  been  made  at  one  of  the  May  -meetings  in 
this  year,  a  meeting  in  behalf  of  the  Destitute  Seamen's  Asylum, 
at  which  the  great  preacher  appeared  to  "bear  testimony  to  the 
excellence  of  the  institution  from  personal  observation,  having 
been  accustomed  to  minister  to  the  seamen  once  a  fortnight.  He 
had  witnessed,"  he  says,  "the  spectacle  of  six  or  seven  houseless 
seamen  herding  at  the  bottle-works  at  Shadwell  for  the  sake  of 
the  warmth,"  but  had  afterward  found  "  from  130  to  150  seated 
in  comfort  to  a  homely  meal,  with  such  a  spirit  of  order  maintain- 
ed among  them  that  never  in  one  instance  had  his  holy  avoca- 
tion been  disturbed"  by  any  act  of  irreverence."  So  far  as  any 
one  can  see,  he  had  nothing  in  the  world  to  do  with  these  sailors, 
with  all  his  own  manifold  affairs  in  hand ;  but  to  a  soul  never  in 
any  difficulty  to  know  who  was  his  neighbor,  such  brotherly  of- 
fices were  more  restful  than  rest. 

On  his  return  to  London  from  these  laborious  wanderings,  he 
writes  to  his  wife,  "  The  Lord  has  preserved  my  flock  in  love  and 
unity,  and  we  assembled  on  Sunday  as  numerous  as  at  any  former 


MOVEMENT  IN  THE  LONDON  PRESBYTERY.  397 

period.  Our  meeting  of  Session  was  very  delightful.  .  .  .  Mr. 
Henderson  and  Dr.  Thompson  are  fully  convinced  of  the  reality 
of  the  hand  of  God  in  the  west  country  work,  and  so  is  Mr.  Car- 
dale.  Pray  for  Mary  Campbell ;  she  is  under  some  temptations." 
But  while  this  was  a  matter  of  constant  reference  and  anxious 
expectation,  and  while  restoration  to  health,  as  miraculous  and 
extraordinary  as  that  which  happened  at  the  Gairloch,  had  start- 
led into  still  warmer  excitement  the  believers  about  London  in 
the  wonderful  case  of  Miss  Fancourt,*  Irving's  mind  was  still 
much  more  entirely  occupied  with  the  momentous  matter  of  doc- 
trine, on  which  so  great  a  commotion  had  lately  risen.  Mr.  Mac- 
lean's case  was  not  yet  decided ;  but  Mr.  Scott  had,  as  has  been 
mentioned,  formally  withdrawn  his  from  the  consideration  of  the 
Presbytery  of  London,  by  the  objections  against  ordination,  and 
indeed  against  most  matters  distinctive  of  an  ecclesiastical  organ- 
ization, which  had  arisen  in  his  mind.  The  Presbytery  of  Lon- 
don was  reduced  in  number  at  the  moment.  Several  of  those 
ministers  who  came  to  the  conclusion,  which  a  few  months  before 
gave  so  much  comfort  to  Irving,  seem  to  have  left  its  bounds. 
The  little  ecclesiastical  court  was  balked  but  emboldened  by  the 
discussion,  which  had  been  rendered  fruitless  by  the  withdrawal 
of  Mr.  Scott;  and  now  a  bolder  move  suggested  itself  to  one 
of  its  members,  who  resolved  upon  bringing  the  great  preacher 
himself  to  the  bar.  Irving  had  just  been  entertaining  dreams 
of  another  apostolic  visit  to  Edinburgh,  when  this  threatened 
stroke  arrested  him.  Always  drawn,  by  a  fascination  which  he 
seemed  unable  to  resist,  toward  his  native  country,  he  had  writ- 
ten to  Mr.  Macdonald:  "I  desire  very  much,  if  possible,  to  come 
to  Edinburgh  for  one  fortnight,  to  preach  a  series  of  discourses 
upon  the  nature  and  acts  of  the  Incarnation.  I  wish  it  to  be  dur- 
ing the  sitting  of  the  college,  and  in  the  evenings,  or  evenings  and 
mornings,  when  the  divinity  students  might  attend.  Ask  Mr. 
Tait  if  he  would  risk  his  pulpit,  or  could  you  get  another?"  The 
arrangement  even  went  farther.  In  December  Irving  wrote  again 
to  the  same  friend : 

"  Mr.  Maclean  comes  up  this  very  week,  and  to  him,  with  our  most 
devout  and  devoted  missionary,  I  can  with  all  confidence  commit  my 
flock ;  so  that  in  the  Christmas  recess  I  can,  and,  God  permitting, 
will  be  with  you  to  keep  the  feast.  .  .  ,.  Mr.  Carlyle's  counsel  is  good, 
and  I  take  as  the  subject  of  my  evening  discourses  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews — '  A  series  of  lectures  upon  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.' 

*  See  Appendix  A. 


398  DUTIFULNESS  TO  THE  CHURCH. 

r 
But  my  wife  has  suggested,  and  I  have  faith  to  undertake  besides, 
if  you  think  it  good,  a  series  of  prophetic  expositions,  in  the  forenoon 
of  each  day,  upon  prophetical  subjects  connected  with  the  signs  of 
these  times,  the  restoration  of  the  Jews,  the  coming  of  the  Lord  and 
His  kingdom.  For  many  ladies  and  infirm  people  might  come  out 
in  the  morning  who  could  not  venture  in  the  evening,  and  some  might 
desire  both.  la  this  case  I  would  make  Sunday  a  resting  day,  and 
show  my  dutifulness  to  the  Church  in  Avaiting  upon  the  ministry  of 
my  brethren.  Now  I  could  set  oft'  from  this  so  as  to  be  in  Edinburgh 
on  the  eve  of  Christmas  day,  that  is,  Friday  night ;  and,  if  you  please, 
you  might  advertise  the  lectures  to  begin  on  Saturday.  ...  At  the 
rate  of  a  chapter  each  night,  it  would  occuj^y  me  just  a  fortnight,  af- 
ter which  I  might  find  time  to  visit  my  friends  in  various  parts  for  an- 
other week,  and  so  return,  having  been  absent  three  Sabbaths.  Judge 
and  decide,  and  send  me"^ord  by  return  of  post.  When  my  dear 
brother  Alexander  Scott  comes  to  Edinburgh  (he  is  to  be  married 
this  day,  God  bless  him!),  would  you  say  that  if  he  were  to  remain 
and  go  over  the  subjects  with  me  privately,  I  should  deem  it  a  great 
help  ?  but  let  him  be  free.  .  .  .  My  flock  is  in  great  peace  and  har- 
mony, and  I  think  concentrating  more  and  more,  praised  be  the 
Lord!" 

He  had,  however,  no  sooner  arranged  thus  particularly  the  de- 
tails of  a  Christmas  holiday  so  much  after  his  own  heart,  when 
the  apostolic  enterprise  was  put  a  stop  to,  for  the  moment,  by  the 
course  of  events  which  brought  him,  in  his  own  person,  before  the 
bar  of  the  Presbytery,  and  began  the  series  of  his  ecclesiastical 
persecutions. 

This  process  and  its  issue  he  himself  descri'bes,  with  his  usual 
minuteness,  in  the  preface  to  Christ's  Holiness  in  the  Flesh,  from 
which  we  have  already  quoted.  After  reference  to  the  discussion 
in  Mr.  Scott's  case,  the  narrative  goes  on  as  follows : 

"  Some  time  after  this,  one  of  the  brethren  of  the  Prebytery  signi- 
fied to  me  by  letter  his  purpose  of  calling  my  book  into  question  the 
next  day  after  he  wrote,  when  the  Presbytery  was  to  meet ;  to  Avhom 
I  replied  that  this  was  to  proceed  against  the  divine  rule  of  Christ, 
which  required  him  to  speak  to  myself  privately,  and  then  with  wit- 
nesses, before  bringing  a  matter  before  the  Church.  In  this  he  ac- 
quiesced, and  did  not  make  any  motion  concerning  it ;  but  another 
brother  did,  when  I  solemnly  protested  against  the  proceeding;  and 
the  Presbytery  would  not  entertain  it,  but  required  that  I  should  be 
privately  conferred  with.  Many  weeks  passed,  but  no  one  of  them 
came  near  me,  until  the  next  meeting  of  the  Presbytery  was  just  at 
hand.  Then  the  first  mover  of  the  matter  Avaited  upon  me,  and  I 
laid  before  him  the  tract,  instructing  him  to  point  me  out  the  objec- 
tionable parts,  when,  to  my  amazement,  he  either  would  not  or  could 
not;  for,  though  he  shuffled  over  its  leaves,  he  could  not  alight  upon 
any  thing;  and  then  at  length  he  said  he  would  write  what  he  ob- 
jected to.     But  he  never  did  it.     I  stood  engaged  to  be  in  L-eland, 


A  CONTUMACIOUS  BROTHER.  399 

and  could  not  be  present  at  tlie  next  meeting  of  the  Presbytery;  yet 
in  my  absence  he  souglit  to  force  it  on,  and  was  again  prevented  by 
the  Presbytery.  When  I  returned,  being  appointed  with  two  other 
members  of  Presbytery  (for  besides  myself  there  were  but  three  min- 
isters in  all)  to  confer  with  the  young  preacher  referred  to  above  as 
desiring  to  withdraw  his  application  for  ordination  because  he  could 
not  sign  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith,  when  the  conference 
was  over,  these  two  brethren  did  request  that  we  might  converse  to- 
gether upon  the  tract,  and  they  pointed  out  two  or  three  passages 
in  it  to  which  they  objected,  for  Avhich  kindness  I  was  very  thankful. 
But  still,  the  brother  who  had  stood  forth  from  time  to  time  as  my 
accuser  took  no  opportunity  of  conferring  with  me  Avhatever.  And 
when,  at  the  next  meeting,  he  brought  forward  his  motion  indicting 
my  book,  and  reading  from  it  many  passages  to  which  ho  objected, 
I  stood  forth,  and  having  first  disabused  the  Presbytery,  and  also  the 
people,  of  the  errors  laid  to  my  charge,  as  if  I  taught  that  Christ  sinned 
in  instead  of  sanctifying  our  nature,  I  moved  that  the  contumacious 
brother  should  be  censured  for  setting  at  naught  both  the  canon  of 
the  Lord  and  the  order  of  the  Presbytery,  and  bo  required  to  pro- 
ceed regularly.  But,  to  my  astonishment  and  vexation,  I  found  the 
very  same  Presbytery  willing  to  indulge  him,  and  these  very  mem- 
bers Avho  had  themselves  sanctioned  their  own  order  by  conferring 
privately  with  me.  I  then  rose  the  second  time,  and  signified  to 
them  what  I  could  and  what  I  could  not  submit  to  the  adjudication 
of  that  body  of  three  ministers  and  as  many  elders,  from  whom  I  had 
no  appeal.  Every  thing  which  afiected  my  conduct  among  them  as  a 
brother  I  would  submit  to  free  censure  and  rebuke  if  necessary,  but 
nothing  aftecting  my  standing  as  a  preacher  and  ordained  minister 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  as  the  minister  of  the  National  Scotch 
Church  in  Regent  Square,  who,  by  the  trust-deed,  must  be  ordained 
by  a  Presbytery  in  Scotland,  and  not  by  the  Presbytery  of  London. 
It  was  argued  that  I  stood  wholly  and  entirely  at  their  tribunal ;  and 
when  I  perceived  that  there  was  nothing  for  it  but  either  to  give  up 
my  standing  as  a  minister  of  Christ  to  the  judgment  of  these  six  men, 
or  to  dissolve  my  voluntary  connection  with  them,  I  resolved  of  the 
two  evils  to  choose  the  least,  and  not  to  submit  the  authority  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland  to  the  verdict  of  any  six  men  in  Christendom. 
And  though  I  have  tried  my  conscience  much,  I  feel  that  I  did  right. 
But,  before  taking  this  final  step,  I  rose  the  third  time,  and  conjured 
them  by  every  tie  and  obligation  to  Christ,  to  the  Church,  to  myself 
personally,  to  my  large  and  numerous  flock,  to  the  memory  of  my 
brotherly  labors  with  and  for  them,  to  my  acts  of  service  and  kind- 
ness to  them  individually,  which  I  wdll  not  here,  and  did  not  there, 
enumerate,  to  take  the  regular  process  of  the  Lord's  appointing,  and 
I  doubted  not  all  would  be  Avell:  which  when  they  would  not  do,  I 
arose  and  went  forth  from  them,  appealing  my  cause  to  the  Church 
of  Scotland,,  who  alone  have  rightful  authority  over  me  and  my  flock. 
.  .  .  The  Presbytery,  notwithstanding  my  solemn  separation  from 
their  association,  and  likewise  the  separation  of  the  elders  of  the  Na- 
tional Church,  and  the  whole  Church  with  us,  proceeded  with  their 
measures  against  me,  and  carried  things  to  the  utmost  stretch  of 


400  VISIT  TO  SCOTLAND  GIVEN  UP. 

their  power;  for  all  which  they  are  answerable  at  the  bar  of  the 
Head  of  the  Church,  and  not  to  me." 

Another  account  of  the  same  event,  in  which  a  greater  degree 
of  personal  feeling  and  excitement  appears,  was  contained  in  a  let- 
ter which — a  few  days  after  the  one  previously  quoted,  in  which 
he  had  arranged  all  the  preliminaries  of  a  Christmas  visit  to  Scot- 
land— he  addressed  to  Mr.  Macdonald : 

"  My  very  deak  Fkiend, — I  have  now  had  an  opportunity  of  con- 
sulting both  ray  session  and  other  influential  men  of  the  congrega- 
tion, and  they  are  all  of  one  mind,  that,  even  though  it  should  pre- 
cipitate the  present  mixture  of  good  and  evil  in  the  Church,  and  bring 
down  upon  my  head  wrath,  I  should  do  it  ;*  but  not  immediately, 
because  of  our  own  trials.  The  Presbytery  of  London,  that  is,  three 
members,  one  of  them  just  taking  his  leave,  and  another  of  them  hav- 
ing oftentimes  declared  his  agreement  with  me,  and  two  elders,  one 
of  them  having  done  the  same — these  five  persons,  in  the  face  of  my 
protest  against  their  power,  Mr.  Hamilton's  against  their  injustice, 
and  the  elder  of  Woolwich  and  the  elder  of  London  Wall's  entire 
disapprobation,  have  condemned  my  writings,  excommunicated  me 
from  their  body,  and  recommended  their  sentence  to  be  read  from 
the  pulpits.  Our  session  met  last  night,  and  drew  up,  and  subscribed 
with  their  hands,  a  solemn  testimony  to  the  truths  taught  by  me  and 
held  by  us ;  and  I  have  added  a  brief  explanation  of  the  principles 
on  which  I  acted  by  the  Presbytery,  and  the  Presbytery  by  me ;  and 
it  will  be  published  in  all  ways,  and  read  from  our  pulpit  next  Sab- 
bath. We  are  as  one  man,  blessed  be  the  Lord,  and  so  is  all  my 
flock.     What  a  grace ! 

"  Nevertheless,  some  thought  that  I  should  be  at  my  place  for  a 
few  Sabbaths,  and  I  wished  every  day  to  visit  the  flock  and  establish 
them ;  so  that  we  must  pass  from  the  Christmas  recess,  and  without 
at  present  saying  when,  hoj^e  and  pray  that  it  may  be  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible. ...  If  you  should  see  any  likelihood  of  its  being  perverted, 
send  me  instant  notice,  and  I  will  come  at  all  hazards  rather  than 
lose  the  opportunity,  which  I  perceive  to  be  a  golden  one.  .  .  . 
My  plans  are  the  same  for  the  subjects  as  in  my  last  letter.  If  any 
change  arise  I  will  communicate.  Now  pray  much  for  us  here,  be- 
cause there  are  many  enemies ;  but  oh,  what  a  wide  door,  and  eftect- 
ual !  The  Lord  has  given  me  the  honor  of  being  the  first  to  sufier ; 
blessed  be  His  name ! 

"  Your  faithful  friend  and  brother,  Edward  Irving." 

This  somewhat  willful  and  lofty  step  of  denying  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  London  Presbytery  left  Irving  in  an  isolated  position, 
which,  though  it  did  not  in  any  respect,  as  yet,  injure  his  exter- 
nal standing,  touched  his  brotherly  heart.  He  seems -to  have  in- 
trenched himself  stoutly,  like  the  impracticable  visionary  man  he 
was,  behind  that  divine  rule  of  procedure,  whicli  has  long  ceased 

*  Referring  to  his  projected  sermons  in  Edinburs^h. 


FRIGHT  AND  AGREEMENT  OF  THE  PRESBYTERY.  401 

to  be,  if  ever  it  was,  the  rule  of  ecclesiastical  proceedings.  To  re- 
quire men  to  do,  even  in  Church  matters,  exactly  and  literally 
what  their  Lord  tells  them,  is  a  thing  few  think  of  attempting ; 
and  the  ordinary  spectator  will  doubtless  sympathize  to  some  ex- 
tent with  that  hapless  Presbytery  of  London,  whom  the  great 
preacher,  in  the  simplicity  of  his  heart,  called  to  private  confer- 
ence with  himself  before  they  ventured  on  public  condemnation. 
He  was  not  aware,  as  his  unfortunate  accuser  was,  that  in  private 
conference,  the  weaker  man  naturally  goes  to  the  wall ;  nor  could 
comprehend,  in  his  ingenuous  greatness,  how  antagonists,  so  unfit 
to  cope  with  him  individually,  might  be  glad  to  huddle  together, 
and  express,  in  what  language  of  condemnation  they  could,  their 
confused  sense  of  something  beyond  them,  which  they  could  nei- 
ther consent  to  nor  understand.  Nothing  can  be  more  expressive 
than  that  pertinacious  agreement  which,  when  they  were  thus  put 
to  it,  united  the  alarmed  presbyters,  each  man  of  whom  well  knew 
that,  in  private  conference,  he  must  infallibly  break  down  and 
yield.  They  seized  their  opportunity  with  a  vulgar  but  wise  per- 
ception of  it,  refusing  the  perilous  ordeal  of  private  personal  en- 
counter ;  and  with  a  lofty  indignation,  which  might  be  almost  ar- 
rogance, were  one  to  name  it  harshly,  the  accused  arose  and  went 
forth.  He  had  no  insight  into  that  expedient  of  weakness.  He 
called  that  harshly  injustice  which  was  mere  fright  and  natural 
human  poltroonery,  and  so  left  them,  giving,  in  his  own  elevated 
thoughts,  a  certain  grandeur  to  the  petty  persecution.  Henceforth 
he  was  alone  in  his  labors  and  troubles ;  no  triumphant  gladness 
of  conscious  orthodox}'-,  because  the  Presbytery  had  so  decided, 
could  hereafter  give  assurance  to  his  own  personal  certainty. 
They  of  his  own  house  had  lifted  up  their  heel  against  him. 
Notwithstanding  all  his  independence,  the  profound  loyalty  of  his 
soul  was  henceforward  balked  of  its  healthful  necessities.  The 
only  authority  which  could  now  harm  or  help  him — the  sole  pow- 
er he  recognized — was  distant  in  Scotland,  apart  from  the  scene 
of  his  warfare  and  the  knowledge  of  his  work,  judging  coldly,  not 
even  without  a  touch  of  jealous  prejudice.  He  was  cast  unnatu- 
rally free  of  restraint  and  power ;  that  lawful,  sweet  restraint,  that 
power  endowed  with  all  visionary  excellences  and  graces,  to  which 
the  tender  dutifuluness  so  seldom  wanting  to  great  genius  natural- 
ly clings.  It  was  hard — it  was  sad — it  was  almost  fatal  work  for 
Irving.  He  could  not  live  without  that  support  and  solace;  and 
when  this  disjunction  was  accomplished,  he  found  his  Presbytery^ 

C  c 


402  STATEMENT  BY  HIS  KIRK  SESSION. 

his  authority,  the  needful  concurrence  and  command  which  were 
indispensable  to  him,  in  other  things. 

The  statement  drawn  up  by  the  Session,  to  which  he  refers 
above,  was  as  follows : 

"London,  15th  December,  1830. 

"  We,  the  Minister,  Missionary,  Elders,  and  Deacons  of  the  Nation- 
al Scotch  Church,  Regent  Square,  feel  it  a  duty  we  owe  to  ourselves, 
to  the  congregation  to  which  we  belong,  to  the  Church  of  Christ,  and 
to  all  honest  men,  no  longer  to  remain  silent  under  the  heavy  charges 
that  are  brought  against  us,  whether  from  ignorance,  misapprehen- 
sion, or  willful  perversion  of  the  truth,  and  therefore  we  solemnly 
declare 

"  That  we  utterly  detest  and  abhor  any  doctrine  that  would  charge 
with  sin,  original  or  actual,  our  blessed  Lord  and  Savior  Jesus  Christ, 
whom  we  worship  and  adoi'e  as  'the  very  and  eternal  God,  of  one 
substance,  and  equal  with  the  Father ;  Mdio,  when  the  fullness  of  the 
time  was  come,  did  take  upon  Him  man's  nature,  with  all  the  essen- 
tial properties  and  common  infirmities  thereof, yet  without  sin;'  'very 
God  and  very  man,  yet  one  Christ,  the  only  Mediator  between  God 
and  man;'  Avho  in  the  days  of  His  flesh  was  'holy,  harmless,  undefiled, 
and  full  of  grace  and  truth ;'  '  who  through  the  Eternal  Spirit  oifered 
Himself  without  spot  to  God ;'  '  the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away 
the  sin  of  the  world,'  'a  Lamb  without  blemish  and  without  spot;'  in 
which  offering  of  Himself '  He  made  a  proper,  real,  and  full  satisfac- 
tion to  His  Father's  justice  in  our  behalf.'  And  we  farther  declare 
that  all  our  peace  of  conscience,  progress  in  sanctification,  and  hope 
of  eternal  blessedness  resteth  upon  the  sinlessness  of  that  sacrifice, 
and  the  completeness  of  that  atonement  which  He  hath  made  for  us 
as  our  substitute. 

"  And,  finally,  we  do  solemnly  declare  that  these  are  the  doctrines 
which  are  constantly  taught  in  this  church,  agreeably  to  the  standards 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland  and  the  Word  of  God. 

Edward  Irving,  Minister. 
David  Brown,  Missionary. 
Archibald  Horn,      ^  Charles  Vertue, 

David  Blyth,  Alex.  Gillispie,  Jun. 

Wm,  Hamilton,  >  Elders.    John  Thomson, 

Duncan  Mackenzie,  [  J.  C.  Henderson, 

James  Nisbet,  j  Thos.  Carswell, 

David  Ker, 


>■  Deacons." 


In  the  midst  of  these  personal  agitations  and  ecclesiastical  troub- 
les, a  quaint  and  characteristic  public  incident  diversifies  the  his- 
tory. The  congregation  at  Regent  Square,  under  Irving's  inspi- 
ration, had  decided  upon  presenting  a  petition  to  the  king,  calling 
upon  him  to  appoint  a  national  fast.  The  petition  itself,  a  power- 
ful and  eloquent  production,  like  all  Irving's  personal  appeals,  is 


PETITION  TO  THE  KING.— LORD  MELBOURNE.  403 

now  only  to  be  found  in  collections  of  the  tracts  and  pamphlets 
of  the  period.  Accompanied  by  three  of  his  elders,  he  went  to 
Lord  Melbourne,  by  appointment,  to  present  this  singular  address. 
While  they  waited  in  the  anteroom  the  premier's  leisure,  Irving 
called  upon  his  somewhat  amazed  and  embarrassed  companions  to 
kneel  and  pray  for  "favor  in  the  sight  of  the  king's  minister,"  as 
a  private  letter  describes  it.  When  they  were  admitted  to  the 
jaunty  presence  of  that  cheerful  functionary,  the  preacher  read 
over  to  him  at  length  the  remarkable  document  he  came  to  pre- 
sent, during  the  reading  of  which,  we  are  told,  "  Lord  Melbourne 
was  much  impressed,  and  also  by  some  solemn  things  Mr.  Mac- 
kenzie (one  of  the  elders)  said,  on  the  only  means  of  saving  this 
country."  When  they  took  leave,  the  minister  "  shook  hands 
heartily"  with  Irving,  who,  holding  that  hand  in  his  gigantic 
grasp,  "implored  the  blessing  and  guidance  of  God  on  his  admin- 
istration." A  scene  more  remarkable  could  scarcely  be.  On  one 
side  an  impersonation  of  the  good-hearted,  cheerful  man  of  the 
world,  bland  by  temper  and  policy,  to  whom  most  things  were 
humbug,  and  truth  a  fluctuating  possibility ;  and  confronting  him 
the  man  of  God,  in  utter  loyalty  and  simplicity,  mournful  over 
falsehood,  but  little  suspicious  of  it,  to  whom  all  truth  was  abso- 
lute, and  hesitation  or  compromise  unknown.  They  confronted 
each  other  for  a  moment,  a  wonderful  spectacle ;  the  prophet  soul 
bestowing  lofty  benedictions  upon  the  awed  and  wondering  states- 
man. It  is  a  picture  with  which  we  may  well  close  the  record  of 
this  momentous  year. 


404  SIGNS  OF  APPROACHING  FATE. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 
1831. 

Church  Conflicts. — Reference  to  the  Mother  Church. — The  Usury  of  Tears. — Ir- 
ving's  Repetition  of  his  Belief.  —  Christ's  Holiness  in  the  Flesh.  — Prayer  for  the 
General  Assembly. — "In  Labors  abundant." — Ilis  Attitude  and  Aspect. — On  the 
Threshold  of  Fate, — Meeting  of  the  General  Assembly. — Position  assumed  by  Mr. 
Scott. — The  Assembly's  Decisions. — Irving's  Determination  to  defend  his  Rights. 
— Peculiarity  of  the  two  Cases  of  Heresy. — Not  heretical  Opinions,  but  realizing 
Faith. — Condemnation  of  Irving's  Doctrine. — Prayers  for  the  Outpouring  of  the 
Spirit. — Inspiration  of  the  Last  Days. — First  Appearance  of  the  Tongues. — His 
Prepossession. — The  Prayer  of  Faith. — The  Answer  of  God. — The  Fulfillment  of 
Promise. — Trying  the  Spirits. — His  unjudicial  Mind. — The  Baptism  of  the  Holy 
Ghost. — Inevitable  Separation. — Utterances  permitted  at  Morning  Meetings. — 
Probation. — Excitement  in  the  Congregation. — Crisis. — The  Matter  taken  out  of 
his  Hands. — First  Utterance  in  the  Sunday  Worship. — Commotion  at  the  Evening 
Service. — The  Tumults  of  the  People. — Comments  of  the  Press. — Increase  to  the 
Church. — Order  of  the  Morning  Service. — Character  of  the  Tongues. — Supposed 
to  be  existing  Languages. — Described  by  Irving. — The  Utterances  in  English. — 
Their  Influence. — Virtuous  Indignation. — His  Determination  at  all  Hazards. — 
Withdraws  the  last  Restraint. — Impossibility  of  drawing  Back. — Remonstrances 
of  his  Friends. — First  Meeting  of  the  Trustees. — "If  I  perish,  I  perish." — AiFec- 
tionate  Conspiracy. — Future  Order  of  Worship. — Full  Statement  of  his  Inten- 
tions.— Publications  of  the  Year. — Original  Standards  of  the  Church. — The  West- 
minster Confession. — Recalls  the  Church  of  Scotland  to  herself — Papers  in  the 
Morning  Watch. — Irving  and  the  Record. — The  Trustees. — The  Kirk-Session. — 
His  Remonstrance. — Importunities  of  his  Friends. 

The  year  1831  dawned  upon  Irving  solemnly,  full  of  all  the 
prognostics  of  approaching  fate.  He  was  himself  separated  from 
the  little  ecclesiastical  world  which  had  hitherto  represented  to 
him  the  Church  of  his  country  and  his  heart.  The  Presbytery, 
in  which  he  had  heretofore  found  a  sufiicient  symbol  of  ecclesias- 
tical authority,  and  which  stood  in  the  place  of  all  those  venera- 
ble institutions  of  Church  government  and  legislation  on  which  he 
had  lavished  the  admiration  and  reverence  of  his  filial  heart,  had 
rejected  him,  and  been  rejected  by  him.  While  still  strenuously 
upholding  his  own  title  to  be  considered  a  minister  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  he  stood  isolated  from  all  the  fellowships  and  re- 
straints of  Presbyterianism,  virtually  separated — though  always 
refusing  to  believe  in  or  admit  that  separation — from  the  Church 
upon  which  he  still  and  always  looked  with  so  much  longing  love. 


CHURCH  CONFLICTS.  405 

His  closest  and  most  prized  friends  were  in  actual  conflict  with  the 
same  ecclesiastical  authorities,  or  at  least  with  the  popular  courts 
and  theological  controversialists,  who  were  all  that  Scotland  had 
to  represent  the  grave  and  patient  authority  of  the  Church.  Mr. 
Campbell,  of  Row,  after  years  of  apostolical  labor,  the  efficacy  of 
which  was  testified  by  the  whole  district  which  his  influence  per- 
vaded, a  man  whose  vital  piety  and  apostolical  life  nobody  could 
impugn ;  and  Mr.  Maclean,  younger,  less  wise,  but  not  less  a  faith- 
ful servant  of  his  Master,  were  both  struggling  for  bare  existence 
in  the  Church,  and  approaching  the  decision  of  their  fate  within 
her  bounds.  Their  names  were  identified  and  united  with  that 
of  the  solitary  champion  in  London,  whose  forlorn  but  dauntless 
standard  had  risen  for  years  among  all  the  enmities  which  can  be 
encountered  by  man.  He  who  had  not  hesitated  to  adopt  the 
cause  of  both  with  warm  enthusiasm,  stood  far  off  in  his  solitude, 
watching,  with  a  heart  that  ached  over  his  own  powerlessness  to 
avert  it,  the  approaching  crisis,  at  which  his  beloved  Church  was, 
according  to  his  conception,  to  deny  the  truth,  and  condemn  her 
own  hopes  and  future  life  in  the  persons  of  these  "defenders"  at 
her  bar.  Nearer  home,  Mr.  Scott  had  temporarily  withdrawn  from 
the  contest,  which,  in  his  case  also,  was  to  be  decided  at  the  sitting 
of  the  General  Assembly  in  tlie  ensuing  May.  AVithout  even  that 
dangerous  but  beloved  henchman  at  his  elbow,  supported  only  by 
an  assistant,  who,  doubtless  entirely  conscientious  and  trustworthy 
so  long  as  his  support  lasted,  was  yet  to  fail  him  in  his  hour  of 
need,  Irving  stood  alone,  at  the  head  of  his  session,  clinging  to  that 
last  prop  of  the  ecclesiastical  order  in  which,  during  all  his  former 
life,  his  soul  had  delighted.  Condemned  by  his  Presbytery,  and 
held  in  suspicion  by  the  distant  Church  to  which  he  owed  alle- 
giance, the  little  local  consistory  stood  by  him  loyally,  without  an 
appearance  as  yet  of  division.  Every  man  of  them  had  come  for- 
ward in  his  defense  and  justification,  to  set  their  name  and  credit 
to  the  stake  on  which  he  had  put  his  heart  and  life.  They  were 
his  earliest  and  closest  friends  in  London,  stout  Churchmen,  pious 
Christians,  sufficiently  Scotch  and  ecclesiastical,  attached  to  all  the 
traditions  of  the  Church,  to  make  it  possible  to  forget  that  they 
stood,  a  little  recalcitrant  community,  and  "  inferior  court,"  in  op- 
position to  the  orthodox  jurisdiction  of  the  next  superior  circle  of 
rulers.  Minister  and  session  alike  delivered  themselves  triumph- 
antly from  this  dilemma  by  direct  reference  to  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land.    It  is  possible  that  a  little  unconscious  Jesuitry  lay  in  this 


406  THE  USURY  OF  TEARS. 

appeal ;  for  the  Churcli  of  Scotland  was  as  powerless  to  interfere 
on  the  southern  side  of  the  Tweed,  as  the  Bishop  of  London  would 
be  on  the  north;  and  so  long  is  the  minister  of  the  National  Scotch 
Church  refrained  from  asking  any  thing  from  her,  could  not  inter- 
fere, otherwise  than  by  distant  and  ineffectual  censures,  with  his 
proceedings.  Such,  however,  was  the  attitude  they  assumed;  a 
position  not  dissimilar  from  that  of  certain  English  clergymen  in 
Scotland,  who,  professing  to  be  of  the  English  Church,  refuse  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Scottish  Episcopal,  and  live  bishopless,  and 
beyond  the  reach  of  government,  in  visionary  allegiance  to  their 
distant  mother. 

Amid  all  these  outward  agitations,  Irving's  heart  still  throbbed 
with  personal  sorrows  and  joys;  from  the  sad  experience  of  the 
former  comes  the  following  letter,  written  to  his  sister,  Mrs.  Fer- 
gusson,  and  her  husband,  on  the  loss,  so  well  known  to  himself,  of 
one  of  their  children : 

"London,  17th  January,  1831. 

"My  dear  Brother  and  Sister, — You  have  at  length  been  made 
to  prove  the  bitterest  of  mortal  trials,  and  to  feel  it  is  a  season  of  pe- 
culiar grace  to  the  people  of  God.  George*  felt  desirous  to  answer 
your  letter  communicating  the  painful  information,  and  I  was  glad  to 
permit  him,  that  you  may  see  he  has  not  forgotten  you.  I  think  he 
is  very  true-hearted  and  honest  in  his  affections. 

"  Now,  my  dear  brethren,  while  you  are  exercised  with  this  sor- 
row, while  the  wound  and  smart  of  it  is  still  fresh  in  your  hearts,  be 
exercised  much  in  faith  and  prayer  toward  God,  in  humility,  and  re- 
pentance, and  confession  of  sin  for  all  your  house,  that,  being  exer- 
cised with  the  affliction,  you  may  be  made  partakers  of  His  holiness. 
I  remember  well  Avhen  I  lost  my  dai-ling  Edward :  it  taught  me  two 
lessons ;  the  first,  how  little  I  had  dealt  faithfully  toward  God  in  his 
baptism,  not  having  surrendered  him  altogether  to  the  Lord,  and 
used  him  as  the  Lord's  stewardship,  to  be  surrendered  when  it  seem- 
ed good  to  his  Father  and  to  my  Father.  Let  me  pray  you  to  take 
this  view  of  the  children  who  are  still  spared  to  you.  The  second 
lesson  which  I  learned  was  to  know  how  little  of  human  existence  is 
on  this  side  the  grave,  and  by  how  much  the  better  and  nobler  por- 
tion of  it  is  in  eternity.  This  comforted  me  exceedingly,  and  I  seek 
to  comfort  you  with  the  consolation  with  which  I  have  myself  been 
comforted  of  Christ. 

"  For  our  own  aifairs,  I  have  had  much  to  suffer  for  the  truth's 
sake  since  I  was  with  you,  and  expect  to  have  much  more  to  suffer  in 
the  course  of  not  many  months.  I  know  not  where  nor  how  it  is  to 
come,  but  I  know  it  is  coming ;  and  in  the  foreview  of  it,  I  ask  your 
prayers  and  the  prayers  of  all  the  faithful  near  you.  .  .  ." 

Early  in  the  year  the  mournful  household  was  gladdened  by 

*  His  younger  brother,  then  practicing  as  a  surgeon  in  London. 


"CHRIST'S  HOLINESS  IN  THE  FLESH."  407 

another  prosperous  birtb,  that  of  the  only  surviving  son  of  the 
family,  Martin  Irving,  now  Principal  of  the  University  of  Mel- 
bourne. On  this  occasion,  Irving,  writing  to  his  father-in-law.  Dr. 
Martin,  to  "  give  him  joy  of  a  grandson,"  enters  as  follows  into  af- 
fiiirs  less  personal,  but  equally  engrossing : 

"  Thouf^h  I  have  not  time  now  to  answer  your  much-esteemed  let- 
ter, I  will  just  say  tliis  to  keep  your  mind  at  ease — that  I  never  sup- 
pose the  union  of  the  Son  of  God  with  our  nature  to  be  otherwise 
than  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  therefore,  whatever  in  our  nature  is  pre- 
disposed to  evil,  was  always  by  the  Holy  Ghost  disposed  to  good ; 
moreover,  that  there  are  not  two  persons,  the  one  the  person  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  the  other  the  person  of  the  Son,  in  Him,  but  that 
He,  the  Son  of  God,  acting  within  the  limits  of  the  Sou  of  man,  or  as 
the  Christ,  did  Himself  ever  use  the  Holy  Ghost  to  the  use  and  end 
of  presenting  His  membei's  a  living  sacrifice,  holy  and  acceptable 
unto  God.  That  it  should  be  a  sacrifice  doth  uot  render  it  unholy, 
for  the  text  saith  holy ;  and  how  was  it  a  living  sacrifice  but  by  con- 
tinually putting  to  death  and  keeping  in  death  the  law  of  the  flesh. 
The  difference,  so  far  as  I  can  apprehend  your  doctrine,  between  us, 
is,  that  you  suppose  the  Holy  Spirit  to  have  at  once  and  for  aye 
sanctified  the  flesh  of  Christ  before  He  took  it,-  that  He  might  take 
it ;  I  say  that  Christ  did  this  ever  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  but  that  it  was 
as  completely  done  at  the  first  as  at  the  last ;  and  to  your  notion  I  ob- 
ject many  things  which  I  will  draw  out  in  order  and  send  to  you. 
Oh  !  how  you  mistake  in  thinking  that  such  a  letter  as  you  wrote  me 
would  not  be  most  acceptable !  I  thank  you  exceedingly  for  it.  I 
Avould  that  others  had  done  likewise.  But,  dear  and  honored  sir,  be 
assured  that  my  confidence  in  the  truth  of  wliat  I  hold  is  not  of  the 
teaching  of  man,  but  is  of  the  teaching  of  the  Word  and  Spirit  of 
God.  .  .  .  My  blessing  be  upon  you  all  —  the  blessing  of  one  of 
Christ's  servants,  who  loves  his  Lord,  and  is  ready,  by  His  grace,  to 
give  up  all  for  His  name's  sake !" 

In  the  same  spring,  while  still  explaining  and  re-explaining  to 
his  friends,  with  inexhaustible  patience,  this  special  doctrine,  Ir- 
ving was  also  preparing  another  work  on  the  same  subject,  pub- 
lished shortly  afterward  under  the  title  of  Christ's  Holiness  in  the 
Flesh  ;  the  Form  and  Fountain-head  of  all  Holiness  in  Flesh.  The 
preface  to  this  book  consists  of  a  long,  minute,  and  animated  nar- 
rative of  the  progress  of  the  controversy  as  far  as  it  had  proceed- 
ed, and  especially  of  the  dealings  of  the  London  Presbytery  with 
himself,  from  which  I  have  already  repeatedly  quoted.  The  sto- 
ry is  told  with  a  certain  flush  of  indignation  and  self-assertion,  as 
of  a  man  unable  to  deny  his  own  consciousness  of  being  himself 
a  servant  and  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ,  more  zealous  and  more  full}" 
acknowledged  of  his  Master  than  those  who,  in  Christ's  name,  had 
condemned  him.     The  book  itself  is  one  which  he  seems  to  have 


408  PRAYER  FOR  THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY. 

been  satisfied  with  as  a  fit  and  careful  statement  of  his  views.  "  I 
should  like  that  it  were  sent  among  the  clergy,"  he  writes  to  his 
friend  Mr.  Macdonald,  in  Edinburgh ;  "I  think  it  will  be  popular 
enough  to  pay  its  own  expenses  in  time."  In  the  same  letter  he 
declares  that  "I  intend  being  in  Edinburgh  at  the  Assembly,  if 
I  should  crawl  and  beg  my  way.  God  give  me  both  strength  of 
body  and  mind  to  endure  what  is  before  me !  I  intend  proceed- 
ing by  Galloway  and  Dumfriesshire,  and  desire  to  preach  in  Edin- 
burgh twice  a  day  the  first  week  of  the  Assembly ;  the  second,  to 
be  at  leisure  for  conference  and  business."  This  intention,  how- 
ever, he  did  not  succeed  in  carrying  out.  The  still  more  engross- 
ing interest  then  springing  up  at  home,  or  motives  of  prudence, 
strange  to  his  usual  mode  of  procedure,  kept  Irving  away  from 
the  actual  arena  at  that  momentous  period.  He  did  not  go  to 
Edinburgh  for  that  Assembly,  nor  thrust  himself  into  conflict 
with  the  Church.  What  happened  there  he  watched  with  the  ut- 
most eagerness  and  interest ;  but  the  prudence  of  his  friends,  or 
his  own  interest  in  matters  more  immediately  calling  his  attention, 
kept  him  at  that  moment  from  personal  collision  with  the  excited 
and  jealous  courts  of  the  Scotch  Church. 

He  did,  however,  all  that  an  earnest  man  could  do  to  influence 
their  proceedings.  Having  already  exhausted  himself  in  expla- 
nation and  appeal  to  the  tribunal,  where  he  still  hoped  to  find 
mercy  and  wisdom  in  the  case  of  his  friends,  and  patience  and 
consideration  for  himself,  he  did  the  only  thing  which  remained 
possible  to  his  devout  and  believing  heart.  He  besought  the 
prayers  of  his  people  for  the  direction  of  the  ecclesiastical  Parlia- 
ment. In  the  brightening  mornings  of  spring  he  invited  around 
him  the  members  of  the  Church,  to  pray  for  wisdom  and  guid- 
ance to  the  General  Assembly — an  Assembly  which,  to  many  of 
these  members,  had  been  hitherto  little  known  and  less  cared  for. 
He  collected  not  only  his  stanch  Scottish  remnant,  but  his  new 
and  still  more  fervent  disciples,  who  knew  nothing  of  Scotland  or 
her  Church,  to  agree  upon  this  thing  which  they  should  ask  of 
God.  They  met  at  half  past  six  in  the  morning  for  this  object; 
and  there,  in  the  church  so  fondly  called  National,  Irving,  fervent 
and  impassioned,  presented  the  prayers — not  only  of  the  Scotch 
Churchmen  who  understood  the  matter  fully,  but  of  the  puzzled 
English  adherents  who  believed  in  him^  and  were  content  to  join 
their  supplications  with  his  for  a  matter  so  near  his  heart — on  be- 
half of  the  ecclesiastical  rulers  who  were  about  to  brand  and  stig- 


"IN  LABORS  ABUNDANT."  409 

matize  him  as  a  heretic.  This  prayer-meeting  for  the  benefit  of 
the  General  Assembly  was  the  origin  of  the  early  morning  service 
which  has  now  become  one  of  the  characteristic  features  in  the 
worship  of  the  'Catholic  Apostolic  Church."  Engaged  in  these 
daily  matins  on  their  behalf,  Irving  remained  absent  from  the  As- 
sembly and  the  people  of  Edinburgh  at  a  crisis  so  interesting  and 
important,  but  did  not  the  less  follow  the  deliberations,  in  which 
he  himself  and  his  friends  were  so  deeply  concerned,  with  breath- 
less interest  and  anxious  attention. 

Neither  his  personal  activity,  however,  nor  the  popularity  which 
had  so  long  followed  him,  was  impaired  by  the  anxiety  of  the  cri- 
sis, or  by  the  rush  of  his  thoughts  in  another  direction.  He  still 
spent  himself  freely  in  all  manner  of  voluntary  services.  In 
April,  his  sister-in-law  Elizabeth,  Mrs.  Hamilton,  mentions,  in  her 
home  letters,  that  "  Edward  has  commenced  a  Thursday  morning 
lecture,  besides  the  Wednesday  evening.  He  is  going  through 
John's  Gospel  in  the  morning,  and  through  Genesis  in  the  even- 
ing. The  Sunday  evening  services  are  crowded  to  overflowing 
at  present.  The  subject  is  the  second  coming  of  Christ,  from  the 
last  chapter  of  2d  Peter."  He  is  also  still  visible  at  public  meet- 
ings, taking  his  share  in  the  general  interests  of  religion  every 
where ;  laboring  yet  again  to  convince  the  Bible  Society  to  sanc- 
tify its  business  with  prayer ;  giving  up,  as  he  himself  relates,  "  all 
his  spare  time  to^the  (Jewish)  Institution,"  and  getting  into  pri- 
vate embroilments  by  reason  of  his  friendliness  toward  strangers 
— Dr.  Chalmers  at  this  time  being,  as  it  appears,  irritated  with  Ir- 
ving and  some  of  his  friends  on  account  of  their  generous  patron- 
age of  a  Jew,  whom  the  doctor,  too,  would  willingly  have  pat- 
ronized as  a  convert,  but  was  not  content  to  admit  into  all  the 
equalities  of  Christian  fellowship.  If  ever  there  was  a  time  when 
Irving,  longing  for  the  adulation  which  attended  his  earlier  years, 
and  smarting  from  the  neglect  which  followed,  or  is  supposed, 
with  a  dramatic  completeness  not  always  inevitable  in  real  life, 
to  have  followed  it,  turned  aside  to  woo  back  fashion  by  singu- 
larity, now  at  last  must  have  occurred  that  moment.  But  it  is 
not  the  aspect  of  a  feverish  ambition,  straining  after  the  applause 
of  the  crowd,  which  meets  our  gaze  in  this  man,  now  lingering, 
trembling  upon  the  threshold  of  his  fate.  Fashion  has  been  gone 
for  years — years  of  wholesome,  generous,  gigantic  labor ;  and  on 
the  very  eve  of  the  time  when  strange  lights  flushing  over  his  firm- 
ament were  anew  to  raise  curiosity  to  frenzy,  and  direct  against 


410  ON  THE  THRESHOLD  OF  FATE. 

him  all  the  outcries  of  propriety  and  all  the  transitory  excitement 
of  the  mob,  it  is  a  figure  all  unlike  the  disappointed  prophet,  ready 
rather  to  call  down  fire  from  heaven  than  to  suffer  himself  to  fade 
from  the  public  recollection,  which  reveals  itself  before  our  eyes. 
Instead  of  that  hectic  apparition,  there  stood  in  the  crowded  heart 
of  London  a  man  whom  the  world  had  never  been  able  to  forget ; 
who  needed  no  extraordinary  pretense  of  miracle  to  recall  his 
name  to  men's  recollections ;  whose  name,  on  the  contrary,  had 
only  to  be  connected  with  any  obscure  ecclesiastical  process  to 
make  that  and  every  thing  connected  with  it  the  object  of  im- 
mediate attention  and  interest,  jealous  public  guardians  flashing 
their  lights  upon  it  for  the  sake  of  the  one  name  always  intelligi- 
ble through  the  gloom.  London  journals  grew  to  be  familiar 
with  the  technical  terms  of  Scotch  Presbyterianism  for  Irving's 
sake.  The  English  public  suffered  strange  forms  of  ecclesiastical 
conflict  to  occuj)y  its  regard  because  he  was  in  the  midst.  This 
was  little  like  the  dismal  neglect  w^hich  wakes  mad  fancies  in  the 
heart  of  genius.  Wherever  he  went,  crowds  waylaid  his  steps, 
turning  noble  country-houses  into  impromptu  temples,  and  seizing 
the  stray  moments  of  his  leisure  with  jealous  eagerness.  His  own 
church  was  crowded  to  overflowing  at  those  services  which  were 
least  exclusively  congregational.  Amid  all  this,  his  own  eyes, 
burning  with  life  and  ardor,  turned  not  to  fashion  or  the  great 
world,  not  to  society  or  the  givers  of  fame,  but  were  bent  with 
anxious  gaze  upon  that  "  gray  city  of  the  North"  where  the  Scotch 
Assembly  gathered,  and  where,  as  he  conceived,  the  beloved 
Church  of  his  fathers  was  herself  at  the  bar  to  acknowledge  or 
deny  the  truth.  While  he  stood  thus,  the  moment  was  approach- 
ing when  another  chapter  of  his  history — the  darkest,  the  saddest, 
the  last — perhaps,  in  some  respects,  the  most  splendid  of  all — was 
to  dawn  upon  Irving.  At  this  crisis,  when  he  has  been  supposed 
to  be  wandering  wildly  astray — a  disappointed  notoriety — a  fa- 
natic enthusiast — a  man  in  search  of  popular  notice  and  applause, 
here  is  the  homely  picture  of  him  in  the  words  of  his  sister  Eliz- 
abeth— a  picture  only  heightened  out  of  its  calm  of  sensible  sim- 
plicity by  the  tender  touch  of  domestic  love:  "Edward  contin- 
ues remarkably  well,  notwithstanding  his  many  labors,"  writes 
this  affectionate  witness.  "  On  Sunday  we  did  not  get  home  from 
the  morning  service  till  two  o'clock.  He  came  with  us ;  and  af- 
ter dinner  William  and  he  went  to  visit  two  families  in  sickness; 
took  tea  at  Judd  Place,  and  went  to  church  half  an  hour  before 


MEETING  OF  THE  GENEKAL  ASSEMBLY.  41I 

service,  to  talk  with  young  communicants;  went  througli  tlie 
evening  service  with  great  animation,  preaching  a  beautiful  ser- 
mon on  '  A  new  commandment  give  I  unto  you ;'  walked  up  here 
again,  and  William  and  he  went  to  pray  with  a  child,  up  at  White 
Conduit  House.  He  then  returned  home,  and  was  in  church  next 
morning  as  usual  at  half  past  six  o'clock.  God  gives  him  amaz- 
ing strength.  The  morning  meetings  continue  to  be  well  attend- 
ed. ..  .  Dear  Edward  has  had  much  to  bear,  and  we  should  suf- 
fer with  him.  He  has  had  strong  consolations  in  the  midst  of  it 
all,  and  I  think  is  endeavoring  to  bear  a  conscience  void  of  offense 
toward  God  and  toward  all  men.  He  becomes  daily  more  tender, 
and  daily  more  spiritually  wise." 

This  was  the  aspect  of  the  man  about  to  be  rapt  into  a  mysteri- 
ous world  of  revelation  and  oracular  utterance,  of  prophecy  and 
portent.  When  this  sober  sketch  was  written,  he  was  trembling 
on  its  very  verge ;  but  whether  he  went  forward  to  that  last  mys- 
terious trial  in  hectic  impatience  and  presumption,  with  a  wild, 
half-conscious  intention  of  presenting  Jwnself  hefore  the  eyes  of 
the  world,  or  whether  he  approached  it  in  all  the  solemn  simplic- 
ity of  his  nature,  with  no  thought,  conscious  or  unconscious,  but 
of  his  glorious  Master  and  the  progress  of  His  kingdom,  I  do  not 
hesitate  to  leave  the  readers  of  this  history  to  judge. 

Meantime,  while  the  prayers  of  the  faithful  rose  for  them  morn- 
ing by  morning  in  that  distant  London  church,  echoing  the  anx- 
ious prayers  of  many  an  agitated  soul  in  Scotland,  the  General 
Assembly  met.  To  the  troubles  of  that  solemn  period,  when  the 
saintly  Campbell  stood  at  the  bar  to  be  finally  and  solemnly  cast 
out  of  the  Church,  Mr.  Scott,  with  a  certain  touch  of  chivalric  per- 
versity, which  is  almost  amusing  amid  such  grave  surroundings, 
added  a  climax.  In  the  midst  of  the  anxious  struggle,  while 
Campbell  and  his  champions  labored  to  prove  that  the  standards 
of  the  Church  did  not  pronounce  against  that  expanded  and  lib- 
eral Gospel  which  neither  Paul  nor  John  hesitated  to  proclaim, 
here  suddenly  appeared  this  brilliant  knight-errant  by  himself 
upon  the  field,  proclaiming  his  readiness,  not  only  to  impugn  the 
standards,  but  to  argue  the  matter  with  the  Church,  and  maintain 
against  all  comers,  in  the  strength  of  an  argumentative  power 
which  Irving  calls  unequalled,  his  solitary  daring  assault  against 
the  might  of  orthodoxy.  The  Assembly,  however,  took  no  notice 
of  the  bold  summons  which  this  dauntless  opponent  rang  upon 
its  shield.     It  deposed  Mr.  Campbell  for  maintaining  that  Christ 


412  THE  ASSEMBLY'S  DECISIONS. 

died  for  all  men,  and  that  the  whole  world  stood  upon  a  common 
ground  in  universal  relations  to  the  manifested  love  of  God ;  and 
it  withdrew  from  Mr.  Scott  his  license  to  preach,  which,  indeed, 
considering  his  opposition  to  most  ecclesiastical  propositions,  was 
not  so  remarkable.  This  notable  convocation,  however,  had  still 
other  matters  on  hand.  It  settled  the  case  of  Mr.  Maclean,  of 
Dreghorn,  by  sending  him  back,  upon  technical  grounds,  to  his 
Presbytery,  leaving  that  victim  to  be  baited  to  death  by  the  in- 
ferior court ;  and,  by  way  of  relieving  these  heavier  labors,  it 
launched  a  passing  arrow  at  Irving.  This  was  done  on  the  occa- 
sion of  a  Report  upon  Books  and  Pamphlets  containing  Erroneous 
Opinions^  in  approving  which  a  motion  was  made  to  the  effect 
that,  if  at  any  time  the  Eev.  Edward  Irving  should  claim  the  priv- 
ileges of  a  licentiate  or  minister  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  the 
Presbytery  of  the  bounds  should  be  enjoined  to  inquire  whether 
he  were  the  author  of  certain  works,  and  to  proceed  thereafter  as 
they  should  see  fit.  This  motion — a  more  peremptory  suggestion 
having  failed,  and  a  contemptuous  appeal  for  toleration,  on  the 
score  that  these  works  were  not  calculated  to  influence  any  well- 
informed  mind,  having  also  broken  down — was  carried.  This  was 
the  first  direct  authoritative  censure  pronounced  upon  Irving.  It 
gave  him  a  personal  share  in  the  sorrow  and  indignation  with 
which  a  large  portion  of  the  devout  people  of  Scotland  saw  the 
Church  commit  itself  to  a  rash  decision  upon  matters  so  import- 
ant. And  it  was  in  anticipation  of  some  such  attack  that  he  wrote 
as  follows,  while  the  Assembly  was  sitting,  to  his  faithful  friend  in 
Edinburgli,  apparently  just  after  having  heard  of  the  temporary 
unsuccess  of  the  proceedings  against  Mr.  Maclean : 

"  London,  26  May,  1831. 

"We  have  had  great  joy  and  thanksgiving  over  the  deliverance 
which  we  have  had  out  of  the  hands  of  those  evangehcal  doctors, 
whose  violation  of  all  natural  afiection  (being  most  of  them  intimate 
friends  of  my  own)  and  of  the  law  of  Christian  discipline  will  no  doubt 
be  punished  by,  as  it  hath  proceeded  from,  the  spirit  of  reckless  vio- 
lence. Dreading  this,  I  sit  down  to  write  you  what  should  be  our 
course  of  procedure  in  case  the  committee  ask  the  Assembly  for  any 
judgment  against  me  or  my  books.  I  feel  that  I  ought  not  to  lose 
one  iota  of  my  standing  as  an  ordained  minister,  or  even  as  a  man, 
without  an  effort,  and  a  strong  and  steady  one,  to  preserve  it.  If 
they  shall  present  any  evil  report  thereupon,  and  ask  the  Assembly 
for  a  sanction  of  it,  I  give  Carlyle*  full  power  to  appear  at  the  bar  for 

*  Thomas  Carlyle,  Esq.,  advocate,  of  Edinburgh,  who  had  conducted  the  case  of 
Mr.  Maclean. 


IRVING'S  DETERMINATION  TO  DEFEND  HIS  RIGHTS.       413 

me,  and  claim  for  me  the  privilege  of  being  first  communicated  with, 
in  order  to  explain  away,  as  far  as  I  honestly  can,  the  matters  of  of- 
fense ;  and  if  I  have  erred  in  any  expression,  to  have  an  opportunity 
of  confessing  it ;  for,  however  they  may  labor  to  separate  me  and  my 
book,  their  decision  upon  my  book  must  materially  affect  my  standing 
with  the  Church,  and  no  man  ought  to  suffer  loss  without  the  oppor- 
tunity of  defending  himself  But  if  they  should  found  upon  their  re- 
port any  proposal  to  exclude  me  from  the  pulpits  of  Scotland,  or  to 
put  any  mark  upon  me,  then  I  solemnly  protest  for  a  hearing,  and  an 
argument,  and  a  libel,  and  a  regular  process  of  trial,  with  a  view  to 
that  issue.  For,  though  I  might,  and  do  rejoice  in  my  personal  se- 
curity, I  can  not  think  of  the  Church  being  led  to  give  judgment 
against  me,  or  against  the  truth,  or  to  bind  me  up  from  my  natural 
liberty  and  right  in  my  own  country.  I  am  not  anxious  about  these 
things,  but  I  am  deeply  impressed  Avith  the  duty  of  contesting  every 
inch  of  ground  with  these  perverters  of  the  Gospel  and  destroyers  of 
the  vineyard.  In  leaving  this  matter  in  your  hands  and  dear  Car- 
lyle's,  and  above  and  over  all,  in  the  hands  of  the  Lord,  to  whom  1 
now  commend  it,  I  feel  that  it  will  be  well  cared  for.  I  would  not 
intrude  upon  the  Assembly,  or  trouble  them  unnecessarily,  but  I 
would  lose  none  of  my  rights  without  a  controversy  for  them  in  the 
name  and  strength  of  the  Lord.  .  .  .  God  has  said,  London  is  thy 
post;  take  care  of  that,  and  I  will  take  care  of  thee.  .  .  .  Our  prayer- 
meeting  is  well  attended,  fully  one  hundred.  1  do  not  yet  think  that 
we  have  had  the  distinct  pouring  out  of  the  spirit  of  prayer.  I  feel 
more  assurance  daily  that  the  Lord  is  bestowing  upon  me  '  the  word 
of  wisdom,'  which  I  take  to  be  the  faculty  of  opening  the  mysteries 
of  God  hidden  in  the  Scriptures.  .  .  .  The  Lord  be  with  thy  spirit ! 
"  Your  faithful  brother,  Edwd.  Ieving." 

The  proceedings  of  this  Assemby,  momentous  as  they  were  and 
have  been  proved  to  be,  had  a  special  characteristic,  which  I  will 
venture  to  indicate,  though  the  point  I  remark  is  at  once  subtle 
and  important  enough  to  demand  a  fuller  and  clearer  exposition 
than  I  am  qualified  to  give.*  For  no  resistance  of  authority  or 
perversion  of  belief  was  Mr.  Campbell  deposed  and  Irving  con- 
demned. The  fault  of  Mr.  Campbell  was  that  he  received  and  set 
forth  as  the  foundation  of  his  creed  that  full,  free,  and  universal 
offer  of  God's  love  and  pardon,  which  the  veriest  Calvinist  per- 
mits and  requires  his  preachers  to  make.  No  preaching  has  ever 
been  popular  in  Scotland,  more  than  in  any  other  country,  which 
did  not  offer  broadly  to  every  repentant  sinner  the  forgiveness 
and  acceptance  which  are  in  Christ  Jesns.     However  largely  the 

*  All  that  is  said  on  this  subject  I  say  with  diffidence,  and  only  as  one  who  "ec- 
cupieth  the  room  of  the  unlearned"  may  venture  to  form  a  private  opinion  ;  but  no- 
body can  glance  into  these  controversies  without  feeling  deeply  the  fatal  power  of 
words  to  obscure  and  overcloud  on  both  sides  the  divine  heart  of  a  common  faith. 


414  SUBSTANCE  OF  IRVING'S  OFFENSE. 

inducements  of  terror  might  be  used,  however  closely  the  myste- 
rious limitation  of  election  might  be  established,  no  preacher  had 
ever  been  debarred  from — on  the  contrary,  -every  preacher  had 
been  instructed  and  incited  to — the  duty  of  calling  all  men  to  re- 
pentance— of  offering,  to  every  soul  that  sought  it,  access  to  the 
Savior,  and  of  echoing  the  scriptural  call  to  "  whosoever  will." 
This  universally  acknowledged  duty  of  the  preacher  was,  indeed, 
to  be  ballasted  and  kept  in  due  theological  equilibrium  by  full  expo- 
sition of  doctrine ;  but  no  man  had  ever  ventured  to  forbid  or  dis- 
courage the  incessant  iteration  of  that  call  to  repentance,  to  conver- 
sion, to  salvation,  which  every  body  acknowledged  (howsoever  lim- 
ited by  mysteries  of  decree  and  predestination  unknown  to  men)  to 
be  the  burden  of  the  Gospel.  Mr.  Campbell,  a  man  of  intense  and 
concentrated  vision,  received  this  commission  put  into  his  hands, 
and  took  his  stand  upon  it.  He  was  willing  to  leave  the  mysteries 
of  God  to  be  expounded  by  other  minds  more  prone  to  those  inves- 
tigations than  his  own.  He  took  the  offer  which  he  was  instruct- 
ed to  make  as  the  embassador  of  heaven  as  full  credentials  for  his 
mission.  He  made  this  proclamation  of  God's  love  the  foundation 
of  all  Christian  life  and  faith,  and  believed  and  maintained  it  fer- 
vently. This  was  the  sum  of  his  offense  against  the  orthodox 
standards  of  his  Church.  No  one  of  all  the  men  who  condemned 
him  but  was  bound,  by  ordination  vow,  by  public  expectation, 
and  by  Christian  love,  to  proclaim  broadly  that  invitation  to  every 
soul,  and  promise  to  every  contrite  heart,  which  Campbell  held  to 
be  no  hypothesis,  but  an  unspeakable  verity.  Herein  lay  the  pe- 
culiarity of  his  case.  He  was  expelled  from  the  Church  for  mak- 
ing his  special  stand  upon,  and  elevating  into  the  rank  of  a  vital 
truth,  that  very  proclamation  of  universal  mercy  which  the  Church 
herself  had  trained  and  sent  him  forth  to  utter. 

The  offense  of  Irving  was  one,  when  honestly  stated,  of  a  still 
more  subtle  and  delicate  shade.  Unaware  of  saying  any  thing 
that  all  Christians  did  not  believe ;  ready  to  accept  heartily  the 
very  definition  given  in  the  standards  of  the  Church  as  a  true 
statement  of  his  doctrine ;  always  ready  to  bring  his  belief  to  the 
test  of  those  standards,  and  to  find  their  testimony  in  his  favor, 
his  error  lay  in  believing  the  common  statement,  "  tempted  in  all 
points  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin,"  to  infer  a  diviner  ineffable  mer- 
it, a  deeper  condescension  of  love  in  the  human  life  of  the  holy 
Lord  than  could  be  stated  in  any  formula.  What  the  General 
Assembly  interpreted  to  mean  a  passive  Innocence,  he  interpret- 


TRAYERS  FOR  OUTPOURING  OF  THE  SPIRIT.  415 

ed  to  mean  an  active  Holiness  in  that  divine  immaculate  Savior, 
whose  heavenly  purity  he  adored  as  entirely  as  they.  For  this 
difference  the  Church,  excited  with  conflict,  inflicted  hasty  cen- 
sure, to  be  inevitably  followed  by  all  the  heavier  sentences  she 
had  in  her  power.  Such  was  the  work  of  this  momentous  As- 
sembly. With  hasty  national  absolutism,  it  cut  off  from  its  com- 
munion, for  such  causes,  men  whom  it  knew  and  confessed  to  be 
an  honor  and  blessing  to  the  Church  and  nation  which  had  pro- 
duced them.  I  do  not  pretend  to  point  this  narrative  with  any 
moral  drawn  from  the  troubled  and  stormy  course  through  which 
the  Church  of  Scotland  has  had  to  pass  since  then ;  on  one  side 
always  more  and  more  absolute,  impatient  of  inevitable  condi- 
tions, and,  if  resolute  to  attain  perfection,  always  yet  more  reso- 
lute that  such  perfection  was  to  be  attained  only  in  its  own  way ; 
but  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  that  men  who  looked  on  during 
that  crisis  with  anguish  and  indignation — believing  that  not  John 
Campbell  deposed,  but  the  love  of  the  Father  limited  or  denied, 
and  that  not  Edward  Irving  censured,  but  the  love  of  the  Son 
in  its  deepest  evidence  rejected,  was  the  real  issue  of  the  double 
process — should  draw  such  conclusions,  and  contemplate  that  agi- 
tated career,  with  its  sad  disruption  and  rending  asunder,  as  bear- 
ing melancholy  evidence  of  that  which  some  men  call  inevitable 
development,  and  some  the  judgment  of  heaven. 

When  the  meetings  of  the  Assembly  were  over,  the  devout  com- 
pany of  worshipers  who  had  offered  up  daily  supplications  on  its 
behalf  during  that  crisis  having  come  to  take  comfort  in  these 
early  matins,  resolved  to  continue  their  meeting,  and  direct  their 
prayers  to  interests  more  immediately  their  own.  It  was  for  the 
outpouring  of  the  Spirit  that  they  now  resolved  to  ask ;  for  the 
bestowal  of  those  miraculous  gifts  of  which  news  came  without 
ceasing  from  Scotland — which  were  daily  hoped  for  with  gradu- 
ally increasing  intensity  among  themselves — and  which,  if  once 
revealed,  they  did  not  doubt  would  be  to  the  establishing  of  a 
mighty  influence  in  the  great  city  which  surged  and  groaned 
around  them,  a  perpetual  battle-ground  of  human  passion.  For 
this  they  prayed  in  the  early  quiet  of  the  summer  mornings  as 
May  brightened  into  June.  To  this,  the  indignant  excitement  of 
the  ecclesiastical  crisis  over,  Irving  turned  with  eyes  which  saw 
no  help  in  man.  During  the  interval  that  other  question  had 
been  gathering  force  and  shape.  Miraculous  instances  of  healing 
were  told,  and  discussed,  and  proved,  and  contested,  in  the  Lon- 


416  INSPIRATION  OF  THE  LAST  DAYS. 

don  world,  as  tliey  had  been  in  the  anxious  local  world  of  which 
Gairloch  was  the  centre.  From  the  padded  couch  of  a  cripple, 
where  she  had  lain  for  years.  Miss  Fancourt  had  risen  in  a  mo- 
ment, at  the  bidding  of  an  evangelist,  still  more  marvelouslj  than 
Mary  Campbell  had  risen  in  Scotland.  The  religious  papers  were 
all  busy  with  this  strange,  unbelievable  occurrence,  laboring  hard 
to  set  to  the  score  of  excitement  a  wonder  which  they  could  not 
otherwise  cast  discredit  upon ;  and  the  echo  of  the  miraculous 
"tongues,"  and  singular  prophetic  utterances  which  came  up  on 
every  wind  from  Scotland,  had  quickened  a  world  of  curiosity, 
and  some  faith  of  the  most  intense  and  eager  kind.  Among  those 
who  prayed  every  morning  for  the  extension  of  this  marvel  to 
London,  and  for  the  visible  manifestation  of  God  and  his  wonder- 
ful works  among  themselves,  there  was  one  at  least  so  intent  upon 
the  petition  he  urged,  and  so  sure  that  what  he  asked  was  in  con- 
formity with  the  will  of  God,  that  his  anxious  gaze  almost  had 
power  to  create  upon  the  horizon  the  light  he  looked  for.  But 
still  there  was  nothing  unearthly  or  inhuman  in  the  aspect  of  the 
man  who  thus  stood  between  earth  and  heaven,  pleading  with  a 
fervor  that  would  not  understand  denial  for  the  inspiration  prom- 
ised to  the  last  days.  He  forgot  neither  the  rights  of  a  man  nor 
the  duties  of  a  brother  in  that  solemn  and  overwhelming  expect- 
ation. To  a  heart  so  high  and  a  spirit  so  devout,  miracle  itself, 
indeed,  was  rather  an  unveiling  of  the  ineffable  glories  always 
known  and  felt  to  be  present  where  God's  presence  was  felt  and 
known,  than  a  breach  of  the  laws  of  nature,  or  a  harsh  though 
splendid  discordance  struck  among  the  common  chords  of  life. 
The  heart  within  him  was  miraculously  akin  to  all  wonders  and 
splendors.  It  was  his  cherished  and  joyful  hope  to  see  with  hu- 
man eyes  his  Master  Himself  descend  to  the  visible  millennial 
throne ;  and  there  was,  to  his  sublimed  vision,  a  certain  magnifi- 
cent probability  in  the  flood  of  divine  utterance  and  action  for 
which  he  prayed  and  waited. 

The  first  intimation  of  the  actual  appearance  of  the  expected 
miraculous  gifts  is  given  simply  and  almost  incidentally  in  a  let- 
ter, addressed  to  Mr.  Story,  of  Eosneath,  dated  in  July  of  this 
year,  in  which,  after  exhorting  his  friend,  who  had  been  ill,  to 
"have  faith  to  be  healed,"  Irving  proceeds  to  speak  of  the  eccle- 
siastical matters,  in  which  both  were  so  deeply  interested,  as  fol- 
lows: 

-"I  feel  as  if  it  were  the  duty  of  every  minister  of  tlic  Church  of 


FIRST  APPEARANCE  OF  THE  TONGUES.  417 

Scotland  to  open  his  pulpit  to  Campbell  and  Maclean,  and  take  the 
consequences ;  and  that  tlie  people  should  no  longer  hear  those  min- 
isters who  cast  them  out,  and  the  truth  of  God  with  them,  until  these 
ministers  have  returned  to  the  preaching  of  the  truth.  _  For  they  have 
declared  themselves  anti-Christ  in  denying  that  Christ  came  in  the 
flesh;  and  they  have  denied  both  the  Father  and  the  Son.  The 
Church,  naturally  considered,  is  one,  but  rightly  considered  is  many, 
according  to  the  number  of  her  ministers,  each  Church  standing  or 
falling  with  its  angel.  Now  these  angels  have  all  declared  them- 
selves enemies  of  Christ  and  His  truth ;  and  I  say,  therefore,  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  people  to  come  out  and  be  separate.  I  am  sounding  this 
matter  to  the  bottom,  and  shall  set  it  forth~in  regular  order.  Dear 
Story,  you  keep  too  much  aloof  from  the  good  work  of  the  Spirit 
which  is  proceeding  beside  you.  Two  of  my  flock  have  received  the 
gift  of  tongues  and  prophecy.  The  Church  here  is  to  inquire  into  it. 
We  had  a  conference  of  nearly  twenty  last  Wednesday  at  Dods- 
worth's,  and  we  are  to  have  another  next  Wednesday.  Draw  not 
back,  brother,  but  go  forward.  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  only  to  be 
won  by  the  brave.  Keep  your  conscience  unfettered  by  your  under- 
standing." 

It  was  in  July  this  letter  was  written,  but  not  until  four  months 
later  did  the  new  wonder  manifest  itself  publicly.  In  the  inter- 
val, notwithstanding  his  eagerness  and  strong  prepossession  in  fa- 
vor of  these  miraculous  pretensions,  Irving  took  the  part  of  an  in- 
vestigator, and,  according  to  his  own  conviction,  examined  closely 
and  severely  into  the  wonderful  phenomena  now  presented  before 
him.  He  explains  the  whole  process  with  his  usual  lofty  candor 
in  his  speech  before  the  London  Presbytery,  a  year  later,  in  which 
he  discloses,  at  the  outset,  the  profound  prepossession  and  bias  in 
his  believing  mind,  while  he  is  evidently  quite  unconscious  how 
this  could  detract  in  the  least  from  the  conscientious  sev^erity  of 
the  probation  to  which  he  subjected  the  gifted  persons.  This  is, 
however,  so  important  an  element  in  the  matter,  and  one  which 
throws  so  touching  a  light  upon  all  the  unthought-of  extents  to 
which  his  faith  afterward  carried  him  —  besides  being,  as  he 
thought,  an  important  particular  in  proof  of  the  reality  of  the 
gifts  themselves — that  it  is  worthy  of  special  notice.  "I,  as 
Christ's  dutiful  minister,  standing  in  His  room  and  responsible  to 
Him  (as  are  you  all),  have  not  dared  to  believe  that,  tvhen  ive  a^ked 
hi-ead,  He  gave  us  a  sio7ie,  and  luhen  we  asked  fish^  lie  gave  us  a  ser- 
pentj'^  he  says,  out  of  the  simplicity  of  his  devout  heart,  recogniz- 
ing only  in  this  complicated  matter — which  involved  so  profound 
a  maze  of  incomprehensible  human  motives,  emotions,  and  pur- 
poses— the  devout  sincerity  of  prayer  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 

Dd 


418  THE  PRAYER  OF  FAITH.— THE  ANSWER  OF  GOD. 

certain  faithfulness  of  promise  on  the  other.  They  had  asked 
their  faithful  Master  for  these  wonders  of  His  grace ;  and  when 
the  wonders  came,  how  could  the  loyal,  lofty,  unsuspicious  soul, 
confident  in  the  honor  and  truth  of  all  men  as  in  his  own,  dare  to 
believe  that  God,  when  asked  for  bread,  had  given  only  a  stone  ? 
But  all  unaware  that  by  this  very  sentiment  he  prejudged  the 
matter,  Irving  went  on  to  make  assurance  sure  by  careful  and  de- 
liberate investigation,  which  he  accordingly  describes  as  follows : 

"  We  met  together  about  two  weeks  before  the  meeting  of  the 
General  Assembly,  in  order  to  pray  that  the  General  Assembly  might 
be  guided  in  judgment  by  the  Lord,  the  Head  of  the  Church ;  and 
we  added  thereto  prayers  for  the  present  low  state  of  the  Church. 
We  cried  unto  the  Lord  for  apostles,  prophets,  evangelists,  pastors, 
and  teachers,  anointed  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  gift  of  Jesus,  be- 
cause we  saw  it  written  in  God's  Word  that  these  are  the  appointed 
ordinances  for  edifying  of  the  body  of  Jesus.  We  continued  in  pray- 
er every  mornipg,  morning  by  morning,  at  half  past  six  o'clock;  and 
the  Lord  was  not  long  in  liearing  and  in  answering  our  prayers.  He 
sealed  first  one,  and  then  another,  and  then  another,  and  then  another; 
and  gave  them  first  enlargement  of  spirit  in  their  own  devotions,  when 
their  souls  were  lifted  up  to  God  and  they  closed  with  him  in  nearness. 
He  then  lifted  them  up  to  pray  in  a  tongue  which  the  Apostle  Paul 
says  he  did  more  than  they  all.  ...  I  say  as  it  was  with  Paul  at  the 
proper  time,  at  the  fit  time,  namely,  in  their  private  devotions,  when 
they  were  rapt  up  nearest  to  God,  the  Spirit  took  them  and  made 
them  speak  in  a  tongue,  sometimes  singing  in  a  tongue,  sometimes 
speaking  words  in  a  tongue ;  and  by  degress,  according  as  they 
sought  more  and  more  unto  God,  this  gift  Avas  perfected  until  they 
were  moved  to  speak  in  a  tongue,  even  in  the  jjresence  of  others. 
But  while  it  was  in  this  stage  I  suffered  it  not  in  the  church,  acting 
according  to  the  canon  of  tlie  apostle ;  and  even  in  private,  in  my 
own  presence,  I  permitted  it  not ;  but  I  heard  that  it  had  been  done. 
I  would  not  have  rebuked  it,  I  Avould  have  sympathized  tenderly  with 
the  person  who  was  carried  in  the  Spirit  and  lifted  up,  but  in  the 
church  I  Avould  not  have  permitted  it.  Then,  in  process  of  time,  per- 
haps at  the  end  of  a  fortnight,  the  gift  perfected  itself,  so  tliat  they 
Avere  made  to  speak  in  a  tongue  and  to  prophesy ;  that  is,  to  set  forth 
in  English  words  for  exhortation,  for  edification,  and  comfort,  for  that 
is  the  proper  definition  of  prophesying,  as  was  testified  by  one  of  the 
witnesses.  Now,  when  Ave  had  received  this  into  the  church  in  an- 
swer to  our  prayers,  it  became  me,  as  the  minister  of  the  church,  to 
try  that  Avhich  Ave  had  received.  I  say  it  became  me,  and  not  anoth- 
er, as  minister  of  the  church  ;  and  my  authoi'ity  for  that  you  Avill  find 
in  the  2d  chapter  of  Revelations.  .  .  .  Therefore,  when  the  Lord  had 
sent  me  Avhat  professed  to  be  prophets,  what  Ave  had  prayed  for,  Avhat 
the  Lord  had  ansAvered,  what  had  the  apparent  signs  of  a  prophet 
speaking  with  tongues,  and  prophesying  and  magnifying  God,  I  then 
addressed  myself  to  the  task,  I  durst  not  shrink  from  it,  of  trying 
them,  putting  them  to  j^roof ;  and  if  I  found  them  so,  permitting 


THE  FULFILLMENT  OF  PROMISE.  419 

them ;  yea,  giving  thanks  to  Jesus  that  had  heard  om*  prayers,  and 
sent  among  us  that  ordinance  of  prophesying  which  is  said  expressly 
to  be  for  the  edifying  of  the  Church, 

"Tlie  first  thing  toward  tlie  trial  was  to  hear  them  prophesy  be- 
fore myself;  and  so  I  did.  The  Lord,4n  Ilis  providence  (I  can  not 
remember  the  particulars,  nor  do  I  charge  my  memory  with  them), 
the  Lord,  in  His  providence,  gave  me  ample  opportunities  in  private 
prayer-meetings  (of  which  there  were  many  in  the  congregation  for 
this  purpose  established)  of  hearing  the  speaking  with  tongues  and 
prophesying ;  and  it  was  so  ordered  by  Providence  that  every  per- 
son whom  I  heard  was  known  to  myself,  so  that  I  had  the  double 
test,  first,  of  private  walk  and  conversation,  and,  secondly,  of  hearing 
the  things  prophesied.  ...  I  had  then,  first,  the  blameless  Avalk  and 
conversation  of  persons  in  full  conmaunion  with  the  Church  of  Christ; 
and  I  had,  next,  privately  hearing  the  utterances,  in  Avhich  I  could  de- 
tect notliing  that  was  contrary  to  sound  doctrine,  but  saw  every  thing 
to  be  for  edification,  exhortation,  and  comfort;  and  beyond  these 
there  are  no  outward  or  visible  signs  to  which  it  can  be  brought. 

"  Having  these  before  me,  I  was  still  very  much  afraid  of  introduc- 
ing it  to  the  Church,  and  it  burdened  my  conscience  I  should  suppose 
for  some  weeks.  For  look  you  at  the  condition  in  which  I  was 
placed.  I  had  sat  at  the  head  of  the  Church  praying  that  these  gifts 
might  be  poured  out  in  the  church  ;  I  believed  in  the  Lord's  faithful- 
ness, that  I  was  praying  the  prayer  of  faith,  and  that  He  had  poured 
out  the  gifts  on  the  Church  in  answer  to  our  prayers.  Was  I  to  dis- 
believe that  which  in  faith  I  had  been  praying  for,  and  which  we  had 
all  been  praying  for?  When  it  comes.  He  gives  me  every  oppor- 
tunity of  proving  it.  I  put  it  to  the  proof,  according  to  His  own 
Word ;  and  I  find,  so  far  as  I  am  able  to  discern  honestly  before  God, 
that  it  is  the  thing  written  of  in  the  Scriptures,  and  unto  the  faith  of 
which  we  were  baptized." 

Such  was  the  process  going  on  in  the  mind  of  Irving  during 
this  intefesting  and  exciting  period.  Convinced,  before  he  began 
to  examine,  that  he  and  his  fellow-worshipers  had  asked  in  faith, 
and  that  this  was  the  visible  and  speedy  answer  to  their  prayers, 
it  is  evident  that  his  investigations  were  necessary  only  to  satisfy 
his  conscience,  and  not  to  convince  his  heart.  With  the  most  un- 
doubting  confidence  he  had  asked  for  bread,  and  the  agreement 
of  more  than  two  or  three  in  that  petition  had  made  God  Himself 
responsible  for  the  fulfillment  of  His  own  promise  to  the  eyes  and 
to  the  heart  of  His  believing  servant.  With  all-trusting  humility, 
yet  with  a  lofty  confidence,  at  once  in  his  own  perfect  sincerity 
and  in  the  accordance  of  his  request  with  the  revealed  mind  of 
God,  Irving  dared  not  believe  that  it  was  a  stone  which  his  heav- 
enly Father  had  given  him  in  answer  to  his  prayers.  In  this  cer- 
tainty he  went  forward,  seeing  no  choice  for  himself;  not  disguis- 
ing either  from  his  own  eyes  or  those  of  others  the  anguish  of  sep- 


420  "TRYING"  THE  SPIRITS. 


t. 


aration  and  estrangement,  the  broken  peace,  the  desertion,  all  the 
sorrows  to  which  this  course  must  expose  him.  But  he  had  no 
alternative.  He  had  asked,  and  God  had  bestowed.  If  it  may  be 
possible  that,  in  his  secret  heart,  Irving  sometimes  wondered  over 
the  meagreness  of  those  revelations,  the  heroic  faith  within  him 
bent  his  head  before  the  Word  of  God.  He  explained,  with  a 
wonderful  acceptance  of  the  conditions  under  which  the  revelation 
came,  that  it  was  with  "  stammering  lips  and  another  tongue"  that 
God  was  to  speak  to  this  people.  He  took  his  stand  at  once 
upon  this  simple  foundation  of  faith.  He  and  his  friends  had 
asked  with  fervid  importunity,  putting  their  Master  to  His  word. 
They  had  agreed  together  concerning  this  thing,  according  to 
God's  own  divine  directions.  Irving  had  no  eyes  to  see  the  over- 
powering force  of  suggestion  with  which  such  prayers  might  have 
operated  upon  sensitive  and  excitable  hearts.  His  regards  were 
fixed  upon  God,  faithful  and  unchanged,  who  had  promised  to 
grant  requests  which  His  people  presented  thus ;  and  to  a  nature 
so  loyal,  so  simple,  so  absolute  in  primitive  faith  and  dependence, 
there  was  no  alternative.  What  he  received  in  answer  to  his 
prayers  was  by  that  very  evidence  proved  to  be  divine. 

Eeasoning  thus,  he  proceeded,  as  he  has  described,  to  "  try  the 
spirits."  The  gifted  persons  were  all  known  to  himself;  they 
were,  to  the  acknowledgment  of  all,  both  believers  and  unbeliev- 
ers, individuals  of  blameless  life  and  saintly  character.  Among 
them  were  men  who,  since  then,  have  preserved  the  confidence 
and  respect  of  their  community  for  an  entire  lifetime ;  and  gentle 
and  pious  women,  against  whom  it  does  not  appear  that  even  ac- 
cusations of  vanity  or  self-importance  could  be  brought.  Always 
with  that  prepossession  in  his  mind,  that  these  gifts  were  directly 
sent  in  answer  to  prayer ;  always  with  that  trust  in  every  body 
round  him  which  was  his  nature,  and  that  unconscious  glamour 
in  his  eyes  that  elevated  every  thing  they  lighted  on,  Irving  went 
on  to  examine,  and  try  and  prove  the  new  marvel.  His  was  not 
a  mind,  judicial,  impartial,  able  to  confine  itself  to  mere  evidence; 
had  it  even  been  so,  the  result  might  still  have  been  the  same, 
since  the  evidence  which  was  of  overwhelming  force  with  him 
was  of  a  kind  totally  beyond  the  range  of  ordinary  human  testi- 
mony. Of  all  men  in  the  world,  perhaps  this  man,  with  his  inal- 
ienable poetic  privilege  of  conferring  dignity  and  grandeur  upon 
every  thing  which  interested  him  deeply ;  with  his  perfect  trust 
in  other  men,  and  tender  sympathy  with  all  genuine  emotion,  was 


BAPTISM  OF  THE  HOLY  GHOST.  421 

least  qualified  to  institute  the  searching  and  severe  investigation 
which  the  case  demanded ;  and  when  it  is  remembered  how  for- 
lorn he  stood — in  the  Church,  but  scarcely  of  it ;  deprived  of  the 
support  for  which  his  spirit  longed ;  his  heart  aching  with  pangs 
of  disappointment  and  indignation  to  see  that  which  he  held  for 
the  divincst  of  truths  every  where  denied  and  rejected — the  disa- 
bilities of  nature  grow  strong  with  every  additional  touch  of  cir- 
cumstance. I  can  not  pretend  to  believe  that  he  was  capable  of 
taking  the  calm  position  of  a  judge  at  this  deeply  important  crisis ; 
but  I  do  not  doubt  for  a  moment  that  he  entirely  believed  in  his 
own  impartiality,  and  made,  notwithstanding  his  prepossession, 
the  most  conscientious  balance  of  fact  and  argument ;  and  it  is 
evident  that  he  proceeded  with  a  care  and  caution  scarcely  to  be 
expected  from  him.  For  weeks  he  hesitated  to  suffer  the  utter- 
ances in  his  Church,  even  in  the  morning  meetings,  where  the 
audience  were  those  who  had  joined  with  him  in  supplication  for 
this  very  gift.  Writing  to  one  of  his  relations  who  had  lost  her 
husband  in  this  anxious  interval,  he  turns  from  the  strain  of  con- 
solation and  counsel  (in  which  he  specially  directs  the  mind  of 
the  widow  to  the  speedy  coming  of  the  Lord  as  the  sum  of  all 
comfort)  to  notice,  simply  and  briefly,  ere  he  concludes,  that  "  the 
Lord  prospers  His  work  greatly  in  my  Church.  Several  of  the 
brethren  have  received  the  gift  of  tongues  and  prophecy ;  and  in 
answer  to  prayer,thc  sick  are  healed  and  raised  up  again.  The 
coming  of  the  Lord  is  near  at  hand."  But  it  is  not  till  the  end  of 
October  that  he  bursts  forth  into  the  following  triumphant  thanks- 
giving, conveyed  in  a  letter — or  rather  in  what  seems  to  have  been 
the  outer  inclosure  of  a  letter,  doubtless  from  his  wife  or  her  sister 
to  the  anxious  household  at  home — to  Dr.  Martin : 

"2Gth  October,  1831. 
"  My  dear  Father, — ^Thanks  should  be  returned  in  all  the  church- 
es for  the  work  which  the  Lord  has  done  and  is  doing  among  us. 
He  has  raised  up  the  order  of  prophets  among  us,  who,  being  tilled 
with  the  Holy  Ghost,  do  speak  with  tongues  and  prophesy.  I  have 
no  doubt  of  this ;  and  I  believe  that  if  the  ministers  of  the  Church 
will  be  faithful  to  preach  the  truth,  as  the  Lord  hath  enabled  me  to 
be,  God  will  seal  it  in  like  manner  with  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
'  Have  ye  received  the  Holy  Ghost  since  ye  believed  ?'  is  a  question 
which  may  be  put  to  every  Church  in  Christendom ;  and  for  every 
Church  may  be  answered  as  the  Ephesians  answered  Paul,  Acts,  xix. 
I  desire  you  to  rejoice  exceedingly,  although  it  may  be  the  means, 
if  God  prevent  not,  of  creating  great  confusion  in  the  bosom  of  my 
dear  flock.  For  as  prophesying  is  for  the  edifying  of  the  Church, 
the  Holy  Ghost  will  require  that  His  voice  shall  be  heard  when  'the 


422  INEVITABLE  SEPARATION. 

brethren  are  come  together  into  one  place ;'  and  this,  I  fear,  will  not 
be  endured  by  many.  But  the  Lord's  will  be  done.  I  must  forsake 
all  for  Him.  I  live  by  faith  daily,  for  I  daily  look  for  his  appearing. 
.  .  .  Farewell! 

"  Your  dutiful  and  affectionate  son,  Edwd.  Irving." 

This  affecting  and  solemn,  yet  exultant  statement,  proves  how 
truly  Irving  foresaw  all  that  was  before  him.  Up  to  this  time, 
all  external  assaults  had  been  softened  to  him  by  the  warm  and 
close  circle  of  friends  who  stood  up  around  to  assure  him  of  con- 
stant sympathy  and  unfailing  support.  The  unanimous  and  spon- 
taneous declaration  by  which  his  session  expressed  their  perfect 
concurrence  in  his  views,  which  he  had  published  with  affection- 
ate pride  in  the  Morning  Watch.,  and  of  whicli  he  declares  that  he 
"  had  no  hand  whatever  in  originating,  nor  yet  in  penning  this 
document,  which  came  forth  spontaneously  from  the  hearts  and 
minds  of  those  honest  and  honorable  men  whose  names  it  bears," 
is  dated  only  in  December  of  the  previous  year.  He  describes 
Lis  supporters  in  March,  1831,  as  "  those  who  have,  with  one  only 
exception,  been  with  me  from  the  beginning ;  who  for  many  years 
have,  publicly  and  privately,  had  every  opportunity  of  knowing 
my  doctrine  thoroughly."  They  were  all  dear  to  him  for  many 
a  good  work  done  together,  and  sorrowful  hour  shared  side  by 
side:  some  of  them  were  his  "spiritual  sons ;"  some  his  close  and 
dear  companions.  He  foresaw,  looking  steadfastly  forward  into 
that  gloom  which  he  was  about  to  enter,  that  now,  at  last,  this 
bond  of  loyal  love  was  to  be  broken,  this  last  guard  dispersed 
from  about  his  heart.  He  saw  it  with  anguish  and  prophetic  des- 
olation, his  last  link  to  the  old  world  of  hereditary  faith  and  duti- 
ful affection.  But,  though  his  heart  broke,  he  could  not  choose. 
The  warning  and  reproving  voices  which  interrupted  his  prayers 
and  exhortations  in  private  meetings  had  by  this  time  risen  to 
their  full  mastery  over  the  heart,  which,  entirely  believing  that 
they  came  from  God,  had  no  choice  left  but  to  obey  them.  These 
prophets  told  him,  in  mournful  outbursts,  that  he  was  restraining 
the  Spirit  of  God.  It  was  a  reproach  not  to  be  borne  by  one  who 
held  his  God  in  such  true,  filial,  personal  love  as  few  can  realize, 
much  less  experience.  Touched  by  the  thought  of  that  terrible 
possibility,  he  removed  the  first  barriers. 

"  Next  morning,"  he  says,  "  I  went  to  the  church,  and  after  pray- 
ing, I  rose  up  and  said,  in  the  midst  of  them  all, '  I  can  not  be  a  party 
in  hindering  that  which  I  believe  to  be  the  voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost 


UTTERANCES  PERMITTED  AT  MORNING  MEETINGS.        423 

from  being  heard  in  th»  clmrcli.  I  feel  that  I  have  too  long  deferred, 
and  I  now  pray  you  to  give  audience  while  I  read  out  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, as  my  authority,  the  commandment  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
concerning  the  prophets.'  I  then  read  these  passages :  1  Cor.,  xiv., 
23.  .  .  .  Therefore,  reading  these  two  passages  in  the  hearing  of  the 
people,  I  said,  '  Now  I  stand  here  before  you  (it  was  at  our  morning 
meeting,  and  after  my  conscience  had  been  burdened  with  it  for  some 
weeks),  and  I  can  not  longer  forbid,  but  do,  on  the  other  hand,  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  head  of  the  Church,  permit,  at 
this  meeting  of  the  Church,  that  every  one"  who  has  received  the  gift 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  is  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  shall  have  lib- 
erty to  sjjeak ;'  and  I  pointed  to  those  whom  I  had  heard  in  private. 
It  pleased  the  Lord,  at  that  very  meeting,  to  sanction  it  by  His  ap- 
proval. .  .  .  Now,  observe,  I  took  to  myself,  according  to  the  com- 
mandment of  Jesus,  the  privilege  and  responsibility  of  trying  the 
prophets  in  pi'ivate  before  permitting  them  to  speak  in  the  church. 
I  then  gave  the  Church  an  opportunity  of  fulfilling  its  duty ;  for,  be- 
yond question,  it  belongeth  to  every  man  to  try  the  spirits  ;  it  belong- 
eth  not  to  the  pastor  alone,  it  belongeth  to  every  man  to  do  it.  .  .  . 
It  was  my  duty,  therefore,  in  obedience  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
who  ruleth  over  all  churches,  and  without  which  a  Church  is  nothing 
but  a  synagogue  of  Satan — it  belonged  to  me,  as  the  servant  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  having  tried  them,  to  put  them  forth  to  the  peo- 
ple, that  they  might  be  tried  by  them.  I  put  them  forth  at  the  morn- 
ing exercise  of  the  Church  ;  and  I  did,  from  the  pulpit,  make  known 
to  the  people,  in  prayer  and  in  preaching,  and  in  all  Avays,  and  invited 
the  i^eople  to  come  and  to  witness  for  themselves." 

This  process  of  "  probation,"  as  the  preacher,  with  solemn  state- 
liness,  names  the  second  interval,  lasted  for  several  weeks.  It  is 
not  difficult  to  imagine  what  during  this  time  must  have  been  the 
state  of  the  agitated  congregation,  in  which,  already,  all  the  dread- 
ed symptoms  of  resistance  and  separation  were  becoming  visible. 
Aware,  as  entire  London  was  shortly  aware,  of  those  extraordinary 
manifestations,  the  sober  Scotch  remnant  looked  on  severely,  with 
suspicion  and  fear ;  anxious,  above  all  things,  to  escape  the  proba- 
tion thus  placed  in  their  power,  and  to  ignore,  as  far  as  possible, 
the  existence  of  the  new  influence  which  they  felt  they  could  see 
and  hear  only  to  condemn.  Still  steady  and  faithful  adherents  of 
Irving,  and  numbering  among  them  all  the  oldest  and  most  influ- 
ential members  of  the  congregation,  they  were  prepared,  for  love 
of  their  leader,  to  wink  at  almost  any  thing  which  was  not  authori- 
tatively set  before  their  eyes,  and  with  troubled  hearts,  as  men  hear 
news  from  an  enemy's  camp  in  which  are  some  of  their  dearest 
friends,  they  listened  anxiously  to  the  reports  of  what  was  done 
and  said  at  those  romantic  matin  services,  in  the  mornings  which 
began  again  to  darken  into  autumn.     The  air  was  rife  with  tales 


424   PROBATION.— EXCITEMENT  IN  THE  CONGREGATION. 

of  prophecy  and  miracle.  The  very  newspapers  were  discussing 
those  wonders,  which  could  not  be  contradicted,  however  they 
might  be  accounted  for.  And  the  vaguer  excitement  outside  rose 
into  a  climax  within  that  church  in  Regent  Square,  where  now, 
Sunday  after  Sunday,  the  preacher  invited  his  alarmed  or  curious 
hearers  to  satisfy  themselves,  to  prove  the  gifts,  to  make  sure, 
each  on  his  own  account,  what  the  new  revelation  was;  and 
where,  morning  after  morning,  in  the  chill  daybreak,  these  aston- 
ishing voices  and  strange  bursts  of  utterance  found  expression. 
A  shudder  of  expectation,  a  rising  stir  of  alarm,  of  indignation,  of 
resistance,  mingled  with  remorseful  love  toward  the  devoted  man 
who  thus  risked  his  last  human  strong-hold  at  the  bidding  of  what 
he  supposed  to  be  the  voice  of  God,  and  perhaps  with  a  suspicious 
jealousy  of  those  "  gifted  persons"  who  were,  almost  without  ex- 
ception, new-comers,  attracted  to  the  National  Scotch  Church  nei- 
ther for  its  nationality  nor  its  Presbyterianism,  but  simply  for  Ir- 
ving's  sake,  ran  trembling  through  the  little  community.  It  was 
clear  to  the  dullest  eye  that  matters  could  not  stand  still  where 
they  were.  They  waited,  perplexed,  disapproving,  and  afraid,  for 
what  was  next  to  come ;  shaken  in  their  allegiance,  if  never  in 
their  affection. 

Early  in  November  (there  is  some  confusion  about  the  exact 
date)  matters  came  to  a  crisis : 

"  I  went  to  church,"  writes  a  Mr.  Pilkington* — who,  for  a  short 
time,  professed  to  be  gifted  in  his  own  person,  and  afterward  changed 
his  opinion,  and  did  what  he  could  to  "expose"  the  mysteries  in  which 
he  had  not  been  able  to  take  a  part — "  and  was,  as  usual,  much  grati- 
fied and  comforted  by  Mr.  Irving's  lectures  and  prayers ;  but  I  Avas 
very  unexpectedly  interrupted  by  the  well-known  voice  of  one  of  the 
sisters,  who,  finding  she  was  unable  to  restrain  herself,  and  respecting 
the  regulation  of  the  Church,  rushed  into  the  vestry,  and  gave  vent 
to  utterance ;  while  another,  as  I  understood,  from  the  same  impulse, 
ran  down  the  side  aisle,  and  out  of  the  church,  through  the  pi-incipal 
door.  The  sudden,  doleful,  and  unintelligible  sounds,  being  heard  by 
all  the  congregation,  produced  the  utmost  confusion;  the  act  of  stand- 

*  The  statements  of  this  gentleman,  and  another  still  more  important  deserter 
from  the  prophetical  ranks,  Mr.  Baxter,  of  Doncaster,  are  extremely  interesting; 
that  of  the  latter  in  particular,  called  a  Narrative  of  Facts,  and  intended  to  prove 
that  the  whole  matter  was  a  delusion,  is  in  reality  by  far  the  strongest  evidence  in  fa- 
vor of  the  truth  and  genuine  character  of  these  spiritual  manifestations  which  I  have 
met  with.  After  reading  such  a  narrative,  it  is  impossible  to  dream  of  trickery,  and 
very  difficult  to  believe  in  mere  delusion,  although  the  sole  object  of  the  writer  in  the 
extraordinary  and  touching  tale  is  to  show  that  he  had  deceived  himself,  and  was  no 
prophet. 


THE  MATTER  TAKEN  OUT  OF  IRVING'S  HANDS.  425 

ing  up,  the  exertion  to  hear,  see,  and  understand,  by  each  and  every 
one  of  perhaps  1500  or  2000  persons,  created  a  noise  which  may  be 
easily  conceived.  Mr.  Irving  begged  for  attention,  and  when  order 
was  restored,  he  explained  the  occurrence,  which  he  said  was  not 
new,  except  in  the  congregation,  where  he  had  been  for  some  time 
considering  the  propriety  of  introducing  it ;  but,  though  satisfied  of 
the  con-ectness  of  such  a  measure,  he  was  afraid  of  dispersing  the 
flock ;  nevertheless,  as  it  was  now  brought  forward  by  God's  will,  he 
felt  it  his  duty  to  submit.  Ho  then  said  he  would  change  the  dis- 
course intended  for  the  day,  and  expound  the  14th  chapter  of  Cor- 
inthians, in  order  to  elucidate  what  had  just  happened.  The  sister 
was  now  returning  from  the  vestry  to  her  seat,  and  Mr.  Irving,  ob- 
serving her  from  the  pulpit,  said,  in  an  affectionate  tone, '  Console 
yourself,  sister,  console  yourself!'  He  then  proceeded  with  his  dis- 
course." 

The  matter  was  thus  taken  out  of  living's  hand  by  an  occur- 
rence which  was  to  him  a  visible  sign  of  the  will  and  pleasure  of 
God,  to  be  restrained  by  him  at  his  peril.  The  scene  is  striking 
and  extraordinary  enough  to  be  worthy  of  its  antecedents  and 
consequences.  While  he  preached  in  his  lofty,  miraculous  strain, 
with,  that  elevation  of  mind  and  thought  which  was  something 
more  than  eloquence,  to  the  agitated,  expectant  crowd,  which 
knew,  by  mysterious  half-information  and  confused  rumors^  that 
something  mystic  and  supernatural  was  daily  evidencing  itself  in 
the  more  private  services  of  this  very  church,  the  heart  of  one  of 
those  ecstatic  women  burned  within  her.  The  preacher  himself 
was  now  at  all  times  in  a  state  of  solemn  an.d  devout  expectation, 
straining  his  ear  to  hear  what  messages  God  might  send  through, 
the  silence.  The  audience  trembled  throughout  with  a  vaguer 
anticipation,  compounded  of  curiosity  and  alarm,  and  perhaps  all 
the  more  exciting  in  proportion  to  its  ignorance  of  what  it  ex- 
pected. Through  this  assembly,  so  wonderfully  prepared  to  thrill 
to  the  sudden  touch  which  for  weeks  past  it  had  apprehended,  the 
"  sister"  rushed,  laboring  with  her  message,  afraid  to  disturb  the 
severe  laws  of  the  place,  yet  unable  to  restrain  the  mysterious  im- 
pulse with  which  her  bosom  swelled.  The  "tongue"  burst  from 
her  lips  as  she  disappeared  into  the  shelter  of  the  vestry,  echoing, 
audible  and  awful,  through  the  pause  of  wonder.  A  second  sister 
is  said,  by  another  account,  to  have  hastened  after  the  first,  and  to 
have  added  to  the  distant  "testimony"  which  rang  forth  over  the 
listening  congregation  in  a  force  and  fullness  of  sound,  of  which 
the  delicate  female  organs  which  produced  it  were  naturally  inca- 
pable.    Irving  paused  in  his  preaching  when  this  strange  inter- 


426  FIRST  UTTERANCE  IN  THE  SUNDAY  WORSHIP. 

ruption  occurred.  He  had  been  in  the  midst  of  one  of  those  dis- 
courses which  were  still  ranked  among  the  wonders  of  the  time. 
He  paused  when  the  faltering,  hasty  steps  of  the  retiring  prophet- 
ess awoke  the  silence  of  the  congregation.  He  stood  listening,  like 
the  rest,  to  the  half-distinguishable  message.  When  it  was  over, 
and  he  had  calmed  the  crowd,  he  neither  attempted  to  resume  his 
own  course  of  thought,  nor  dismissed  the  agitated  assembly.  He 
turned  to  the  passage  which  he  had  already  quoted  as  conclusive, 
containing  the  rules  by  which  St.  Paul  ordered  the  exercise,  in  the 
primitive  Church,  of  miraculous  utterances.  He  explained,  in  his 
candor  and  simplicity,  his  own  reluctance  to  admit  into  his  long- 
united  and  brotherly  band  this  new  influence,  which  he  foresaw 
would  turn  harmony  into  chaos ;  but  God  having  himself  taken 
the  matter  in  hand,  without  waiting  for  the  tardy  sanction  of  His 
servant,  here  was  the  Divine  directory  by  which  he  must  hence- 
forth be  guided.  Accordingly,  he  read  and  expounded  St.  Paul's 
instructions  to  the  prophets  and  gifted  persons  of  Corinth.  It  was 
all  that  he  could  see  remaining  for  him  to  do.  Henceforward  the 
die  was  cast.  He  foresaw,  in  his  sorrowful  heart,  all  the  desertion 
and  desolation  that  was  coming ;  he  saw  faces  turned  away  from 
him  in  which  he  had  hitherto  seen  only  love  and  confidence,  and 
lowering  looks  where  he  had  been  used  to  the  utmost  trust  and 
affection.  But  to  bear  these,  or  any  other  martyrdoms,  was  easier 
than  to  restrain  for  a  moment  longer  that  voice  which  to  him  was 
the  voice  of  God. 

After  this  the  congregation  separated,  full  of  excitement,  as  was 
natural.  And  the  one  notable  figure  which  appears  in  the  midst 
of  that  confused  and  agitated  assembly  withdrew  to  domestic 
quiet,  to  prayer  or  visitation  of  the  sick,  according  to  the  previ- 
ously recorded  habits  of  his  simple  and  spotless  life.  While  the 
November  day  darkened  over  him  in  those  prayers  and  medita- 
tions through  which  thrilled  hopes  of  immediate  communication 
with  heaven  almost  too  much  for  the  human  heart,  which,  all 
aflame  with  love  and  genius  as  it  was,  was  not  the  heart  of  an 
ecstatic,  the  rumor  of  this  new  thing  ran  through  the  wondering 
world  around  him.  In  the  evening  an  excited  and  almost  riotous 
crowd  rushed  into  the  church  where  such  an  astonishing  novelty 
and  sensation  was  in  their  power.  The  tumultuous  scene  which 
followed  is  thus  described  by  Mrs.  Hamilton : 

"In  the  evening  there  was  a  tremendous  crowd.  The  galleries 
were  fearfully  full,  and  from  the  commencement  of  the  service  there 


TUMULT.— COMMENTS  OF  THE  PRESS.  427 

was  an  evident  uproariousness,  considering  the  place,  about  tlie  doors, 
men's  voices  continually  mingling  Avith  the  singing  and  the  praying 
in  most  indecent  confusion,  Mr.  Irving  had  nearly  finished  his  dis- 
course, when  another  of  the  ladies  spoke.  The  people  heard  for  a 
few  minutes  with  quietness  comparatively.  But  on  a  sudden  a  num- 
ber of  the  fellows  hi  the  gallery  began  to  hiss,  and  then  some  cried 
'  Silence !'  and  some  one  thing  and  some  another,  until  the  congrega- 
tion, except  ^uch  as  had  firm  laith  in  God,  were  in  a  state  of  extreme 
commotign.  j  Some  of  these  fellows  (who,  from  putting  all  the  cir- 
cumstances together,  it  afterward  appeared  were  a  gang  of  pickpock- 
ets come  to  make  a  7'oic)  shut  the  gallery  doors,  which  I  think  was 
providential — for,  had  any  one  rushed  and  fallen,  many  lives  might 
have  been  lost,  the  crowd  was  so  great.  The  awful  scene  of  Kirk- 
caldy church*  Avas  before  my  eyes,  and  I  dare  say  before  Mr.  Irving's. 
He  immediately  rose  and  said,  '  Let  us  pray,'  which  he  did,  using 
chiefly  the  words, '  O  Lord,  still  the  tumult  of  the  people,'  over  and 
over  again  in  an  imfaltering  voice.  This  kept  those  in  the  pews  in 
peace ;  none  attempted  to  move  ;  and  certainly  the  Lord  did  still  the 
people.  We  then  sang,  and  before  pronouncing  the  blessing  Mr.  Ir- 
ving intimated  that  henceforward  there  would  be  morning  service  on 
the  Sunday,  when  those  persons  would  exercise  their  gifts,  for  that 
he  would  not  subject  the  congregation  to  a  repetition  of  the  scene 
they  had  witnessed.  He  said  he  had  been  afraid  of  life,  and  that 
which  was  so  precious  he  would  not  again  risk,  and  more  to  a  like 
effect.  A  party  still  attempted  to  keep  possession  of  the  church. 
One  man  close  to  me  attempted  to  speak.  Some  called  'Hear! 
hear!'  others,  '  Down !  down!'  The  whole  scene  reminded  one  of 
Paul  at  Ephesus.  It  was  very  difficult  to  get  the  people  to  go ;  but, 
by  God's  blessing,  it  was  accomplished.  The  Lord  be  praised  !  We 
were  in  peril,  great  peril ;  but  not  a  hair  of  the  head  of  any  one  suf- 
fered." 

The  following  version  of  the  same  occurrence,  describing  it 
from  an  outside,  and  entirely  different  point  of  view,  appears  in 
the  Times  of  the  19th  November,  extracted  from  the  World.  It  is 
headed  "Disturbance  at  the  National  Scotch  Church,"  and  is  cu- 
rious as  showing  the  state  of  contemporary  feeling  out  of  doors : 

"  On  Sunday  the  Rev.  Edward  Irving  delivered  two  sermons  on 
the  extraordinary  gifts  of  the  Spirit,  on  each  of  which  occasions  the 
congregation  Avas  disturbed  by  individuals  pretending  to  the  miracu- 
lous gift  of  tongues.  During  the  sermon  in  the  morning,  a  lady  (a 
Miss  Hall)  thus  singularly  endowed  was  compelled  to  retire  into  the 
vestry,  where  she  Avas  unable,  as  she  herself  says,  to  restrain  herself, 
and  spoke  for  some  time  in  the  unknown  tongue  to  the  great  sur- 
prise of  the  congregation,  who  did  not  seem  prepared  for  the  exhibi- 
tion. The. reverend  gentleman  resumed  the  subject  in  the  evening 
by  discoursing  from,  or  rather  expounding  the  12th  chapter  of  1st 

*  The  falling  of  the  gallery^therc  in  consequence  of  the  extreme  crowd  to  hear  Ir- 
ving in  June,  182S. 


428  INCREASE  TO  THE  CHURCH. 

Corinthians.  Toward  the  conclusion  of  the  exposition  he  took  occa- 
sion to  allude  to  the  circumstance  of  the  morning,  and  expressed  his 
doubts  whether  he  had  done  right  in  restraining  the  exercise  of  the 
gift  in  the  church  itself,  and  compelling  the  lady  to  retire  to  the  ves- 
try. At  this  moment,  a  gentleman  in  the  gallery,  a  Mr.  Taplin,  who 
keeps  an  academy  in  Castle  Street,  Holborn,  rose  from  his  seat,  and 
commenced  a  violent  harangue  in  the  unknown  tongue.  The  confu- 
sion occasioned  was  extreme.  The  whole  congregation  rose  from 
their  seats  in  affright;  several  ladies  screamed  aloud,  and  others 
rushed  to  the  doors.  Some  supposed  that  the  building  was  in  dan- 
ger, and  that  there  had  either  been  a  murder  or  an  attempt  to  mur- 
der some  person  in  the  gallery,  insomuch  that  one  gentleman  actually 
called  out  to  the  pew-openers  and  beadle  to  stop  him,  and  not  to  let 
him  escape.  On  both  occasions  the  church  was  extremely  crowded, 
l^articularly  in  the  evening,  and  it  would  be  impossible  to  describe 
the  confusion  produced  by  this  display  of  fanaticism.  There  Avas,  in- 
deed, in  the  strange,  unearthly  sound  and  extraordinary  power  of 
voice,  enough  to  appall  the  heart  of  the  most  stout-hearted.  A  great 
part  of  the  congregation  standing  upon  the  seats  to  ascertain  the 
cause  of  the  alarm,  while  the  reverend  gentleman,  standing  with  arms 
extended,  and  occasionally  beckoning  them  to  silence,  formed  a  scene 
which  partook  as  much  of  the  ridiculous  as  the  sublime.  No  at- 
tempt was  made  to  stop  the  individual,  and  after  two  or  three  min- 
utes he  became  exhausted  and  sat  down,  and  then  the  reverend  gen- 
tleman concluded  the  service.  Many  were  so  alarmed,  and  others  so 
disgusted,  that  they  did  not  return  again  into  the  church,  and  dis- 
cussed the  propriety  of  the  reverend  gentleman  suffering  the  exhibi- 
tion ;  and  altogether  a  sensation  was  produced  which  will  not  be 
soon  forgotten  by  those  who  were  present." 

In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Macdonald,  Irving  himself  gives  an  account 
of  a  very  similar  scene.  There  is,  however,  great  confusion  of 
dates ;  some  of  the  witnesses  identify  the  decisive  day  as  the  16th, 
some  as  the  80th  of  October,  while  Mrs.  Hamilton's  letter  fixes  it 
as  the  18th  of  November.  The  precise  day,  however,  is  unim- 
portant; many  such  scenes  of  agitation  and  tumult  must  have 
disturbed  the  Church.  In  the  general  features  of  the  prevailing 
excitement  all  the  accounts  concur.  Irving's  own  record  is  as 
follows : 

"London,  7th  November,  1831. 

"My  dear  Friend, — May  the  Lord  keep  you  in  a  continual  near- 
ness to  Him,  going  forward  and  not  going  backAvard.  For  it  is  a 
sore  and  a  sifting  time  wherein  there  is  no  safety,  but  will  be  destruc- 
tion to  every  one  who  is  not  abiding  in  Christ  and  in  Him  only. 
Yesterday  was  our  communion,  and  the  Lord  gave  me  great  increase 
to  my  Church,  nearly  a  hundred  during  the  half  year ;  but  some  have 
drawn  back,  offended  in  the  word  of  the  Spirit  in  the  mouth  of  the 
prophets,  which,  in  obedience  to  the  Lord's  commandment,  I  have 
permitted, '  when  the  Church  is  gathered  together  into  one  place,'  on 


ORDER  OF  THE  MORNING  SERVICE.  429 

all  occasions.  Now  it  is  remarked  that  in  all  instances  the  Spirit  hath 
permitted  the  service  to  be  concluded,  and  the  blessing  pi'onounced, 
before  the  manifestation.  And  it  hath  always  been  a  witness  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  with  us,  the  ministers.  Last  night  David  Brown  preach- 
ed a  mighty  sermon  on  the  91st  Psalm,  bearing  much  allusion  to  the 
cholera;  and  twice  over  did  the  Spirit  speak  forth,  once  in  confirma- 
tion, generally,  that  it  was  the  judgment  of  God,  once,  in  particular, 
to  the  scoffers.  I  was  seated  in  the  great  chair,  and  was  enabled  by 
my  single  voice  to  preserve  order  among,  I  dare  say,  3000  people,  and 
to  exhort  them,  as  Peter  did  at  Pentecost,  and  commend  them  to  the 
Lord.  And  they  all  parted  in  peace.  Most  of  the  session  dislike  all 
this ;  and  had  I  not  been  firm,  and  resolved  to  go  out  myself  sooner, 
the  voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost  would,  ere  this,  have  been  put  down  by 
one  means  or  another.  Li  two  instances  tlie  Spirit  hath  confirmed 
the  Word  when  I  was  expounding  the  Sci-iptures.  Our  morning 
worship  is  attended  by  nearly  1000  persons,  and  the  order  of  it  is 
beautiful.  I  seek  the  blessing  of  God,  then  we  sing.  Mr.  Brown  or 
I  read  a  chapter,  and  the  Spirit  confirms  our  interpretations,  or  adds 
and  exhorts  in  few  words,  without  interruption,  but  with  great 
strengthening ;  then  one  of  us,  or  the  elders,  or  the  brethren  prays, 
and  then  I  fulfill  the  part  of  the  pastor  or  angel  of  the  Church  with 
short  instructions,  waiting  at  the  intervals  for  the  Spirit  to  speak, 
which  He  does  sometimes  by  one,  sometimes  by  two,  and  sometimes 
by  three,  which  I  apply,  and  break  down,  and  make  the  best  use  of 
for  edifying  of  the  flock  and  convincing  the  gainsayers,  with  short 
prayers  as  occasion  serveth ;  and  I  conclude  with  prayer,  and  with 
the  doxology,  and  the  blessing.  Every  Wednesday  night  I  am 
preaching  to  thousands  'the  Baptism  with  the, Holy  Ghost,'  and  the 
Lord  is  mightily  with  us.  But  many  adversaries.  Oh,  pray  dili- 
gently that  Satan  may  not  be  able  to  put  this  light  out !  .  .  .  Fare- 
well !     May  the  Lord  have  you  in  His  holy  keeping ! 

"  Your  faithful  friend  and  brother,  Edwd.  Ikving. 

"  The  Cairds  are  now  with  us  again." 

The  singular  fact  herein  recorded  of  an  attendance  of  a  thou- 
sand people  at  the  morning  service  is  perhaps  almost  as  wonder- 
ful as  any  other  particular  of  this  exciting  time.  A  concourse  of 
a  thousand  people,  drawn  together  at  half  past  six,  in  those  black, 
wintry  mornings,  with  the  November  fogs  rolling  up  from  the 
unseen  river  and  murky  heart  of  the  city,  and  day  but  faintly 
breaking  through  the  yellow,  suffocating  vapors  when  the  assem- 
bly dispersed,  is  a  prodigy  such  as  perhaps  London  never  saw  be- 
fore, nor  is  likely  to  see  again.  "  The  Cairds"  mentioned  in  the 
postscript  of  this  letter  were  Mary  Campbell,  the  earliest  gifted 
and  miraculously  healed,  and  her  husband,  now  apparently  wan- 
dering from  house  to  house,  and  churck  to  church,  to  enlighten 
the  minds  or  satisfy  the  curiosity,  as  the  case  might  be,  of  those 
who  were  chiefly  interested  in  the  new  dispensation. 


430  CHAKACTER  OF  THE  TONGUES. 

This  irrevocable  step  having  been  taken  into  the  new  world — 
confused,  gloomy,  and  tumultuous,  yet  radiated  with  momentary 
and  oft-recurring  lights,  almost  too  brilliant  and  rapturous  for  the 
health  and  reason  of  a  wholesome  human  creature — which  now 
lay  before  Irving,  it  is  perhaps  necessary  to  describe,  so  far  as 
that  is  practicable,  to  a  generation  which  has  forgotten  them,  what 
those  unknown  tongues  were  which  disturbed  the  composure  of 
the  world  thirty  years  ago.  The  "newspaper  report  quoted  above 
would  lead  the  reader  to  imagine  that  the  unknown  tongue  alone 
was  the  sum  of  the  utterances  given  on  the  occasion  referred  to  in 
the  National  Scotch  Church.  This,  however,  is  proved  not  to 
have  been  the  case  by  Irving's  own  declaration,  that,  so  long  as 
the  tongue  was  unaccompanied  by  intelligible  speech,  he  "  suffer- 
ed it  not  in  the  Church,  acting  according  to  the  canon  of  the  apos- 
tle ;  and  even  in  private,  in  my  own  presence,  I  permitted  it  not." 
The  actual  utterances,  as  they  were  thus  introduced  in  the  full 
congregation,  were  short  exhortations,  warnings,  or  commands,  in 
English,  preceded  by  some  sentences  or  exclamations  in  the  tongue^ 
which  was  not  the  primary  message,  being  unintelligible,  but  only 
the  sign  of  inspiration ;  so  that  a  "  violent  harangue  in  the  tongue" 
was  an  untrue  and  ridiculous  statement.  The  tongue  itself  was 
supposed  by  Mary  Campbell,  who  was  the  first  to  exercise  it,  and 
apparently  by  all  who  believed  in  the  reality  of  the  gift  at  that 
time,  to  be,  in  truth,  a  language  which,  under  similar  circumstances 
to  those  which  proved  at  once  the  miraculous  use  of  the  tongues 
given  at  Pentecost,  would  have  been  similarly  recognized.  Mary 
Campbell  herself  expressed  her  conviction  that  the  tongue  given 
to  her  was  that  of  the  Pelew  Islands,  which,  indeed,  was  a  safe 
statement,  and  little  likely  to  be  authoritatively  disputed ;  while 
some  other  conjectures  pointed  to  the  Turkish  and  Chinese  lan- 
guages as  those  thus  miraculously  bestowed.  Since  then,  opinion 
seems  to  have  changed,  even  among  devout  believers  in  these 
wonderful  phenomena;  the  hypothesis  of  actual  languages  con- 
ferred seems  to  have  given  way  to  that  of  a  supernatural  sign  and 
attestation  of  the  intelligible  prophecy,  which,  indeed,  the  Pente- 
costal experience  apart,  might  very  well  be  argued  from  St.  Paul's 
remarks  upon  this  primitive  gift.  The  character  of  the  sound 
itself  has  perhaps  received  as  many  different  descriptions  as  there 
are  persons  who  have  heard  it.  To  some,  the  ecstatic  exclama- 
tions, with  their  rolling  syllables  and  mighty  voice,  were  imposing 
and  awful ;  to  others  it  was  merely  gibberish  shouted  from  sten- 


DESCRIBED  BY  IRVING.  431 

torian  lungs ;  to  others  an  uneasy  wonder,  wliich  it  was  a  relief 
to  find  passing  into  English,  even  though  the  height  and  strain 
of  sound-  was  undiminished.  One  witness  speaks  of  it  as  "  burst- 
ing forth,"  and  that  from  the  lips  of  a  woman,  "  with  an  aston- 
ishing and  terrible  crash;"  another  (Mr.  Baxter),  in  his  singular 
narrative,  describes  how,  when  "the  power"  fell  suddenly  upon 
himself,  then  all  alone  at  his  devotions,  "the  utterance  was  so 
loud  that  I  put  my  handkerchief  to  my  mouth  to  stop  the  sound, 
that  I  might  not  alarm  the  house ;"  while  Irving  himself  describes 
it  with  all  his  usual  splendor  of  diction  as  follows : 

"  The  whole  utterance,  from  the  beginning  to  the  ending  of  it, 
is  with  a  power,  and  strength,  and  fullness,  and  sometimes  rapid- 
ity of  voice  altogether  diiferent  from  that  of  the  person's  ordinary 
utterance  in  any  mood  ;  and  I  would  say,  both  in  its  form  and  in  its 
effects  upon  a  simple  mind,  quite  supernatural.  There  is  a  power  in 
the  voice  to  thrill  the  heart  and  overawe  the  spirit  after  a  manner 
which  I  have  never  felt.  There  is  a  march,  and  a  majesty,  and  a 
sustained  grandeur  in  the  voice,  especially  of  those  who  prophesy, 
which  I  have  never  heard  even  a  resemblance  to,  except  now  and 
then  in  the  sublimest  and  most  impassioned  moods  of  Mrs.  Siddons 
and  Miss  O'Xeil.  It  is  a  mere  abandonment  of  all  truth  to  call  it 
screaming  or  crying ;  it  is  the  most  majestic  and  divine  utterance 
which  I  have  ever  heard,  some  parts  of  which  I  never  heard  equaled, 
and  no  part  of  it  surpassed,  by  the  finest  execution  of  genius  and  art 
exhibited  at  the  oratorios  in  the  concerts  of  ancient  music.  And 
when  the  speech  utters  itself  in  the  way  of  a  psalm  or  spiritual  song, 
it  is  the  likest  to  some  of  the  most  simple  and  ancient  chants  in  the 
cathedral  service,  insomuch  that  I  have  been  often  led  to  think  that 
those  chants,  of  which  some  can  be  traced  up  as  high  as  the  days  of 
Ambrose,  are  recollections  and  transmissions  of  the  inspired  utter- 
ances in  the  primitive  Church.  Most  frequently  the  silence  is  broken 
by  utterance  in  a  tongue,  and  this  continues  for  a  longer  or  a  shorter 
])eriod,  sometimes  occupying  only  a  few  words,  as  it  were  filling  the 
first  gust  of  sound ;  sometimes  extending  to  five  minutes,  or  even 
more,  of  earnest  and  deeply-felt  discourse,  with  which  the  heart  and 
soul  of  the  speaker  is  manifestly  much  moved  to  tears,  and  sighs, 
and  unutterable  groanings,  to  joy,  and  mirth,  and  exultation,  and  even 
laughter  of  the  heart.  So  far  from  being  unmeaning  gibberish,  as 
the  thoughtless  and  heedless  sons  of  Belial  have  said,  it  is  regularly- 
formed,  well-proportioned,  deeply-felt  discourse,  which  evidently 
wanteth  only  the  ear  of  him  ichose  native  tongue  it  is  to  make  it  a 
very  masterpiece  of  powerful  speech." 

This  lofty  representation,  if  too  elevated  to  express  the  popular 
opinion,  is  yet  confirmed  by  the  mass  of  testimony  which  repre- 
sents the  tongue  as  something  awful  and  impressive.  The  utter- 
ances in  English  are  within  the  range  of  a  less  elevated  faith,  be- 
ing at  least  comprehensible,  and  open  to  the  test  of  internal  evi- 


432  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  PROPHESYING. 

dence.  I  quote  several  of  these  manifestations  in  the  after  part 
of  this  history  for  the  satisfaction  of  my  readers.  To  my  own 
mind  they  contain  no  evidence  of  supernatural,  and  specially  of 
divine  origin.  That  the  effect  of  their  passionate  cadences  and 
■wild  rapture  of  prophetical  repetition  may  have  been  overwhelm- 
ing, I  do  not  doubt ;  and  most  of  the  speakers  seem  to  have  been 
entirely  above  suspicion;  but  the  thought  that  "there  needs  no 
ghost  come  from  the  grave  to  tell  us  ^/u's,"  much  less  a  new  and 
special  revelation  from  heaven,  will  recur  infallibly  in  the  face  of 
these  utterances.  I  can  neither  explain  nor  account  for  phenom- 
ena so  extraordinary,  and,  fortunately,  am  not  called  upon  to  do 
either.  The  fact  and  fashion  of  their  existence,  and  the  wonder- 
ful influence  they  exercised  over  the  subject  of  this  history,  are 
all  I  have  to  do  with.  The  reader  will  find  in  the  remarkable 
narrative,  intended  by  Mr.  Baxter*  to  dissipate  the  delusion,  more 
subtle  and  striking  evidences  of  a  real  something  in  the  movement 
than  is  given  either  by  the  recorded  utterances  themselves,  or  any 
plea  for  them  that  I  have  heard  of.  And,  at  the  same  time,  it  is 
certain  that  Irving  faithfully  followed  them  through  every  kind 
of  anguish  and  martyrdom ;  that,  by  their  sole  inspiration,  a  body, 
not  inconsiderable  either  in  numbers  or  influence,  has  been  organ- 
ized and  established  in  being;  and  that,  after  a  lapse  of  thirty 
years,  they  still  continue  to  regulate  the  destinies  of  that  oft-dis- 
appointed 4Dut  patient  Church. 

In  that  autumnal  season  of  '31,  in  itself  a  time  of  trouble  and 
perplexity,  of  political  agitation  at  home  and  apprehensions  abroad, 
and  when  the  modern  plague,  cholera,  doubly  dreaded  because 
unknown,  yet  not  more  dreaded  than,  as  the  event  proved,  it  de- 
served to  be,  trembled  over  the  popular  mind  and  imagination, 
filling  them  with  all  the  varieties  of  real  and  fanciful  terror,  the 
newspapers  still  found  time  to  enter  into  this  newest  wonder. 
With  natural  zest  they  seized  again  upon  the  well-known  name, 
so  often  discussed,  which  was  now  placed  in  a  position  to  call 
forth  any  amount  of  criticism  and  ridicule.  Yery  shortly  after 
the  introduction  of  the  "prophesying"  into  the  Sunday  meetings 
of  the  church  in  Eegent  Square,  the  Times  put  forth  very  intelli- 
gible hints  that  the  church,  though  built  for  the  Eev.  Edward  Ir- 
ving, was  only  his  so  long  as  he  conformed  himself  to  the  laws  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  showing  an  interest  in  the  cause  of  ortho- 
doxy, and  Scotch  orthodoxy  to  boot,  somewhat  rare  with  that  cos- 

*  See  Appendix  B. 


VIRTUOUS  INDIGNATION.  433 

mopolitan  journal.  "  The  great  body  of  Mr.  Irving's  adherents 
would  probably  have  remained  by  him  if,  in  his  headlong  course 
of  enthusiasm,  he  could  have  found  a  resting-place.  They  might 
pardon  his  nonsense  about  the  time  and  circumstances  of  the  mil- 
lennium. They  might  smile  at  unintelligible  disquisitions  about 
'  heads'  and  '  horns,'  and  '  trumpets,'  and '  candlesticks,'  and '  white 
and  black  horses,'  in  Kevelations.  These  things  might  offend  the 
judgment,  but  did  not  affect  the  nerves.  But  have  we  the  same 
excuse  for  the  recent  exhibitions  with  which  the  metropolis  has 
been  scandalized?"  says  the  virtuous  Times.  "Are  we  to  listen 
to  the  screaming  of  hysterical  women  and  the  ravings  of  frantic 
men  ?  Is  bawling  to  be  added  to  absurdity,  and  the  disturber  of 
a  congregation  to  escape  the  police  and  tread-mill  because  the 
person  who  occupies  the  pulpit  vouches  for  his  inspiration?" 
Much  virtuous  indignation,  indeed,  was  expended  on  all  sides  on 
this  fertile  and  inviting  subject.  The  Record  takes  up  the  story 
where  the  Times  leaves  it,  and  narrates  the  drama  of  the  second 
Sunday.  Never  was  congregation  of  Scotch  Presbyterians,  lost  in 
the  mass  of  a  vast  community,  which  never  more  than  half  com- 
prehends, and  is  seldom  more  than  half  respectful  of  Presbyteri- 
anism,  so  followed  by  the  observation  of  the  world,  so  watched 
and  noted.  In  the  mean  time,  the  mystic  world  within  concen- 
trated more  and  more  around  the  only  man  who  was  to  bear  the 
brunt ;  he  whom  the  outside  world  accused  of  endless  vagaries ; 
whom  his  very  friends  declared  to  be  seeking  notoriety  at  any 
cost,  and  from  whose  side  already  the  companions  of  his  life  were 
dropping  off  in  sad  but  inevitable  estrangement,  yet  who  stood  in 
that  mystic  circle,  in  the  depths  of  his  noble  simplicity  and  hum- 
bleness, the  one  predestined  martyr  who  was  to  die  for  the  reality 
of  gifts  which  he  did  not  share.  With  criticisms  and  censures  of 
of  every  kind  going  on  around,  he  proceeded,  rapt  in  the  fervor 
of  his  faith,  deeper  and  deeper  into  the  spiritual  mystery  which 
he  believed  and  hoped  was  now  to  dawn  splendidly  upon  the  un- 
believing world,  awakening  every  where,  amid  material  darkness, 
that  sacred  sense  of  the  unseen  and  the  Divine  which  had  always 
existed  in  his  own  lofty  spirit,  and  over  the  failure  and  lack  of 
which  he  had  sighed  so  deeply  and  so  long  in  vain,  A  few  weeks 
later  he  wrote  as  follows  to  Mr.  Macdonald : 

' '  19tli  November. 
"  My  deae  Friend, — ^The  Lord  still  stands  with  us,  and  confirms 
me  more  and  more  in  the  duty  of  encouraging  this  work  at  all  haz- 
ards, leaving  myself  in  His  hand.    Both  at  Liverpool  and  near  Bal- 

Ee 


434  IKVING  WITHDRAWS  RESTRAINT. 

dock,  in  Herts,  in  the  parish  of  Mr.  Pym,  there  have  been  manifesta- 
tions. The  work  at  Gloucester,  we  have  reason  to  believe,  is  a  pos- 
session of  Satan.  One  child  who  received  the  Spirit  there,  and  after 
her,  her  twin  brother,  son  and  daughter  (about  eight  years  old,  twins) 
of  a  clergyman,  a  particular  friend  of  mine,  both  spake  with  tongues 
and  prophesied.  The  Spirit  betrayed  himself,  would  not  take  the 
test  (1  John,  iv.,  1-3),  forbad  to  marry,  and  played  many  more  an- 
tics, and  was  at  last  expelled.  It  was  a  true  possession  of  Satan, 
preached  a  wondrously  sweet  Gospel,  had  a  desire  to  be  consulted 
about  every  thing,  disliked  prayer,  praise,  and  reading  the  Scriptures, 
and  otherwise  wrought  wondrously.  Blessed  be  God,  who  has  de- 
livered the   dear  children  !     When  I  read  these  letters  from  Mr. 

P ,  the  children's  father,  to  the  gifted  persons  here,  the  Spirit  in 

them  cried  aloud  to  be  tried  ;  and  I  did  put  the  test,  whereupon 
there  was  from  one  and  all  (Mrs.  Caird  also,  who  was  present)  the 
most  glorious  testimony  that  I  ever  heard.  Many  were  present,  and 
were  all  constrained  to  sing  songs  of  deliverance.     You  should  try 

the  Spirit  both  in  Miss  C and  in  M ;  they  ought  to  desire 

it,  and  you  should  cleave  to  the  very  words  of  the  test,  and  make  the 
Spirit  answer  directly  in  these  words.  Also  observe  him  closely,  for 
it  is  amazing  how  subtle  they  are  (1  Tim.,  iv.,  1-4).  .  .  .  May  God 
bless  you  and  your  wife  ! 

"  Your  faithful  friend,  Edwd.  Irving." 

The  current,  when  it  had  once  broken  forth,  was  much  too 
strong  to  be  checked.  The  tumult  and  commotion  of  the  even- 
ing service  described  by  Mrs.  Hamilton  had  drawn  from  Irving's 
lips  a  hasty  undertaking,  not  to  expose  his  congregation  again  to 
the  danger  and  profanation  of  such  scenes.  Before  the  next  Sun- 
day, however,  he  had  risen  above  such  considerations.  Daily 
stimulated,  warned,  and  reproved  by  the  prophets  who  surround- 
ed him,  he  gradually  gave  up  his  lingering  tenderness  of  reluct- 
ance to  disperse  his  people,  and  even  sacrificed  his  devout  regard 
(always  so  strong  in  him — the  reverence  more  of  a  High  Angli- 
can than  an  iconoclastic  Presbyterian)  for  the  sanctities  of  the 
house  of  God.  Indeed,  believing  fervently,  as  he  did,  that  these 
utterances  were  the  voice  of  God,  one  does  not  see  how  he  could 
have  done  otherwise.  The  Record  relates,  on  the  21st  of  Novem- 
ber, its  great  surprise  to  hear  that,  after  "  the  positive  declaration 
of  the  Eev.  Edward  Irving  to  his  Churcb  and  congregation,  on 
the  13th  instant,  that  he  should  forbid  for  the  future  the  exercise 
of  the  unknown  tongues  during  the  usual  Sabbath  services,  Mr. 
Irving  stated  yesterday  morning  that  he  committed  an  error  by 
so  doing.  He  stated  that  if  it  pleased  the  Lord  to  speak  by  His 
messengers,  he  begged  them  to  listen  with  devout  attention.  In 
a  few  seconds  a  female  (we  believe  Miss  Cardale)  commenced  in 


IMPOSSIBILITY  OF  DRAWING  BACK.  435 

the  unknown  tongue,  and  then  passed  into  the  known  tongue. 
She  said,  '  He  shall  reveal  it !  He  shall  reveal  it !  Yea,  heed  it ! 
yea,  heed  it!  Ye  are  yet  in  the  wilderness.  Despise  not  his 
Word !  despise  not  his  Word !  Not  one  jot  or  tittle  shall  pass 
away.'  The  minister  then  rose  and  called  upon  the  Church  to 
bless  the  Lord  for  His  voice,  which  they  had  just  heard  in  the 
niiJst  of  the  congregation." 

Notwithstanding  the  surprise  of  the  Record,  it  is  very  apparent 
that,  having  entered  upon  this  course,  it  was  simply  impossible  to 
pause  or  draw  back.  Had  any  dishonesty  or  timidity  existed  in 
Irving's  breast,  he  might,  indeed,  as  men  of  irresolute  tempers  or 
uncertain  belief  will,  have  so  far  smothered  his  own  convictions 
as  to  refuse  his  consent  to  the  prophetic  utterances.  But  with 
that  entire  faith  he  had,  what  was  the  servant  of  God  to  do  ?  It 
was  not  denying  a  privilege  even  to  the  "  gifted  persons."  It  was 
silencing  the  voice  of  God.  Yet  even  those  who  knew  him  best 
vexed  his  troubled  soul  with  entreaties  that  he  would  put  up 
again  this  impossible  barrier,  and  debar,  according  to  his  own  be- 
lief, the  Hol}'^  Spirit,  the  great  Teacher,  from  utterance  in  the 
church.  While  the  newspapers  without  denounced  the  "  exhibi- 
tions," and  wondered  how  he  could  permit  them,  tender  domestic 
appeals  were  at  the  same  time  being  made  to  him  to  pause  upon 
that  road  which  evidently  led  to  temporal  loss  and  overthrow, 
and  must  make  a  cruel  separation  between  his  future  and  his  past, 
The  judicious  William  Hamilton,  his  brother  and  friend,  and  per 
petual  referee,  retires  with  a  grieved  heart  into  the  country ;  and 
consulting  privately  with  Dr.  Martin,  describes  his  own  uncertain 
ty  and  desire  to  wait  longer  before  either  permitting  or  debarring 
the  new  utterances ;  his  conviction  that  all  the  speakers  are  "very 
holy  and  exemplary  persons ;"  the  general  anxiety  and  desire  of 
the  congregation  to  "  wait  patiently  and  see  more  distinctly  the 
hand  of  God  in  the  matter ;"  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  inclination 
of  "some  of  the  trustees  to  enforce  the  discipline  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  according  to  the  provisions  of  the  trust-deed."  "  Mr. 
Irving  is  fully  persuaded,  and  hesitates  not  to  declare  that  it  is 
the  Holy  Ghost  speaking  in  the  members  of  Christ,  as  on  the  day 
of  Pentecost,"  writes  this  anxious  and  loving  friend.  "  Edward 
is  most  conscientious  and  sincere  in  the  matter ;  and  he  is  so  thor- 
oughly convinced  in  his  own  mind  that  it  is  impossible  to  make 
an  impression  upon  him,  or  to  induce  that  caution  which  the  cir- 
cumstances seem  so  imperatively  to  demand."     When  fortified 


436  REMONSTRANCES  OF  IRVING'S  FRIENDS. 

with  the  advice  and  arguments  of  Dr.  Martin,  who  was  under  no 
such  trembling  anxiety  as  that  which  influenced  his  son-in-law, 
Mr.  Hamilton  proceeds  to  reason  with  his  "  dear  brother  and  pas- 
tor" in  a  sensible  and  affectionate  letter,  dated  from  Tunbridge 
Wells,  the  26th  of  November,  but  is  anticipated  by  a  letter  from 
Irving,  in  which  already  appears  the  first  cloud  of  that  coming 
storm  which  his  kind  and  anxious  relative  was  so  desirous  to  ar- 
rest: 

"Loudon,  21st  November,  1831. 

"  My  dear  Brother  and  Sister, — I  pray  that  the  Lord  may  pre- 
serve you  in  His  truth  and  keep  you  from  all  backsliding,  for  he  that 
putteth  his  hand  to  the  plow  and  looketh  back  is  not  fit  for  the  king- 
dom of  heaven.  Draw  not  back,  neither  stand  still,  I  beseech  you, 
for  your  souls'  salvation.  Remember  the  exhortations  of  the  Lord 
and  His  apostles  to  this  efiect :  save  your  own  souls,  I  beseech  you. 
The  trustees  met,  and  I  explained  to  them  that  I  could  not  in  this 
matter  take  any  half  measures,  but  would  be  faithful  to  God  and  His 
Word,  and  would  immediately  proceed  to  set  the  ordinance  of  proph- 
esying in  order  in  the  meetings  of  the  Church ;  and  because  I  see 
prophesying  with  tongues  is  as  much  for  the  assembling  and  snaring 
of  the  hypocrite  (Is.,  xxviii.,  13, 14)  as  for  the  refreshing  of  the  saints, 
I  was  resolved  that,  whatever  class  of  people  might  come  to  the 
church  at  any  meeting,  I  would  not  prevent  the  Lord  from  speaking 
then  and  there  what  it  pleased  Him  to  speak,  and  I  pointed  their  at- 
tention to  that  part  of  the  trust-deed  which  gave  into  my  hand  the 
regulation  of  every  thing  connected  with  the  public  worship  of  God 
in  the  house  over  which  they  were  the  trustees.  And  after  a  good 
deal  of  conversation,  conducted  in  a  very  friendly,  and,  I  hope,  Chris- 
tian spirit,  I  came  away  and  left  them  to  deliberate.  They  adjourned 
the  meeting  till  Tuesday  night,  when  I  do  not  intend  to  be  present ; 
but,  through  Mr.  Virtue,  have  intimated  that  if  they  should  think  of 
taking  any  step,  they  would  previously  appoint  a  conference  with 
me,  and  one  or  two  who  think  with  me,  that,  if  possible,  we  might 
adjust  the  matter  without  a  litigation ;  and  if  it  be  necessary,  that  it 
may  be  gone  into  with  a  simj)le  desire  of  ascertaining  the  question 
whether,  in  any  thing  I  have  done,  I  have  violated  the  trust-deed. 
Perhaps  I  may  write  this  by  letter  to  them ;  I  shall  think  of  it. 

"  Yesterday  we  had  peace  and  much  edification.  I  began  by  read- 
ing passages  in  1  Cor.,  xiv.,  and  then  ordering  it  so  that,  after  the 
chapter  and  the  sermon,  there  should  be  a  pause  to  hear  whether  the 
Holy  Spirit  was  minded  to  speak  to  us.  He  spake  by  Miss  E.  Car- 
dale  after  the  chapter  (John,  xvi.),  exhorting  us  to  ask,  for  we  were 
still  in  the  wilderness,  and  needed  the  waters  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
identifying  the  river  from  the  rock  with  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  was 
very  solemn,  and  all  was  still  attention.  While  singing  the  Psalm 
after,  Mr.  Horn  came  up  to  the  pulpit  with  a  Bible  in  his  hand,  and 
asked  me  permission  to  read  out  of  the  Scriptures  his  reason  for  leav- 
ing the  church  and  never  entering  it  more.  This  I  refused  ;  and  he 
went  into  the  vestry,  tookjiis  hat,  and  went  right  down  the  church. 


"IF  I  PERISH,  I  PERISH."  437 

Ob,  what  a  fearful  thing !  Dear  brother,  I  beseech  you  to  be  guard- 
ed against  the  workings  of  the  flesh.  Mr.  Mackenzie  Avas  the  only 
elder  left ;  but  the  Lord  was  with  us.  This  morning  a  man  came  to 
us  who  was  delivered  under  the  sermon  from  his  sins.  In  the  after- 
noon service  which  I  took,  the  Spirit  sealed  with  His  witness  both 
the  exposition  (Mai.,  iii.)  and  the  sermon  (John,  vii.,  37-39).  In  the 
evening,  when  the  church  was  altogether  filled,  we  locked  the  doors 
and  kept  them  locked.  The  people  beat  upon  them,  but  I  command- 
ed them  to  be  kept  shut,  resolved  to  take  the  responsibility  on  my- 
self, and  I  preached  with  much  of  the  power  and  presence  of  God 
(exj^osition,  Mark,  xiii. ;  sermon,  Is.,  xxviii.,  9-14) ;  and,  after  all  was 
over,  I  explained  to  them  that,  though  I  had  kept  my  pledge  that 
night,  I  now  solemnly  withdrew  it,  and  would  permit  the  Spirit  to 
speak  at  all  times,  waiting  always  at  the  end  of  the  exposition  and 
the  sermon.  And  if  I  perish,  my  dear  brother  and  sister,  I  perish. 
Let  me  die  the  death  of  the  righteous,  and  let  my  latter  end  be  like 
his.  .  .  .  Oh,  my  dear,  my  very  dear  friends  and  brethren,  wait  upon 
your  Father,  and  keep  close  to  Him  in  such  a  time  as  this !  My  love 
to  you  would  not  suffer  me  to  be  silent,  though  I  have  much  to  do. 
God  have  you  ever  in  His  holy  keeping ! 

"  Your  faithful  brother,  Edwd.  Irving." 

So,  with  pathetic  solemnity,  he  communicates  his  final  decision 
to  those  anxious  spectators  who  yet  can  not  choose  but  interpose 
and  ply  him  once  and  again  with  clear  and  sober  arguments,  part- 
ly supplied  by  the  distant  Scotch  divine  in  Kirkcaldy  Manse,  who 
is  more  absolute  and  assured  in  his  reasoning,  and  half  disposed 
to  be  impatient  of  Edward's  credulity,  and  partly  by  the  uncon- 
vinced yet  sympathetic  soul  of  the  affectionate  brother,  who  can 
not  condemn  the  faith  which  he  sees  to  be  so  firm  and  deeply- 
rooted.  There  is  something  profoundly  touching  in  the  situation 
altogether ;  the  anxious  private  correspondence  of  the  disturbed 
relatives — their  fears  for  Edward's  position  and  influence — the 
troubled  laying  of  their  sagacious  heads  together  to  make  out 
what  arguments  will  be  most  likely  to  affect  him,  and  how  he  can 
best  be  persuaded  or  convinced  for  his  own  good;  and,  altogether 
ignorant  of  that  affectionate  conspiracy,  the  unconvincible  heroic 
soul,  without  a  doubt  or  possibility  of  skepticism ;  no  debatable 
ground  in  his  mind,  on  which  reasoning  and  argument  can  plant 
their  lever ;  full  of  a  glorious  certainty  that  God  has  stooped  from 
heaven  to  send  communications  to  his  adoring  ear,  and  ready  to 
undergo  the  loss  of  all  things,  even  love,  for  that  wonderful  grace 
and  privilege.  For  some  time  longer  these  two  Hamiltons,  his 
"dear  brother  and  sister,"  follow  him  doubtfully  and  sadly,  with 
regrets  and  tears ;  but  nothing  is  to  be  done  by  all  their  tender 
arguments  and  appeals ;  "  Edward  is  so  thoroughly  convinced  in 


J 


438  FUTUEE  ORDER  OF  WORSHIP. 

his  own  mind  that  it  is  impossible  to  make  any  impression  upon 
him."  They  try  their  best,  and  fail ;  they  drop  off  after  a  while, 
like  the  rest,  with  hearts  half  broken.  Months  after,  when  "Wil- 
liam Hamilton  reappears  among  the  mournful  handful  in  Regent 
Square  which  Irving  has  left  behind  him,  it  is  said  among  his 
friends  that  he  looks  ten  years  older.  Comprehension  and  agree- 
ment may  fail,  but  nothing  can  withdraw  this  brother  Edward 
from  any  heart  tliat  has  ever  loved  or  known  him ;  for  the  two 
words  mean  the  same  thing,  as  far  as  he  is  concerned. 

The  very  next  day  after  the  above  letter  was  written,  Irving 
addressed  another  to  the  trustees,  setting  forth  fully  the  order  of 
worship  which  he  intended  henceforth  to  adopt  in  the  church : 

"November  22d,  1831. 

"  My  dear  Friends, — I  think  it  to  be  my  duty  to  inform  you  ex- 
actly concerning  the  order  which  I  have  established  in  the  public 
worship  of  the  Church  for  taking  in  the  ordinance  of  i^rophesying, 
which  it  hath  pleased  the  Lord,  in  answer  to  our  prayers,  to  bestow 
upon  us.  The  Apostle  Paul,  in  the  14th  chapter  of  the  first  Epistle 
to  the  Corinthians,  hath  ordered,  in  the  name  and  by  the  command- 
ment (verse  31)  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  that  the  prophets  shall  speak  when 
the  whole  Church  is  gathered  together  into  one  place,  'two  or  three' 
(verse  23),  and  hath  permitted  that  all  the  prophets  may  prophesy 
one  by  one,  that  all  may  learn  and  all  may  be  comforted  (verses 
29-31);  and  he  hath  given  instructions  concerning  the  comely  man- 
ner in  which  Avomen  shall  prophesy  in  chapter  eleven  of  the  same 
Epistle.  Walking  by  this  rule,  I  have  appointed,  for  the  present, 
that,  immediately  after  the  reading  and  exposition  of  the  Scriptures 
by  the  minister,  there  shall  be  a  pause  for  the  witness  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  by  the  mouth  of  those  to  whom  He  hath  been  given  (Acts,  v., 
32),  and  the  same  have  I  appointed  to  be  done  after  the  sermon.  And 
this  I  intend  shall  have  place  at  all  the  public  congregations  of  the 
Church,  because  I  believe  it  to  be  according  to  the  commandment  of 
the  blessed  Lord  by  the  mouth  of  the  apostle,  and  according  to  the 
practice  of  the  Church,  so  long  as  she  had  prophets  speaking  by  the 
Holy  Ghost  in  the  midst  of  her. 

"  The  Church  of  Scotland,  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  turned 
her  attention  reverently  to  this  standing  order  of  the  Church  of 
Christ,  and  appointed  a  weekly  exercise  for  prophesying  or  interpret- 
ing of  the  Scriptures  (First  Book  of  Discipline,  chapter  xii.),  express- 
ly founded  on  and  ordered  by  the  14th  chapter  of  the  first  Epistle  to 
the  Corinthians, 'to  the  end  that  the  Kirk  may  judge  whether  they 
be  able  to  serve  to  God's  glory  and  to  the  profit  of  the  Kirk  in  the 
vocation  of  the  ministry  or  not.'  At  that  time  they  had  adopted  the 
prevalent  but  erroneous  notion  that  the  ofiices  of  the  apostle,  of  the 
evangelist,  and  of  the  prophet  are  not  perpetual,  and  now  'have  ceased 
in  the  Kirk  of  God,  except  when  it  pleased  God  extraordinarily  for 
a  time  to  stir  some  of  them  up  again  (Second  Book  of  Discipline, 
chapter  ii).     God  hath  now  proved  that  He  both  can  and  will  raise 


IRVING'S  STATEMENT  OF  HIS  INTENTION.  439 

up  these  offices  again,  having  anointed  many,  both  among  us  and 
elsewhei'e,  witli  the  gift  of  prophesying  after  the  manner  foretold  in 
Isaiah,  xxviii.,  11,  fulfilled  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  and  particularly  or- 
dered in  1  Cor.,  xi.  and  xiv.  These  persons  having  been  fully  proved 
at  our  daily  luorning  exercise,  and  found  to  speak  by  the  Spirit  of 
God,  I  have,  in  obedience  to  the  apostle,  and  in  the  spirit  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  permitted  to  exercise  their  gift  in  the  congrega- 
tion, according  to  the  order  laid  down  above, 

"  Now,  my  dear  brethren,  it  is  well  known  to  you  that  by  the 
Word  of  God,  and  by  the  rules  of  all  well-ordered  churches,  and  by 
the  trust-deed  of  our  church  in  particular,  it  lies  with  the  angel  or 
minister  of  the  Church  to  order  in  all  things  connected  with  the  pub- 
lic Avorship  and  sei'vice  of  God.  For  this  duty  I  am  responsible  to 
the  Great  Head  of  the  Church,  and  have  felt  the  burden  of  it  upon 
my  conscience  for  many  weeks  past ;  but,  consulting  for  the  feelings 
of  others,  I  have  held  back  from  doing  that  Avhich  I  felt  to  be  my 
duty,  and  most  profitable  for  the  great  edification  of  the  Church  of 
Christ,  over  which  the  Lord  hath  set  me.  I  desire  to  humble  myself 
in  His  sight  for  having  too  long  lingered  to  walk  in  the  way  of  His 
express  commandment ;  and  having  at  last  obeyed  Him  to  whom  we 
must  all  answer  at  the  great  day,  I  beseech  you,  dearly  beloved,  to 
strengthen  my  hands  and  uphold  them,  as  in  times  past  ye  have  al- 
ways been  forward  to  do ;  but  if  ye  can  not  see  your  way  clearly  to 
do  this,  I  entreat  you  not  to  let  or  withstand,  lest  haply  ye  be  found 
fighting  against  God ;  and  the  more,  as  it  is  expressly  written  in  the 
only  place  where  the  method  of  prophesying  in  another  tongue  is 
mentioned,  that  it  should  be  for  a  rest  and  refreshment  to  some,  for 
a  snare  and  stumbling  unto  many  (Isaiah,  xxviii.,  12,  13).  For  the 
rest,  dear  brethren,  I  need  only  add  that,  if  you  should  see  it  your 
duty  to  take  any  step  toward  the  prohibition  of  this  (as  I  have  heard 
that  some  are  minded  to  do,  which  may  God,  for  their  own  sake,  pre- 
vent, and  for  the  sake  of  all  concerned),  I  pray  that  nothing  may  be 
done  till  after  a  friendly  conference  between  the  trustees  on  the  one 
hand,  and  myself,  your  minister,  with  some  friends  to  assist  me,  on 
the  other;  for,  as  we  have  hitherto  had  good  Christian  fellowship 
together,  we  will  do  our  part  by  all  means  to  preserve  it  to  the  end, 
without  compromising  our  truth  and  duty.  I  have  done  myself  the 
satisfiiction  of  sending  to  each  one  of  you,  dear  brethren,  a  copy  of 
the  first  part  of  a  treatise  on  the  subject  of  the  Baptism  with  the 
Holy  Ghost  for  your  farther  infoi*mation  on  this  subject,  which  I  beg 
you  will  accept  as  a  small  token  of  the  esteem  and  gratitude  of  your 
faithful  and  afiectionate  friend  and  minister,  Edw^d.  Irving. 

"Finally,  may  the  Lord  guide  you  in  upright  judgment,  and  pre- 
serve you  blameless  unto  the  day  of  His  appearing,  and  then  receive 
you  into  His  glory !     Amen  and  Amen !" 

It  was  thus,  not  in  anger,  but  in  mutual  affection  and  regret, 
that  the  first  parallels  of  this  warfare  were  opened ;  and  strangely 
enough,  of  all  who  argued,  remonstrated,  or  pleaded  with  Irving, 
in  public  or  private,  his  Scotch  father-in-law,  strong  in  all  ecclesi- 
astical proprieties,  as  it  was  natural  he  should  be,  and  often  dis- 


440  PUBLICATIONS  OF  THE  YEAK. 

posed  to  be  impatient  of  Edward's  faith,  seems  to  liave  been  the 
only  man  who  recognized  and  acknowledged  that,  believing  as  Ir- 
ving did,  no  other  course  was  practicable  to  him.  The  suppres- 
sion of  the  manifestations  in  public  appears  to  have  been  all  that 
the  trustees  ever  wanted,  and  that  they  hoped  their  minister  might 
be  urged  or  persuaded  into  if  they  still  left  him  the  freedom  of 
his  morning  services.  Dr.  Martin  alone  perceived  that  it  was  im- 
possible for  Irving  to  shut  out  what  he  took  for  the  voice  of  God 
from  any  place  where  he  was  or  had  authority. 

The  treatise  upon  Baptism  with  the  Holy  Ghost  is  one  of  the 
brief  and  few  results  of  his  literary  labors  during  this  agitating 
year;  this — the  tract,  published  earlier  in  the  year,  on  Girisfs 
Holiness  in  the  Fleshy  and  the  reprint  of  the  Ancient  Confessions  of 
Faith  and  Boohs  of  Discipline  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  being,  with 
the  exception  of  articles  in  the  Morning  Watch,  his  sole  publica- 
tions in  1831.  The  latter  is  especially  remarkable  as  appearing 
at  such  a  moment.  He  had  apparently  cherished  the  idea  for 
years ;  but  only  now,  in  the  midst  of  his  own  troubles,  grieved 
to  the  heart  to  see  his  beloved  mother-Church  falling,  as  he  be- 
lieved, so  far  from  her  ancient  height  of  perfection,  he  confronts 
her  once  more,  indignant  yet  tender,  with  these,  the  primitive 
rules  of  her  faith  and  practice,  in  his  hand.  A  rapid  historical 
sketch  of  primitive  Scotch  Christianity  in  its  romantic  period,  the 
Culdee  age  of  gold,  which  he  evidently  intended,  had  time  per- 
mitted, to  carry  out  through  the  less  obscure  chronicles  of  the 
Eeformation,  occupies  the  first  part  of  the  book.  But  the  real 
preface,  to  which  attaches  all  the  human  and  individual  interest 
always  conveyed  by  Irving's  prefaces,  contains  an  examination  of 
those  ancient  documents,  in  which  he — who  had  already  been  de- 
nounced as  a  heretic,  and  who  was  on  the  eve  of  being  cast  out 
from  his  church  for  departing  from  the  rules  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland — enthusiastically  adopts  the  primary  standards  of  that 
very  Church  of  Scotland  as  the  confession  of  his  faith,  and  ad- 
miringly sets  forth  the  beauty  and  perfectness  of  those  entirely 
national  statements  of  belief.  I  do  not  know  if  Irving  was  the 
first  to  fall  back  with  a  sensation  of  relief  and  expansion  from  the 
cruel  logic  of  the  Westminster  Confession  to  the  earlier  Scottish 
creed — the  simple,  manful,  uncontroversial  declaration  of  the  faith 
that  was  in  them,  which  the  first  Eeformers  gave,  and  which,  I  be- 
lieve, many  of  their  present  descendants  would  gladly  and  thank- 
fully see  replaced  instead  of  the  elaborate  production  of  the  West- 


THE  WESTMINSTER  CONFESSION.  441 

minster  Puritans,  but  it  was  he  who  introduced  them  anew  to  the 
notice  of  his  brethren.  In  the  present  condition  of  the  Scotch 
Church,  palpitating  silently  with  what  seems  a  new  and  different 
life,  the  restoration  of  these  old  authorities  to  the  supreme  place 
would,  I  am  assured,  give  space  and  breathing-room  to  many  wist- 
ful souls. 

"  I  prefer  beyond  all  measure,"  says  Irving, "  the  labors  of  our  Re- 
formers, which  took  so  many  years  to  complete  them,  and  grieve  ex- 
ceedingly that  they  should  have  been  virtually  supplanted  and  buried 
out  of  sight  by  the  act  of  one  General  Assembly  in  a  factious  time 
convened.  .  .  .  While  I  say  I  lament  this  other  instance  of  Scottish 
haste,  I  am  far  from  disavowing  the  Westminster  Confession,  to 
which  I  have  set  my  hand,  or  even  disallowing  it  as  an  excellent  com- 
position upon  the  whole.  But,  for  many  reasons,  I  greatly  postpone 
it  to  our  original  standards.  .  .  .  The  truth  is  that  the  Church  of 
Scotland  was  working  with  head  and  hand  to  proselytize  or  to  beat 
England  into  the  Presbyterian  form  of  Church  government,  and 
therefore  adopted  these  books  of  the  English  Presbyterians,  thinking 
there  could  be  no  unity  without  uniformity,  a  cruel  mistake  which 
was  woefully  retaliated  upon  them  in  the  reigns  of  the  Second 
Charles  and  the  Second  James.  It  is  not  with  any  particular  ex- 
pressions or  doctrines  of  the  Westminster  Confession  that  I  find 
fault,  but  with  the  general  structure  of  it.  It  is  really  an  imposition 
upon  a  man's  conscience  to  ask  him  to  subscribe  such  a  minute  docu- 
ment ;  it  is  also  a  call  upon  his  previous  knowledge  of  ecclesiastical 
controversy  which  very  few  can  honestly  answer ;  and,  being  digest- 
ed on  a  systematic  pi-inciple,  it  is  rather  an  exact  code  of  docti'ine 
than  the  declaration  of  a  person's  faith  in  a  personal  God,  Father, 
Son,  and  Holy  Ghost.  I  find  it  to  be  a  great  snare  to  tender  con- 
sciences— a  great  trial  to  honest  men — insomuch  that,  as  a  pastor,  I 
have  often  been  greatly  perplexed  to  reconcile  men,  both  elders  and 
preachers,  to  the  subscription  of  it.  They  seem  to  feel  that  it  is  rath- 
er an  instrument  for  catching  dishonest  than  a  rule  for  guiding  hon- 
est people ;  that  it  presupposeth  men  knavish,  and  prepareth  gyves 
upon  their  legs,  and  shackles  for  their  hands.  ...  In  one  Avord,  there 
is  a  great  deal  too  much  of  it  for  rightly  serving  the  ends  of  a  confes- 
sion. .  .  .  There  is  no  use  for  hard-fasting  men  at  such  a  rate,  although 
it  be  very  necessary  to  exhibit  a  distinct  standard  of  faith  for  them 
to  rally  under." 

Holding  such  opinions,  Irving,  almost  hopeless  for  the  recovery 
of  his  mother-Church,  which  appeared  to  him  to  have  denied  the 
faith,  presented  to  her  once  more  her  old  forgotten  standards,  and 
"this  the  native  and  proper  Confession  of  our  Church,"  to  show 
her  from  what  height  she  had  fallen.  Had  he  been  prudent,  he 
might  have  found  some  better  way  of  deprecating  the  censures 
that  threatened  him ;  but  he  was  not  prudent.  He  came  forward 
boldly,  not  to  correct  his  own  views  by  her  present  light,  but  to 


442  PAPERS  IN  THE  "  MORNING  WATCH." 

recall  her  to  the  venerable  past,  the  early  Eeformation  glory,  her 
true  individual  national  standing-ground  before  she  had  begun  to 
borrow  doctrine  or  authority  from  other  communities.  At  this 
very  moment,  when  on  the  brink  of  excommunication,  and  accused 
of  every  kind  of  ecclesiastical  irregularity,  he  once  more  fervent- 
ly proclaimed  himself  truly  loyal,  and  his  assailants  the  heretics 
and  deniers  of  the  faith.  Forlorn,  with  his  friends  and  brethren 
dropping  off  from  him,  and  all  the  ties  of  his  life  breaking  in 
pieces,  shortly  to  be  left  among  a  new  community  which  had  no 
filial  relationship  to  Scotland  or  her  Church,  he  planted  again  this 
old  national  Reformation  standard  beneath  which  he  was  ready  to 
live  or  to  die,  and  under  that  antique  emblazonry  prepared  to 
fight  his  last  battle.  It  was  the  neglected,  forgotten  banner  of 
the  Church  which  assailed  him  that  waved  over  his  martyr  head, 
as  he  sadly  lifted  his  arms  to  defend  himself  against  those  who 
sadly  took  up  their  weapons  against  him.  But  the  Church  did 
not  pause  to  recognize  her  own  ancient  symbols ;  took  no  notice, 
indeed,  of  the  sorrowful,  indignant  offering  by  which  her  grieved 
but  loving  son  sought  to  recall  her  to  herself.  I  am  not  aware 
whether  the  publication  attracted  any  special  degree  of-  attention 
from  any  portion  of  the  public.  Few  people  were  so  much  inter- 
ested as  Irving  was  in  proving  that,  whatever  might  be  her  tem- 
porary errors,  the  foundation  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  was 
sound,  and  her  ancient  heart  pure.  His  new  followers  endured 
the  solemn  reading  of  those  antiquated  articles,  which  were  asso- 
ciated to  them  with  no  sacred  recollections,  and  smiled  aside  at 
his  national  fervor.  His  old  adherents  were  too  deeply  engaged 
in  the  more  exciting  interest  of  the  present  conflict  to  observe  this 
pathetic  reassertion  of  orthodox  faith. 

Throughout  the  year  the  Morning  Watch  carried  on,  without  in- 
termission, the  two  great  controversies  in  which  Irving  was  en- 
gaged. Papers  on  the  Humanity  of  our  Lord,  which,  by  over- 
exposition  and  explanation,  confuse  and  profane  the  question,  ap- 
peared in  every  number,  along  with  inquiries  into  the  new  spirit- 
ual gifts,  some  of  which  bear  the  mark  of  Irving's  own  hand,  and 
accounts  of  miraculous  cures,  so  detailed  and  minute  that  it  is  dif- 
ficult not  to  think  of  the  parallel  cases  cited  by  Professor  Hollo- 
way  and  other  vendors  of  miraculous  universal  medicine.  Ir- 
ving's series  upon  Old  Testament  Prophecies  fulfilled  in  the  New 
runs  through  the  entire  volume,  where,  too,  there  appears  now 
and  then  a  human,  personal  glimpse  of  him  in  the  affectionate  tes- 


IRVING  AND  THE  "RECORD."  443 

timony  of  a  friend ;  as,  for  example,  when  the  Aforning  Watcfi,  tak- 
ing part,  for  some  wonderful  occasion,  with  the  Record,  begs  its 
adherents  to  support  that  paper,  irrespective  of  "  its  conduct  on 
another  subject."  "  "We  exhort  all  such  to  overlook  the  trespass 
against  a  brother,  dear  as  he  deservedly  is  to  all  who  know  him," 
says  the  prophetical  journal,  confident  that  nobody  can  mistake 
whom  it  means,  and  speaking  with  a  warmth  of  personal  feeling 
unknown  to  the  abstract  dignity  of  the  Press.  "  There  is  no  breast 
on  earth  more  ready  to  pardon  than  he  who  has  most  reason  to 
complain,  or  who  would  more  regret  that  personal  feelings  to- 
ward him  should  impede  the  promulgation  of  such  sentiments  as 
those  of  which  we  have  shown  the  Record  to  be  now  the  advo- 
cate." Such  a  reference  to  an  individual,  assumed  to  be  so  en- 
tirely well-known  and  held  in  such  affectionate  regard  by  an  au- 
dience considerable  enough  to  keep  a  quarterly  review  afloat,  is, 
perhaps,  unique  in  literature. 

As  the  days  darkened  and  the  end  of  the  year  approached,  mat- 
ters became  more  and  more  hopeless  in  the  little  world  of  Regent 
Square,  where  still  the  daily  matins  gathered  crowds  of  curious 
worshipers,  and  where,  at  almost  every  service,  the  voices  of  the 
prophets  were  heard,  filling  up  the  pauses  which  the  preacher  had 
appointed  for  the  purpose,  and  crowding  with  an  excited  and  mis- 
cellaneous auditory  the  church  which  was  to  have  been  a  national 
rallying-point  and  centre  of  Christian  influence.  Such  hopes  were 
over  now.  The  inspired  circle  which  surrounded  Irving  was  not 
of  the  nation  which  gave  his  Church  its  name ;  those  who  were  of 
that  race  were  deserting  him  day  by  day.  It  was  no  longer  to  a 
national  influence,  but  to  a  remnant  saved  from  all  nations,  a  pe- 
culiar people,  that  his  earnest  eyes  were  turned.  The  trustees  of 
the  church,  to  whom  he  had  addressed  his  letter  concerning  the 
new  order  of  worship,  continued,  while  firmly  opposed  to  that 
novel  system,  to  hope  that  something  might  yet  be  done  by  reason 
and  argument  to  change  his  mind.  They  met  again  in  December, 
and  had  a  solemn  conference  with  Irving,  who  was  accompanied 
by  Mr.  Cardale  (a  gentleman  whose  wife  and  sister  were  both 
among  the  gifted  persons)  as  his  legal  adviser,  and  by  Mr.  Mac- 
kenzie, the  only  one  of  his  elders  who  believed  with  him.  Mr. 
Hamilton  reports,  for  the  information  of  Dr.  Martin,  that  "  a  com- 
promise was  attempted  by  some  of  the  trustees,  who  strongly  urged 
Edward  to  prohibit  the  gifted  persons  from  speaking  on  the  Sab- 
bath, leaving  it  to  him  to  make  such  regulations  regarding  the 


444  THE  KIRK  SESSION. 

weekly  services  as  lie  might  think  proper."  "When  this  proved 
vain,  the  trustees,  "being  exceedingly  unwilling,  from  their  great 
reverence  and  respect  for  Edward,  to  push  matters  to  extremes, 
resolved  again  to  adjourn,  and  to  leave  it  to  the  session,  at  their 
meeting  on  Monday,  to  reconsider  the  subject."  "  The  session" 
— the  same  session  which,  not  a  year  ago,  came  forward  spontane- 
ously and  as  one  man  to  take  up  their  share  of  their  leader's  bur- 
dens, and  declare  their  perfect  concurrence  with  him — "accord- 
ingly entered  into  a  very  lengthened  discussion,  during  which 
quotations  were  made  from  the  Books  of  Discipline  and  the  Acts 
of  the  Assembly  to  show  the  inconsistency  of  the  present  proceed- 
ings with  the  Discipline  of  the  Church.  .  .  .  An  intimation  was 
given,  which  I  was  pained  at,  that  an  appeal  would  be  made  to 
the  Presbytery  of  London,  according  to  the  provision  of  the  trust- 
deed.  This  Edward  most  earnestly  deprecated,  and  begged  that 
he  might  not  be  carried  before  a  body  who  are  so  inimical  to  him." 
Mr.  Hamilton  proceeds  to  confide  to  his  father-in-law  his  own  mel- 
ancholy forebodings  for  every  body  and  every  thing  concerned ; 
his  fears  of  Irving's  "  usefulness  as  a  minister  being  lamentably 
curtailed,"  of  the  scattering  of  the  congregation,  and  "  ruin"  of  the 
Church,  which  had  been,  from  the  laying  of  its  earliest  stone,  an 
object  dear  to  the  heart  of  the  zealous  Scotch  elder,  who  now  was 
about  to  see  all  his  own  laborious  efforts  and  those  of  his  friends 
comparatively  lost.  How  such  repeated  entreaties,  urged  upon 
him  with  real  love  by  his  most  faithful  and  familiar  friends,  must 
have  wrung  the  heart  of  Irving,  always  so  open  to  proofs  of  affec- 
tion, may  easily  be  imagined.  He  stood  fast  through  the  whole, 
a  matter  more  difficult  to  such  a  spirit  than  any  strain  of  resist- 
ance to  harsher  persecutions.  The  next  meeting  he  does  not  seem 
to  have  attended ;  but,  on  hearing  their  decision,  wrote  to  the  ses- 
sion the  following  letter,  full  of  an  almost  weeping  tenderness,  as 
well  as  of  a  resolution  which  nothing  could  move : 

"  London,  December  24,  1831. 
"  My  dear  Brethren, — ^There  is  nothing  which  I  would  not  sur- 
render to  you,  even  to  my  life,  except  to  hinder  or  retard  in  any  way 
what  I  most  clearly  discern  to  be  the  work  of  God's  Holy  Spirit, 
which,  with  heart  and  hand,  we  must  all  further,  as  we  value  the  sal- 
vation of  our  immortal  souls.  I  most  solemnly  warn  you  all,  in  the 
name  of  the  most  High  God,  for  no  earthly  consideration  whatever, 
to  gainsay  or  impede  the  work  of  speaking  with  tongues  and  prophe- 
sying which  God  had  begun  among  us,  and  which  answereth  in  all 
respects,  both  formally  and  spiritually,  to  the  thing  promised  in  the 
Scriptures  to  those  who  believe ;  possessed  in  the  primitive  Church, 


IMPOKTUNITY  OF  lEVING'S  FRIENDS.  445 

and  much  prayed  for  by  us  all.  I  will  do  every  thing  I  can,  dear 
brethren,  to  lead  you  into  the  truth  in  this  matter ;  but  God  alone 
can  give  you  to  discern  it,  for  it  is  a  work  of  the  Spirit,  and  only  spir- 
itually discerned.  It  can  not  but  be  with  great  detriment  to  the 
Church  over  which  we  watch,  and  much  grieving  to  the  Spirit  of 
God,  that  any  steps  should  be  taken  against  it.  And  I  do  beseech 
you,  as  men  for  whose  souls  I  watch,  not  to  take  any.  I  can  not  find 
liberty  to  deviate  in  any  thing  from  the  order  laid  down  in  my  former 
letter,  received  by  the  trustees  the  2  2d  of  November,  which  is  accord- 
ing to  the  commandments  of  the  Lord,  and  in  nothing  contradictory 
to  the  constitutions  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  And  to  that  letter  I 
refer  the  trustees,  as  containing  the  grounds  of  my  proceeding.  Fare- 
well !  may  the  Lord  have  you  in  His  holy  keeping  and  guidance ! 
"  Your  afiiectionate  and  faithful  friend  and  pastor, 

"  Edwd.  Ieving." 

So  the  year  closed,  in  perplexity  and  anxious  fear  to  all  those 
friendly  and  affectionate  opponents  whom  the  heat  of  conflict 
had  not  yet  excited  into  any  animosity  against  himself,  but  not  in 
perplexity  to  Irving,  who,  secure  in  his  faith,  doubted  nothing, 
and  was  as  ready  to  march  to  stake  or  gibbet,  had  such  things 
been  practicable,  as  any  primitive  martyr.  But  sharp  to  his  heart 
struck  those  reiterated  prayers  which  he  could  not  grant — those 
importunities  of  affectionate  unreasonableness,  which  would  nei- 
ther see  this  duty  as  he  saw  it,  nor  perceive  how  impossible  it  was 
for  him,  believing  as  he  did,  to  restrain  or  limit  the  utterances  of 
God.  Such  a  want  of  perception  must  have  aggravated  to  an  in- 
tolerable height  the  sufferings  of  his  tender  heart  in  this  slow  auJ 
tedious  disruption  of  all  its  closest  ties;  but  he  showed  no  sign  of 
impatience.  He  answered  them  with  a  pathetic  outburst  of  sor- 
rowful love,  "  There  is  nothing  which  I  would  not  surrender  to 
you,  even  to  my  life" — nothing  but  the  duty  he  owed  to  God.  In 
that  dreadful  alternative,  when  human  friendship  and  honor  stood 
on  one  side,  and  what  he  believed  his  true  service  to  his  Master 
on  the  other,  Irving  had  no  possibility  of  choice.  Never  man 
loved  love  and  honor  more ;  but  he  turned  away  with  steadfast 
sadness,  smiling  a  smile  full  of  tears  and  anguish  upon  those  breth- 
ren whose  affection  would  still  add  torture  to  the  pain  that  was 
inevitable.  He  could  descend  into  the  darkening  world  alone, 
and  suffer  the  loss  of  almost  all  that  was  dear  to  his  heart.  He 
could  bear  to  be  shut  out  from  his  pulpit,  excommunicated  by  his 
Church,  forsaken  of  his  friends.  What  he  could  not  do  was  to 
weigh  his  own  comfort,  happiness,  or  life  for  a  moment  against 
what  he  believed  to  be  the  will  and  ordinance  of  God. 


446  INCEEASING  DARKNESS. 


CHAPTER  XYIL 
1832. 

"Bedlam"  and  "Chaos." — Eobert  Baxter. — Farther  Development  of  the  Power. — 
The  Two  "Witnesses. — Authoritative  Interpretation  of  Prophecy. — Baxter's  Nar- 
rative.— Inner  World  Revealed  by  it. — Attitude  of  Irving. — Retains  his  Influence 
as  Pastor. — Mystic  Atmosphere. — Evangelists. — Inevitable  Progress. — The  Trus- 
tees take  Counsel's  Opinion. — Irving's  Public  Intimation  of  the  Danger. — His  Ad- 
vice to  his  People. — Answer  to  the  Trustees. — Sir  Edward  Sugden's  Advice. — The 
foregone  Conclusion  of  the  Presbytery. — Their  Authority  finally  appealed  to. — The 
Life  of  the  Accused. — "Reproach  hath  broken  my  Heart." — The  Angel  of  the 
Church. — "Unwearied  and  Unceasing." — Fundamental  Question  involved. — Last 
Remonstrance. — Warning. — Not  the  Shadow  of  a  Doubt. — Banishing  the  Voice 
of  Jesus. — -Impassioned  Appeal. — The  Trustees'  Complaint. — Meeting  of  the  Pres- 
bytery.— Recantation  of  Baxter. — Beginning  of  the  Trial. — Examination  of  Wit- 
nesses :  The  Elder. — Appeal  to  the  Scriptures. — Examination  continued:  The 
Prophet. — "Did  you  hear  any  Conversation  anywhere?" — Calling  Names. — Ex- 
amination continued:  The  Deacon. — Sudden  Blandness  of  the  Examiners. — Con- 
clusion of  the  Evidence. — Unanimity  of  the  Witnesses. — The  Disenchanted  Proph- 
et.— Unmoved  by  Discouragement. — Order  of  Irving's  Defense. — The  Head  of 
eveiy  Man. — An  undivided  Allegiance. — Records  of  Ecclesiastical  Antiquity. — 
The  Conscience  of  the  Presbytciy. — Character  of  the  Evidence. — Speech  of  the 
Accuser. — living's  Reply. — Whether  the  Work  be  of  the  Holy  Ghost. — The  Pro- 
phetic Character. — "Dishonesty." — Tempted  to  withdraw  from  the  Contest. — 
Prefers  his  Duty  as  a  Pastor  to  his  Feelings. — Standeth  or  Falleth  to  his  own 
Master. — A  Lamb  of  the  Flock. — Decision  of  the  Presbyteiy. — Their  Recklessness. 
— Scraps  of  the  Confession. — The  Character  of  Presbyterian  Worship. — What 
could  they  do? — Sentence. — Irving  "unfit"  to  remain  a  Minister. — Triumph  of 
the  Press. — Times  and  Record. — The  Fast-day. — Closing  of  the  Church. — Gray's 
Inn  Road. — Out-door  Preaching. — The  Lost  Child. — Affectionate  Recollections. 
— The  Scotch  Psalms. — Islington  Green. — Princely  Hospitality. — How  to  over- 
come Disease  by  Faith. — Sufferings. — Resolved  to  Fall  at  his  Post. — Victory  over 
the  Body. — State  of  the  Public  Mind. — Reported  "falling  off"  in  Irving's  Mind. 
— The  Morniny  Watch  the  Organ  of  the  Church. — The  Sick  Child. — Invitation  to 
the  Kirkcaldy  Relations. — Pi-ospered  by  the  Lord. — The  Despised  in  Israel. — De- 
velopment.— A  new  Order  of  Things. — Irving  announces  certain  Changes. — Ar- 
rangement of  the  Church  in  Newman  Street. — Opening  Services. — Manifestations. 
— Their  Character. — Another  Assault. — Weariness. 

The  next  year  began  witli  but  a  gradual  increase  of  darkness 
to  tbe  devoted  housebold,  from  whicli  old  friends  were  failing  and 
old  ties  breaking  every  day.  It  was  no  lack  of  affection  which 
necessitated  those  partings ;  but  utter  disagreement  in  a  point  so 


"BEDLAM"  AND  "CHAOS."  447 

important,  and  the  growing  impatience  of  the  sensible,  "  practical" 
men  around  him  for  that  impracticable  faith  which  no  motive  of 
prudence  nor  weight  of  reasoning  could  move,  inevitably  took  the 
heart  from  their  intercourse,  and  produced  a  gradual  alienation 
between  Irving  and  his  ancient  brethren.  Other  friends,  it  is 
true,  came  in  to  take  their  place — partisans  still  more  close,  loyal, 
and  loving — but  they  were  new,  little  tried,  strangers  to  all  his 
native  sympathies  and  prejudices,  neither  Scotch  nor  Presbyte- 
rian, and,  with  equal  inevitableness,  took  up  an  attitude  of  oppo- 
sition to  the  older  party,  and  made  the  pathetic  struggle  an  inter- 
necine war.  On  all  sides  the  friends  of  years  parted  from  Irving's 
side.  His  wife's  relations,  with  whom  he  had  exchanged  so  many 
good  offices  and  tender  counsels,  were,  to  a  man,  against  him  ;  so 
were  his  elders,  with  one  exception.  His  friends  outside  the  ec- 
clesiastical boundaries  were  still  less  tolerant.  Thomas  Carlyle 
and  his  wife,  both  much  beloved,  not  only  disagreed,  but  remon- 
strated ;  the  former  making  a  vehement  protestation  against  the 
"Bedlam"  and  "  Chaos"  to  which  his  friend's  steps  were  tending, 
which  Irving  listened  to  in  silence,  covering  his  face  with  his 
hands.  When  the  philosopher  had  said,  doubtless  in  no  measured 
or  lukewarm  terms,  what  he  had  to  say,  the  mournful  apostle 
lifted  his  head,  and  addressed  him  with  all  the  tenderness  of  their 
youth — "Dear  friend!" — that  turning  of  the  other  cheek  seems 
to  have  touched  the  heart  of  the  sage  almost  too  deeply  to  make 
him  aware  what  was  the  defense  which  the  other  returned  to  his 
fiery  words.  None  of  his  old  supporters,  hitherto  so  devoted  and 
loyal,  stood  by  Irving  in  this  extremity ;  nobody  except  the  wife, 
who  shared  all  his  thoughts,  and  followed  him  faithfully  in  faith 
as  well  as  in  love  to  the  margin  of  the  grave. 

In  the  midst  of  all  these  disruptions,  however,  he  snatches  a  mo- 
ment to  send  the  good  wishes  of  the  beginning  season  to  Kirkcal- 
dy Manse :  "  I  desire  to  give  thanks  to  God  that  He  has  spared  us 
all  to  another  year,"  he  writes,  "  and  I  pray  that  it  may  be  very 
fruitful  in  you  and  in  us  unto  all  good  works.  We  have  daily 
reason  to  praise  the  Lord.  He  gives  us  new  demonstrations  of 
His  presence  among  us  daily.  There  is  not  any  Church  almost 
with  which  He  hath  dealt  so  graciously.  May  the  Lord  revive 
and  restore  His  work  in  the  midst  of  you  all !  I  would  there 
were  in  every  congregation  a  morning  prayer-meeting  for  the  gifts 
of  the  Spirit."  These  brief  words  mark,  however,  the  limits  to 
which  he  is  now  reduced  in  those  once  overflowing  domestic  con- 


448  ROBERT  BAXTER. 

fidences.  He  can  but  utter  with  an  unexpressed  sigh  the  still  af- 
fectionate good- will,  and  make  a  tacit  protest  against  harsh  judg- 
ment by  fervent  utterances  of  gratitude  for  the  manifestations  of 
God's  presence.  Sympathy  of  thought  and  spiritual  feeling  was 
over  between  those  close  friends. 

Very  early  in  this  year,  the  little  band  of  "gifted"  persons, 
whose  presence  had  made  so  much  commotion  in  Eegent  Square, 
and  of  whom  we  have  hitherto  had  no  very  clear  and  recogniza- 
ble picture,  is  opened  up  to  us  in  the  narrative,  which  I  have  al- 
ready referred  to,  of  one  of  the  most  remarkable  among  them,  Mr. 
Eobert  Baxter,  then  of  Doncaster.  Having  but  recently  appeared 
within  the  inspired  circle,  this  gentleman  had  made  his  utterances 
with  so  much  power  and  authority,  that  already  adumbrations  of 
an  office  higher  than  the  prophetic  overshadowed  him,  and  he 
seems  to  have  taken  a  leading  place  in  all  the  closest  and  most 
sacred  conferences  of  the  prophets.  He  had  been  for  some  years 
known  to  Irving ;  his  character  for  godliness  and  devotion  stood 
high;  and  he  was  so  much  in  the  confidence  and  fellowship  of 
the  minister  of  the  Church  in  Eegent  Square  as  to  have  been,  be- 
fore any  gifts  had  manifested  themselves  in  him,  permitted  occa- 
sionally to  conduct  some  part  of  the  service  in  the  morning  pray- 
er-meetings. At  length  he  spoke,  and  that  with  a  force  and  full- 
ness not  yet  attained  by  any  of  the  other  speakers.  "  In  the  be- 
ginning of  my  utterances  that  evening,"  he  says  in  his  narrative, 
"  some  observations  were  in  the  power  addressed  by  me  to  the 
pastor  in  a  commanding  tone,  and  the  manner  and  course  of  ut- 
terance was  so  far  differing  from  those  which  had  been  manifest- 
ed in  the  members  of  his  own  flock*  that  he  was  much  startled. 
...  I  was  made  to  bid  those  present  ask  instruction  upon  any 
subject  on  which  they  sought  to  be  taught  of  God ;  and  to  sever- 
al questions  asked,  answers  were  given  by  me  in  the  power.  One 
in  particular  was  so  answered  with  such  reference  to  the  circum- 
stances of  the  case,  of  which  in  myself  I  was  wholly  ignorant,  as 
to  convince  the  person  who  asked  it  that  the  Spirit  speaking  in 
me  knew  those  circumstances,  and  alluded  to  them  in  the  answer." 
This  further  development  of  the  gift,  after  a  momentary  doubt, 
was  received  with  still  fuller  gratitude  and  trust  by  Irving,  who 
comforts  himself  in  his  desertion  by  communicating  the  news  as 
follows  to  his  distant  friends,  one  of  whom  was  in  perfect  accord- 
ance with  him,  while  he  had  still  hopes  of  the  sympathy  of  the 
*  Mr.  Baxter  was  a  member  of  the  Church  of  England. 


THE  TWO  WITNESSES.  449 

Other,     To  Mr.  Macdonald  he  conveys  the  intelligence  in  haste, 
and  with  perfect  confidence  of  being  understood : 

"London,  24tli  January,  1832. 
"  The  Lord  hath  anointed  Baxter  of  Doncaster  after  another  kind, 
I  think  the  apostoHcal ;  the  prophetical  being  the  ministration  of  the 
Word,  the  apostoHcal  being  the  ministration  of  the  Spirit.  He  speaks 
from  supernatural  light,  and  with  the  choice  of  words.  Neverthe- 
less, the  word  is  sealed  in  the  utterance.  It  is  more  abiding  than  the 
prophetical,  though  sometimes  for  a  snare  he  is  locked  up.  It  is  au- 
thoritative, and  always  concludes  with  a  benediction." 

In  more  detail,  and  with  pathetic  appeal  and  remonstrance,  he 
communicates  the  same  news  to  Mr.  Story,  transmitting  the  mes- 
sage itself,  as  well  as  the  claims  of  the  messenger  to  increased 
honor  and  reverence. 

"London,  27th  January,  1832. 
"  My  dear  Brother, — It  has  been  said  in  the  Spirit  by  a  brother 
(Robert  Baxtei',  of  Doncaster ;  he  has  written  several  papers  in  the 
3Iorning  Watch)  that  the  Two  Witnesses  are  two  orders  of  anoint- 
ed men,  the  prophets  and  the  priests,  the  one  after  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, the  other  after  the  New  Testament  form ;  the  one  those  who 
speak  with  tongues,  and  to  whom  the  Word  of  the  Lord  comes  with- 
out power  to  go  beyond  or  fall  within ;  the  other  the  apostolical,  in 
whom  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  dwells  as  in  Jesus  Himself  for  utterance  of 
every  sort  with  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  with  power.  For 
the  last  six  months  the  Spirit  hath  been  moving  him,  and  uttering  by 
him  privately ;  but  his  mouth  was  not  opened  till  Friday  week,  when 
he  was  reading  the  Scripture  and  praying  at  our  early  service.  From 
that  time  for  more  than  a  week  he  continued  [among  us*]  speaking 
in  the  power  and  demonstration  of  the  Sj^irit  with  great  authority, 
always  concluding  in  the  Spirit  with  a  benediction.  To  me  it  seems 
to  be  the  apostolical  office  for  which  I  have  had  faith  given  to  me  to 
[pi'ay]  both  publicly  and  privately  these  many  months.  I  gave  him 
liberty  to  speak  on  the  Lord's  day,  but  God  did  not  see  it  meet.  A 
clergyman  of  the  [Church]  had  the  faith  to  give  him  his  pulpit  last 
Sunday,  when  he  prayed  in  the  Spirit.  He  said  in  the  Spirit  that  the 
two  orders  of  witnesses  were  now  present  in  the  Church,  the  1260 
days  of  witnessing  are  begun,  and  that  within  three  and  a  half  years 
the  saints  will  be  taken  up,  according  to  the  12th  chapter  of  the 
Apocalypse.  (This  is  not  to  date  the  Lord's  coming,  which  is  some 
time  after  His  saints  are  with  Him.)  Also,  he  said  in  the  Spirit,  that 
ordination  by  the  hands  of  the  Church  is  cut  short  in  judgment,  and 
that  God  Himself  is  about  to  set  forth  by  the  Spirit  a  spiritual  minis- 
try, for  which  we  ought  to  prepare  the  people.  That  both  the  Church 
and  the  State  are  accursed ;  that  the  abomination  of  iniquity  is  set 
up  in  this  land,  and  that  here  the  witnesses  will  be  slain ;  that  many 
people,  multitudes,  will  be  gathered  of  the  people,  a  goodly  number 
of  the  nobles,  and  the  king  himself  given  to  the  prayers  of  his  people ; 

*  This  letter  is  torn  and  partly  illegible.  The  few  words  in  brackets  are  filled  in 
from  the  evident  meaning  of  the  context. 

Ff 


450  BAXTER'S  NARRATIVE. 

but  that  the  nation  and  the  Church  will  be  else  destroyed.  That  the 
pestilence  and  the  sword  will  overflow  the  land,  but  the  people  of 
God  preserved  ;  and  that  those  who  are  looking  for  the  coming  of  the 
Lord  should  set  their  house  in  order,  and  be  sitting  loose.  These 
things  I  believe,  some  of  them  I  understand,  others  I  have  not  yet  at- 
tained to.  I  write  them  for  your  reflection ;  do  not  make  them  mat- 
ter of  news,  but  of  meditation.  The  Lord  greatly  blesses  my  minis- 
try. His  Avay  is  wonderfully  opened  among  us,  and  those  that  know 
Him  gather  strength  daily.  I  have  no  doubt  that  He  is  preparing 
the  way  of  a  great  work  in  my  church,  through  much  reproach  and 
apparent  foolishness.  My  own  aoul  hath  greater  entrance  unto  God. 
The  Lord  is  leavening  this  city  with  His  truth.  Every  night  there 
are  several  places  at  which  the  men  of  the  congregation  gather  the 
poor  to  discourse  to  them.  I  seldom  preach  less  than  seven  times  a 
week,  and  we  meet  more  than  two  hundred  every  morning  for  pray- 
er in  the  church  at  half  past  six  o'clock,  and  continue  till  eight,  and 
have  done  it  the  winter  through.  I  intermingle  it  with  j^astoral  ad- 
monitions, and  the  Sjjirit  speaks  almost  every  morning  by  the  proph- 
ets and  interpreters.  Oh,  Story,  thou  hast  grievously  sinned  in  stand- 
ing afar  off"  from  the  work  of  the  Lord,  scanning  it  like  a  skeptic  in- 
stead of  proving  it  like  a  spiritual  man !  Ah  !  brotlier,  repent,  and 
the  Lord  will  forgive  thee !  I  am  very  much  troubled  for  you ;  but 
I  rejoice  in  your  returning  strength.  God  give  you  unmeasured 
faithfulness!  .... 

"  Your  faithful  friend  and  brother,  Edwd.  Irving. 

"  Mrs.  Caird  is  a  saint  of  God,  and  hath  the  gift  of  prophecy." 

Mrs.  Caird  tlius  referred  to,  tlie  gifted  Mary  Campbell  of  the 
Gairloch,  who  appears  to  have  been  again  in  London,  and  to  whom 
Irving  bears  such  emphatic  testimony,  had  by  this  time  failed  to 
satisfy  the  expectations  of  her  former  pastor  and  oldest  friend,  the 
minister  of  Eosneath ;  and  the  sentence  of  approval  pronounced 
with  so  much  decision  and  brevity  at  the  conclusion  of  this  letter 
addressed  to  him  was  Irving's  manner  of  avoiding  controversy, 
and  making  his  friend  aware  that,  highly  as  he  esteemed  himself, 
he  could  hear  nothing  against  the  other,  whose  character  had  re- 
ceived the  highest  of  all  guarantees  to  his  unquestioning  faith. 
Our  history  has  little  directly  to  do  with  this  remarkable  woman, 
who  does  not  appear  distinctly  even  in,  the  revelations  of  Mr.  Bax- 
ter ;  but  I  am  happy  to  have  it  in  my  power  to  refer  my  readers 
to  the  biography  of  Mr.  Story,  which  has  been  already  mentioned, 
for  many  most  interesting  and  powerful  sketches  of  the  secondary 
persons  who  crossed  and  influenced  in  different  degrees  the  faith 
of  Irving.  None  of  all  the  prophetic  speakers  who  at  this  time 
wrought  into  the  highest  dramatic  excitement  the  little  world  of 
Regent  Square  appears  before  us  in  such  recognizable  personality 
as  does  Mr.  Baxter.     He  tells  his  strange  story  with  all  the  intens- 


THE  INNER  WORLD  REVEALED.  451 

ity  of  passion,  and  that  unconscious  eloquence  which  inspires  a 
man  when  he  chronicles  the  climax  and  culmination  of  his  own 
life.     In  the  wonderful  sphere  revealed  to  us  in  his  little  book, 
the  detail  of  ordinary  circumstances  scarcely  appears  at  all.     Out- 
side, the  office-bearers  are  holding  melancholy  consultations  how 
to  deal  with  this  Church,  in  which  practices  contrary  to  the  usual 
regulations  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  are  undoubtedly  taking 
place  every  day — how  to  soothe  or  persuade  the  friend  and  min- 
ister, so  dear  to  them  all,  into  moderation,  conformity,  indulgence 
for  their  scruples,  if  not  into  their  own  common-sense  view  of  the 
entire  matter.     "We  have  already  noted  this  side  of  the  question ; 
how  they  consult  and  reconsult — how  they  invite  to  sad  argu- 
mentative meetings  the  tender  heart  which,  torn  by  every  fresh 
argument,  would  surrender  every  thing,  even  his  life,  but  can  not 
relinquish  his  duty  and  conviction ;  how,  as  the  lingering  days 
wear  on,  his  position,  his  daily  bread,  his  children's  subsistence, 
and,  dearer  still,  his  honor  and  good  fame,  and  that  standing- 
ground  within  the  Church  of  Scotland  which  in  his  heart  he 
prizes  more  than  life,  hang  in  the  balance,  no  one  knowing  when 
the  sad  assailants  may  open  the  last  parallel  and  the  final  blow 
may  fall.     Nothing  of  this  outside  scene,  though  it  proceeds  at 
the  same  moment  with  all  its  real  and  pathetic  particulars,  wring- 
ing some  hearts  and  grieving  many,  is  visible  in  the  closer  sanc- 
tuary within,  where  Mr.  Baxter  draws  the  curtain.     There  life  lies 
rapt  in  ecstatic  flights  of  devotion,  yet  with  an  inward  eye  always 
turned  upon  the  movements  of  its  own  heart — there  sudden  su- 
pernatural impulses,  fiery  breaths  of  inspiration,  seize  upon  the 
expectant  soul — there,  in  a  mysterious  fellowship,  prophet  after 
prophet,  -with  convulsed  frame  and  miraculous  outcry,  takes  up 
the  burden  and  enforces  the  message  of  his  predecessor,  by  times 
electrifying  the  little  assembly  with  sudden  denunciation  of  some 
secret  sin  in  the  midst  of  them,  over  which  judgment  is  hanging, 
or  of  some  intruding  devil  who  has  found  entrance  into  the  sacred 
place.     The  fact  that  these  awful  assemblies  are  in  the  first  place 
collected  to  dinner  makes  an  uncomfortable  discord  in  the  scene, 
till  the  chief  seer  of  the  company  becomes  himself  uneasy  on  that 
score,  and  declares  "in  the  power"  that  this  assembling  with  a  sec- 
ular motive  is  unseemly,  and  must  be  no  longer  continued.     But 
the  meetings  themselves  continue  daily,  nightly,  the  record  flow- 
ing on  as  if  life  itself  must  have  come  by  the  way,  and  these  re- 
unions alone  have  been  the  object  of  existence.     I  quote  at  length 


452  IRVING  RETAINS  HIS  INTLUENCE  AS  PASTOR. 

in  the  Appendix  from  this  most  remarkable  narrative.  The  pas- 
sionate closeness  of  the  tale,  the  reality  of  the  scene,  the  long- 
drawn  breath  and  gasp,  scarcely  calmed  out  of  that  profound  emo- 
tion with  which  the  speaker  tells  his  story,  are  more  emphatic 
witnesses  of  his  truthfulness  than  any  proof. 

In  this  strange  drama  Irving  appears  more  than  a  spectator  and 
less  than  an  actor.  He  is  there  listening  with  fervent  faith,  try- 
ing the  spirits  with  anxious  scrutiny,  his  own  lofty  mind  bring- 
ing to  a  species  of  ineffable  reason  and  proof  those  phenomena 
which  were  entirely  beyond  either  proof  or  reason,  both  to  the 
ecstatics  who  received  them  unhesitatingly,  and  to  the  skeptics 
who  could  not  receive  them  at  all.  In  the  case  of  Mr.  Baxter 
above  described,  "the  pastor"  was  "troubled,"  fearing  that  this 
new  development  of  the  utterance  resembled  the  case  of  "two 
children  in  Gloucestershire  who  had  been  made  to  speak  in  won- 
derful power,  and  who  afterward  were  found  to  speak  by  a  false 
Spirit."  "  He  came  up  to  me,"  says  Mr.  Baxter,  "  and  said,  '  Faith 
is  very  bard.'  I  was  immediately  made  to  address  him,  and  rea- 
son with  him  in  the  power,  until  he  was  fully  convinced  the  Spirit 
was  of  God,  and  gave  thanks  for  the  manifestation  of  it."  At  an- 
other time  this  prophet,  having  been  directed  by  the  mysterious 
influence  within  him  to  proceed  to  the  Court  of  Chancery,  where 
a  message  was  to  be  given  him,  found,  on  proceeding  there,  with 
tragic  expectations  of  prison  and  penalty,  that  the  impulse  was 
withheld.  Deej)ly  disappointed,  he  came  to  Irving  in  his  dis- 
comfiture, and  the  pastor  soothed  the  impatience  of  the  inspired 
speaker,  and  re-established  his  failing  faith.  In  the  midst  of  an- 
other exciting  scene,  in  which  the  exorcism  of  an  evil  spirit  is 
attempted  without  success,  where  Mrs,  Caird  and  Baxter  himself 
stand  over  the  supposed  demoniac,  adjuring  the  devil  to  come  out 
of  him,  and  another  prophetess  of  weaker  frame  has  fainted  in  the 
excitement,  Irving  once  more  appears  exhorting  them  to  patience, 
suggesting^  as  our  informant  significantly  says,  that  "  this  kind  go- 
etTi  not  forth  but  with  prayer  and  fasting,"  Such  is  his  position 
in  that  strange  atmosphere  where  hectic  expectation  is  always  on 
tiptoe,  and  where  the  air  throbs  with  spiritual  presence.  No  pro- 
pbetic  message  comes  from  his  lips ;  but  he  has  not  relinquished 
his  authority,  the  sway  of  a  spirit  which  is  roused,  but  not  intox- 
icated, by  the  surrounding  miracle.  Amid  the  agitation  and  tu- 
mult he  stands,  preserving  all  the  tender  humanity  of  which  noth- 
ing could  deprive  him,  ready  to  cheer  the  ecstatic  souls  in  their 


MYSTIC  ATMOSPHERE.  453 

intervals  of  depression,  ready  to  moderate  the  absolutism  with 
which  the  more  profoundly  agitated  struggle  for  results,  leading 
their  prayers,  listening  with  devout  faith  to  their  utterances,  under- 
standing some  part  of  them,  though  "others,"  as  he  himself  says 
with  touching  humility,  "  I  have  not  yet  attained  to,"  and  never 
ceasing  to  mingle  with  "pastoral  admonitions"  the  prophetic  ad- 
dresses. When  an  unlucky  neophyte  stumbles  into  the  sacred 
inclosure,  believing  himself  endowed  with  power  to  interpret  the 
unknown  tongues,  in  the  midst  of  the  somewhat  rough  handling 
which  he  meets  from  the  prophets  themselves  and  the  immediate 
by-standers,  he  has  nothing  but  kindness  to  report  of  Irving,  who 
overpowers  him  with  awe  by  solemnly  praying  for  him  that  the 
gift  he  had  imagined  himself  to  have  received  might  be  perfected. 
The  position  and  scene  is  altogether  wonderful ;  and  through  the 
often-varying  voices,  through  the  cries  and  thrills  of  prophetic  ec- 
stasy, through  the  frequent  agitations  which  convulse  that  com- 
pany, waiting  the  impulse  which  comes  and  goes  "  as  it  listeth," 
no  man  being  able  to  say  when  it  will  enter  or  when  go  forth,  the 
great  preacher  stands  wistful-silent,  never  able  to  shut  out  from 
his  heart  the  sad  world  and  the  sadder  desertions  outside,  yet 
thanking  God  with  pathetic  joy  for  the  revelations,  of  which  he  be- 
lieves all  and  understands  something,  within.  Never  was  a  more 
affecting  picture ;  and  it  is  only  in  the  remarkable  disclosures  of 
Mr.  Baxter  that  this  strange  inner  circle  rounds  out  of  the  dark- 
ness with  its  "appalling  utterances,"  its  intruding  demons,  its 
breathless,  absorbed  existence  full  of  rapture  and  revelation. 

In  the  Church  itself  the  warnings  and  admonitions  of  the  new 
prophets  had  borne  more  wholesome  fruit,  A  new  body  of  evan- 
gelists sprang  up  among  the  spiritual  men  of  the  congregation, 
who  went  preaching  every  where,  sometimes  even  bringing  upon 
themselves  the  observation  of  the  alarmed  protectors  of  the  public 
peace,  and  "  being  called  up  before  the  magistrates  on  account  of 
it,"  as  Mr.  Baxter  informs  ns — a  harmless  kind  of  persecution, 
which  naturally  the  new  preachers,  in  the  exuberance  of  early 
zeal,  made  the  most  of  Irving  himself,  always  so  lavish  in  labor, 
was  not  behind  in  this  quickening  of  evangelical  exertion.  He 
describes  himself  as  preaching  "seldom  less  than  seven  times  a 
week;"  besides  which,  he  had  the  morning  meeting  constantly  to 
attend,  children  to  catechise,  conferences  to  hold,  and  a  close 
perpetual  background  of  private  expositions,  prophesyings,  and 
prayers,  in  which,  without  any  metaphor,  his  entire  life  seems  to 


4:54  INEVITABLE  PROGRESS. 

have  been  occupied.  Eent  asunder  as  he  was  bj  the  two  compa- 
nies between  which  he  stood — the  one,  whom  he  would  have  died 
to  win,  importuning  him  to  rehnquish  his  faith  for  their  sake,  and 
gradually  withdrawing  from  him,  as  he  resisted,  all  the  human 
supports  upon  which  he  had  most  leaned ;  the  other,  with  whom 
he  had  no  choice  but  to  cast  his  lot,  perplexing  oft  his  noble  intel- 
ligence, sometimes  wounding  his  heart ;  bound  to  him,  indeed,  by 
close  links  of  love  and  fellow-feeling,  but  not  by  ancient  brother- 
hood— the  bonds  of  long  mutual  labor,  hope,  and  sorrow — nor  by 
the  tender  prej  udices  of  nationality  and  education,  it  is  yet  no  di- 
vided man  who  appears  amid  all  the  agitation  and  tumult  without 
and  within.  Constant,  steadfast,  without  a  vacillation,  he  goes 
upon  his  heroic  way.  No  new  honor  has  come  to  him ;  rather  the 
contrary ;  for  other  voices  of  higher  authority  than  his  echo  within 
the  walls  once  consecrated  to  his  voice,  while  he,  the  foremost  to 
believe,  bows  his  head  and  thanks  God,  and  bids  his  people  listen 
to  that  utterance  from  heaven.  But  nothing  that  he  encounters, 
not  even  that  hardest  trial  of  all — the  anxiety  that  moves  him 
when  "faith"  becomes  "hard,"  when  spiritual  accusations  begin 
to  rise,  and  evil  influences  are  suspected  to  mingle  with  the  in- 
spiration of  God — ^can  disturb  the  unity  of  his  being  or  make  him 
waver.  He  has  prayed,  and  God  has  answered ;  he  has  tried  the 
spirits,  and  with  solemn  acclamations  they  have  answered  the  test, 
and  owned  the  Lord ;  and  now  let  all  suffering,  all  opposition,  all 
agony  come.  If  his  very  prophets  fail  him,  his  faith  can  not  fail 
him.  And  thus  he  goes  forward,  feeling  to  the  depths  of  his  heart 
all  the  remonstrances  and  appeals  addressed  to  him,  yet  smiling 
in  sad  constancy  -upon  those  importunate  voices,  and  hearing  as 
if  he  heard  them  not. 

Notwithstanding,  however,  the  reluctant  affection  of  the  man- 
agers of  the  Church,  affairs  made  inevitable  progress.  Though  it 
is  perfectly  true,  on  one  side,  that  there  were  no  direct  laws  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland  against  the  exercise  of  an  entirely  unexpected 
endowment  for  which  no  provision  had  been  made,  and  equally 
certain  that  to  every  man  who  believed  these  gifts  genuine,  no  sin 
could  be  more  heinous  than  a  willful  suppression  of  them,  yet 
it  was  still  more  apparent,  on  the  other  side,  that  nothing  could 
be  more  unlike  the  reserved  and  austere  worship  of  the  Scotch 
Church,  so  carefully  abstracted  from  every  thing  that  could  excite 
imagination  or  passion,  than  the  new  and  startling  intervention  of 
voices,  unauthorized  by  any  ecclesiastical  rule,  which  introduced 


THE  TRUSTEES  TAKE  COUNSEL'S  OPINION.  455 

the  whole  round  of  human  excitement  into  those  calm  Presbyte- 
rian Sabbath-days,  stirring  into  utter  antagonism,  impatience,  and 
opposition  the  former  leaders  of  the  community,  who  found  them- 
selves thus  defied  and  thwarted  on  their  own  ground.  For  their 
minister's  convictions  they  had  the  utmost  tenderness  and  rever- 
ence, but  they  would  indeed  have  been  more  than  men  could  they 
have  seen  with  equal  forbearance  the  new  influence,  twenty  times 
more  engrossing  and  exacting  than  theirs,  which  had  become  ab- 
solute with  him,  and  through  him  exercised  unbounded  sway  in 
all  their  public  religious  services.  Feelings  less  tender  and  Chris- 
tian came  in.  Men  who  little  more  than  a  year  before  had  pledged 
their  honor  to  Irving's  support  against  the  petty  persecution  of 
the  Presbytery,  and  maintained  him  in  his  withdrawal  from  its 
jurisdiction,  now  began  to  bethink  themselves  of  the  capabilities 
of  that  very  Presbytery  against  which  they  had  protested.  That 
court  only  could,  with  any  ecclesiastical  consistency,  arbitrate  be- 
tween them  and  their  minister ;  and  at  length  they  seem  to  have 
reached  the  pitch  of  indignation  and  impatience  necessary  to  in- 
duce them  to  take  the  humiliating  step  of  asking  the  intervention 
of  the  authority  which  they  had  renounced  against  the  man  for 
whose  sake,  a  little  while  before,  they  had  thrown  off  their  alle- 
giance. This  painful  conclusion  was,  however,  reached  by  slow 
degrees.  The  first  step  toward  it  was  taken  in  the  beginning  of 
the  year,  when — still  with  a  forlorn  and  indeed  most  hopeless  hope 
of  breaking  Irving's  resolution,  if  they  were  clearly  demonstrated 
to  have  the  law  on  their  side — they  submitted  the  whole  facts  of 
the  case  to  Sir  Edward  Sugden,  and  obtained  that  eminent  law- 
yer's opinion  in  their  favor.  This  decision  gave  an  authoritative 
answer  to  the  assumption  that  the  direction  of  the  order  of  wor- 
ship in  Eegent  Square  Church  was  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the 
minister,  which  Irving  seems  to  have  been  advised  to  set  up  in 
answer  to  their  remonstrances.  Armed  with  this  document,  a 
deputation  of  the  trustees  went  to  Irving,  asking  his  final  determ- 
ination, "  He  received  them  cordially,"  writes  Mr.  Hamilton ; 
*•  expressed  himself  much  gratified  with  the  kind  manner  in  which 
they  had  always  treated  him,  and  promised  to  give  them  his  an- 
swer in  a  few  days."  A  Sunday  intervened  before  this  answer 
was  given ;  and  on  that  day,  after  each  service  in  the  church,  Ir- 
ving forestalled  the  formal  intimation,  which,  indeed,  so  thorough- 
ly were  his  sentiments  known,  was  nothing  more  than  a  form,  by 
a  public  statement  from  the  pulpit,  which  Mr.  Hamilton,  follow- 


456  IRVING'S  ADVICE  TO  HIS  PEOPLE. 

ing  the  course  of  events  in  anxious  and  minute  detail,  reports  to 
Kirkcaldy.  "I  have  something  of  great  importance  to  say  to 
you,"  said  the  preacher,  according  to  his  brother-in-law's  report : 

*'  I  do  not  know  whether  I  may  ever  look  this  congregation  again 
in  the  face  in  this  place,  and  whether  the  doors  of  the  church  will 
not  be  shut  against  me  during  this  week.  If  it  be  so,  it  will  be  sim- 
ply because  I  have  refused  to  allow  the  voice  of  the  Spirit  of  God  to 
be  silenced  in  this  church.  No  man  has  any  thing  to  say  against  me. 
I  have  offended  no  ordinance  of  God  or  man,  and  I  have  broken  no 
statute  of  man.  No  one  has  found  any  fault  with  me  at  all  except  in 
the  matter  of  my  God — nay,  on  the  contrary,  every  one  has  pro- 
nounced me  even  more  abundant  in  my  labors  and  more  diligent  in 
my  duties  of  late,  and  also  that  ray  preaching  has  been  more  simple 
and  edifying  than  formerly.  The  Church  has  been  enlarged ;  many 
souls  have  been  converted  by  the  voice  of  the  Spirit ;  the  Church  has 
fallen  off  in  nothing ;  and  altogether  the  work  of  the  Lord  has  been 
proceeding.  But  because  I  am  firm  in  my  honor  of  God  and  rever- 
ence for  His  ordinances  we  are  come  to  this.  Now  I  must  provide 
for  my  flock.  What  are  you  to  do?  You  must  not  come  here. 
Here  the  Spirit  of  God  has  been  cast  out,  and  none  can  prosper  who 
come  here  to  worship.  Go  not  to  any  church  where  they  look  shyly 
on  the  wo.rk  of  the  Spirit.  We  must '  not  forsake  the  assembling  of 
ourselves  together,  as  the  manner  of  some  is.'  This,  then,  I  advise 
for  the  present,  that  each  householder  who  is  a  member  of  this  flock 
do  gather  around  him  those  in  his  neighborhood  who  are  not  house- 
holders, and  joining  to  them  the  poor,  do  exhort  them  and  expound 
to  them  the  Word  of  the  Lord.  .  .  .  And  if  he  has  no  gifts,  there  are 
plenty  of  young  men  in  this  Church  who  are  gifted,  and  who  are  will- 
ing to  be  so  employed,  and  I  myself  am  willing  to  be  helpful  in  all 
ways  in  this  work.  All  the  other  meetings  of  the  Church  will  be 
held  in  my  house.  Let  no  one  be  troubled  for  me ;  I  am  not  troub- 
led. When  I  came  to  London,  I  said, '  Let  me  have  the  liberty  to 
preach  the  Gospel  without  let  or  hinderance,  and  I  am  ready  to  come 
without  any  bond  or  money  transaction ;  and  if  there  is  any  diffi- 
culty, let  me  come  and  be  among  you  from  house  to  house.'  To 
these  kind  friends  I  am  beholden.  They  have  ever  provided  me 
with  what  was  needful;  but  I  have  never  counted  my  house  my 
own,  nor  my  money  my  own ;  they  have  been  for  the  brethren.  And 
now  I  am  ready  to  go  forth  and  leave  them,  if  the  Lord's  will  be  so. 
If  we  should  be  cast  out  for  the  truth,  let  us  rejoice ;  yea,  let  us  ex- 
ceedingly rejoice." 

Such  was  the  sorrowful  elder's  account  of  this  address,  which 
comes  through  his  memory  evidently  dimmed  out  of  its  natural 
eloquence,  but  touching  in  the  perfect  truthfulness  of  its  appeal  to 
the  recollection  at  once  of  the  hearers  and  of  the  speaker  himself. 
Many  of  those  who  heard  Irving  speak  these  words  could  prove 
from  their  own  remembrance  the  lofty  disinterestedness  with 
which  he  had  begun  his  career,  and  none  more  than  the  men  who 


IKVING'S  ANSWER  TO  THE  TRUSTEES.  457 

now  felt  it  necessary  to  take  from  him  the  house  and  income 
which,  as  he  says,  "  he  never  counted  his  own."  What  prospect 
of  compulsory  silence  to  himself  or  dispersion  to  his  flock  had 
been  in  his  mind,  prompting  that  singular  piece  of  advice  to 
"  every  householder,"  it  is  impossible  to  tell.  Perhaps,  when  he 
spread  the  lawyer's  judgment  before  the  Lord,  dark  indications  of 
future  trouble  had  trembled  on  the  prophetic  lips,  and  nothing 
which  he  could  interpret  as  a  clear  indication  of  the  Divine  will 
had  made  light  in  the  darkness  of  the  future.  But,  however  that 
might  be,  his  course  was  decided.  If  even  he  had  to  be  silent 
from  that  work  of  preaching  which  had  at  all  times  been  his 
chosen  occupation,  he  who  would  have  come  to  London  ten  years 
before  without  "  bond  or  money  transaction,"  only  to  have  "  the 
liberty  of  preaching  the  Gospel,"  was  now  ready  to  relinquish  not 
only  all  his  living,  but  that  dearer  privilege,  the  very  power  of 
preaching,  if  so  it  must  be,  rather  than  put  any  limit  upon  the  ut- 
terances which  he  believed  divine.  The  next  day,  after  this  inti- 
mation to  the  people,  he  gave  the  formal  answer  which  had  been 
demanded  from  him  to  the  trustees  of  the  church : 

"  13  Judd  Place,  East,  28th  Februaiy,  1832. 
"My  dear  Brethren, — I  have  read  over  the  opinion  of  Sir  Ed- 
ward Sugden  Avhich  you  were  so  kind  as  to  submit  to  me,  and  I  have 
taken  a  full  week  to  consider  of  it.  The  principle  on  which  I  have 
acted  is  to  preserve  the  integrity  of  my  ministerial  character  unim- 
paired, and  to  fulfill  my  office  according  to  the  Word  of  God.  If  the 
trust-deed  do  fetter  me  therein,  I  knew  it  not  when  the  trust-deed 
was  drawn,  and  am  sure  that  it  never  was  intended  in  the  drawing 
of  it ;  for  certainly  I  would  not,  to  possess  all  the  churches  of  this 
land,  bind  myself  one  iota  from  obeying  the  great  Head  and  Bishop 
of  the  Church.  But  if  it  be  so  that  you,  the  trustees,  must  act  to 
prevent  me  and  my  flock  from  assembling  to  worshi})  God,  according 
to  the  Word  of  God,  in  the  house  committed  into  your  trust,  we  will 
look  unto  our  God  for  preservation  and  safe  keeping!  Farewell! 
may  the  Lord  have  you  in  His  holy  keeping ! 

"  Your  faithful  and  affectionate  friend,  Edwd,  Irving." 

After  this  he  was  vexed  with  no  more  of  those  affectionate  and 
importunate  arguments  which  had  tried  his  tender  heart  for 
months  before.  The  division  was  now  accepted  as  final;  com- 
promise was  no  longer  possible:  and  nothing  remained  but  to 
prove  his  divergence  from  the  rules  of  Presbyterian  worship,  and 
to  close  the  church  doors  upon  him.  "  The  trustees,"  said  Sir 
Edward  Sugden,  "ought  immediately  to  proceed  to  remove  Mr. 
Irving  from  his  pastoral  charge,  by  making  complaint  to  the  Lon- 


458        THE  FOREGONE  CONCLUSION  OF  THE  PRESBYTEKY. 

don  Presbytery  in  the  manner  pointed  out  by  the  deed."  It  was 
now  understood  by  both  parties  that  this  was  the  only  course  to 
be  adopted ;  and  the  minister  who  had  withdrawn  from  the  cen- 
sures of  that  Presbytery  a  year  before,  disowning  its  jurisdiction, 
and  the  men*  who  had  rallied  round  him  then,  and  solemnly  de- 
clared their  entire  approval  at  once  of  that  act  and  of  the  senti- 
ments which  had  roused  the  Presbytery  into  censure,  had  now  to 
approach  that  obscure  tribunal  to  have  the  matter  between  them 
decided ;  the  one  to  stand  at  the  unfriendly  bar,  the  others  to 
prosecute  their  charge  against  him.  Considering  all  that  had 
passed  before,  Irving  had  not  the  shadow  of  a  chance  before  the 
ecclesiastical  court  which  had  already  delivered  judgment  on  him, 
and  the  authority  of  which  he  had  cast  off  almost  haughtily.  It 
was  a  foregone  conclusion  to  which  that  little  group  of  ministers 
were  asked  to  come  over  again.  If  such  a  wonder  had  happened 
as  that  the  case  of  the  trustees  had  broken  down,  the  Presbytery 
itself,  now  that  he  had  been  dragged  back  within  its  grasp,  had 
matter  enough  on  which  to  condemn  him.  If  any  thing  could 
have  embittered  the  matter  in  dispute,  it  would  have  been  the  se- 
lection of  these  judges.  When,  in  the  earlier  stages  of  the  argu- 
ment, it  was  proposed  to  appeal  to  the  arbitration  of  the  Presby- 
tery, Irving  "  begged"  the  elders,  as  Mr.  Hamilton  tells  us,  not  to 
take  this  step.  But  things  had  progressed  far  in  these  few  months. 
Now  he  said  nothing  on  the  subject,  and  was  apparently  indiffer- 
ent as  to  who  might  judge  him.  The  matter  had  resolved  itself, 
indeed,  into  mere  question  and  answer ;  any  other  trial,  however 
exciting  it  might  be  at  the  moment,  was  but  a  necessary  form. 
The  simple  fact  was,  that  he  had  been  asked  to  silence  those 
strange  voices  which  the  trustees  proclaimed  to  be  mere  outcries 
of  human  delusion  and  excitement,  but  which  he  held  to  be  so 
many  utterances  of  the  voice  of  God,  and  had  answered  No; 
would  answer  No,  howsoever  the  question  might  be  asked  him ; 
opposing  to  every  argument  of  reason,  to  every  inducement  of  in- 
terest, to  every  taunt  of  folly,  a  steadfast  front  of  faith  unbroken. 
The  trial  before  the  Presbytery,  considering  the  ground  taken  by 
the  trustees,  and  the  hopelessness  of  any  real  and  grave  inquiry 
into  the  merits  of  the  question,  was  little  more  than  a  form.  But, 
notwithstanding  that,  bitterness  had  to  be  encountered ;  and,  when- 
ever it  became  inevitable,  Irving  awaited  it  calmly,  making  no  far- 

*  The  trustees  and  Kirk  session  were  not  identical,  but  the  most  influential  of  Ir- 
ving's  opponents  were  members  of  both. 


THE  LIFE  OF  THE  ACCUSED.  459 

ther  appeal  against  the  cruelty  and  humiliation.  If  he  had  car- 
ried matters  with  a  high  hand  once,  when,  secure  of  support  and 
rich  in  friends,  he  shook  off  the  dust  from  his  feet  in  testimony 
against  the  arbitrary  condemnation  of  his  former  brethren,  the  re- 
verse that  befell  him  now,  when  forced  to  return  and  plead  his 
cause  before  them,  would  have  been  mortification  enough  to  any 
ordinary  man.  He  accepted  it,  however,  with  lofty  composure, 
and  without  a  complaint,  throwing  no  obstacles  in  the  way  of 
those  for  whose  relief  and  satisfaction  this  trial  was  to  be  inflicted 
on  him.  i 

It  was  not  till  the  22d  of  March  that  the  Presbytery  received  7 
the  complaint  of  the  trustees.  An  entire  month  consequently ' 
elapsed  between  the  solemn  intimation  made  by  Irving  to  his 
people  that  their  church  would  probably  be  closed  upon  them 
and  the  commencement  of  the  proceedings.  This  month  passed 
in  the  ordinary  labors — the  extraordinary  devotions  common  to 
his  life.  Every  wintry  morning  dawned  upon  the  servant  of  God 
amid  prayers  and  prophesyings,  while  he  stood,  the  first  to  hear 
and  to  worship  amid  the  early  company,  never  intermitting,  not- 
withstanding his  faith,  the  pastor's  anxious  care  that  admonition 
should  be  mingled  with  revelation,  and  that  the  spirits  should 
prove  themselves  to  be  of  God,  by  acknowledging  the  name  that 
is  above  all  names ;  every  laborious  evening  fell  filled  up  till  its 
latest  moments  with  his  Master's  business.  Day  by  day  he 
preached,  day  by  day  sent  forth  other  men  into  the  streets  and 
highways  to  preach — if  not  like  him,  yet  with  hearts  touched  by 
the  same  fire ;  over  those  perpetual  evangelist  proclamations  with- 
out, and  that  wonderful  world  of  expectation  within,  in  which  at 
any  moment  God's  audible  voice  might  thrill  the  worshipers,  the 
days  passed  one  by  one,  mingling  the  din  of  busy  London,  the  in- 
cidents of  common  life,  the  domestic  voices  ancl  tender  tones  of 
children,  with  the  highest  strain  of  human  toil  and  climax  of  hu- 
man emotion.  Such  a  cadence  and  rhythmical  overflow  of  life 
few  men  have  ever  attained.  The  highest  dreams  of  imagination, 
trembling  among  things  incomprehensible,  could  realize  nothing 
more  awful,  nothing  so  certain  to  take  entire  possession  of  the  fas- 
cinated soul  as  those  utterances  of  the  Spirit  if  they  were  true — 
and  they  ivere  true  to  Irving's  miraculous  heart;  while,  at  the 
same  time,  no  laboring  man  could  imagine  a  more  ceaseless  round 
of  toil  than  that  by  which  he  kept  the  mighty  equilibrium  of  his 
soul,  and  counterpoised  with  generous  work  the  excitement  and 


460  "KEPROACH  HATH  BROKEN  MY  HEART." 

agitation  which  might  otherwise  have  overwhelmed  him.  Be- 
tween those  two  consuming  yet  compensating  spheres,  the  man 
himself,  not  yet  exhausted,  stands  in  a  pale  glow  of  suffering  and 
injured  love,  wounded  in  the  house  of  his  friends,  with  a  hundred 
arrows  in  the  heart  which  knows  no  defense  against  the  assault 
of  unkind  words  and  averted  looks.  He  makes  no  outcry  of  his 
own  suffering.  There,  where  he  stands,  the  dearest  voices  mur- 
mur at  him  with  taunts  of  cruel  wisdom  or  censures  of  indignant 
virtue.  They  say  he  seeks  notoriety,  courts  the  wild  suffrage  of 
popular  applause ;  they  cast  at  him  common  nicknames  of  enthu- 
siasm, fanaticism,  delusion ;  they  call  him  arrogant,  presumptuous, 
vain — even,  with  more  vulgar  tongues,  religious  trickster  and 
cheat.  In  the  very  fullness  of  that  lofty  and  prodigah  existence, 
the  blow  strikes  to  the  fountains  of  life.  A  friend  had  once  said 
to  him  that  Christians  ought  to  rejoice  when  the  outside  world 
despised  and  contemned  the  Church.  "Ah!  no,"  answered  with 
a  sigh  this  soul  experienced  in  such  trials ;  "  reproach  hath  broken 
my  heart !"  These  words  breathe  out  of  his  uncomplaining  lips  at 
this  crisis  with  ineffable  sadness,  sometimes  breaking  forth  in  pa- 
thetic outbursts  of  that  grief  which,  in  its  passion  and  vehemence, 
sounds  almost  like  the  lofty  wrath  of  the  old  prophets,  and  giv- 
ing sometimes  a  momentary  thrill  of  discord  to  his  undiminished 
eloquence.  Already  he  had  entered  deep  into  the  pangs  of  mar- 
tyrdom. 

The  following  letter  will  show  how  even  the  bosom  of  domes- 
tic affection  was  ruffled  by  these  assaults.  It  is  addressed  to  Dr. 
Martin,  who,  watching  the  progress  of  affairs  from  a  distance,  had 
not  hesitated  to  make  emphatic  and  repeated  protests  against  what 
appeared  to  him  delusion : 

"London,  7th  March,  1832. 
"My  dear  Father-in-law, — Your  letters  concerning  the  work 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  my  church,  and  my  conduct  in  respect  tliereto, 
do  trouble  and  grieve  me  very  much,  because  of  your  rashness  in 
coming  to  a  conclusion  on  so  awful  a  question  without  the  materials 
for  a  judgment,  and  because  of  the  imqnalified  manner  in  which  both 
you  and  Samuel  and  all  condemn  me,  without  any  adequate  informa- 
tion, and,  as  seems  to  me,  without  due  tenderness  and  love.  If  this 
be  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  voice  of  Jesus  in  His  Church, 
who  am  I  that  I  should  interdict  or  prevent  it  any  way  ?  I  believe 
it  is  so,  and  that  is  the  only  reason  why  I  have  acted  as  I  have  done, 
and  will  continue  so  to  do  until  the  end.  ...  I  am  responsible  to 
the  great  Head  of  the  Church  in  virtue  of  being  the  angel  of  the 
Church ;  the  elders  and  deacons  have  an  authority  derived  from  and 
delegated  to  tliem  by  me,  but  not  to  the  dividing  or  deprivation  of 


IRVING  COMPLAINS  TO  DR.  MARTIN.  4gl 

miue.  The  grounds  of  this  doctrine  I  laid  out  before  this  came  to 
pass  in  my  Lectures  on  the  Apocalypse,  and  I  have  acted  thereafter 
according  to  previous  conviction,  and  as  a  course  of  conduct,  and  not 
from  the  j^articular  case,  as  you  and  Samuel  unkindly  and  unjustly 
suppose.  I  never  made  any  agreement,  at  any  time,  to  suppress  the 
voice  of  the  Spirit  in  the  public  assemblies  of  the  Church,  and  never 
will  do.  For  one  week,  while  I  thought  the  people  were  tm-bulently 
set  against  it,  I  wavered  about  its  proceeding  in  the  evening  till  I 
saw  my  way  clearly. 

"  Moreover,  dear  father,  know  and  be  assured  that  the  Lord  pros- 
pers my  ministry  and  ray  flock  more  abundantly  than  ever;  that 
more  souls  than  ever  hear  the  Word  at  my  mouth,  and  more  souls 
are  converted  unto  the  Lord  Jesus ;  .  .  .  and  for  myself,  and  my  wife 
and  children,  fear  nothing,  because  we  serve  the  Lord,  and  sufter  for 
righteousness'  sake.  What  you  misname  my  imagination  is  my  spir- 
it, which  surely  you  would  wish  to  see  triumphant  over  the  under- 
standing of  the  natural  mind.  .  .  .  Oh,  my  dear  sir,  look  to  your  own 
dead,  and  heretical,  and  all  but  apostate  Church  at  home,  and  see 
what  repentance  and  humiliation  can  be  offered  for  it.  Rejoice  that 
there  is  one  Church  in  this  land  where  the  voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
speaking  in  the  members,  is  heard.  Give  thanks,  and  judge  no  rash 
judgments ;  for,  however  they  be  well  meant,  they  are  far,  far  from 
the  truth,  and  add  much  to  the  burden  which  I  have  already  to  sus- 
tain. .  .  .  Farewell !     God  keep  you  faithful  in  such  times  ! 

"  Your  affectionate  and  dutiful  son,  Edavd.  Irvixg." 

Over  this  letter  wise  beads  were  doubtless  shaken  and  sorrow- 
ing tears  shed  in  the  Kirkcaldy  manse,  where  the  family,  in  their 
mutual  letters,  full  of  Edward,  confide  to  each  other  a  certain  dis- 
tressed and  excited  impatience  of  his  weakness,  mingled  with  in- 
voluntary outbreaks  of  love  and  praise,  which,  uttered  evidently 
to  relieve  their  own  hearts,  give  an  affecting  picture  of  the  won- 
derful hold  which  this  brother,  straying  daily  farther  out  of  their 
comprehension  and  sympathy,  had  of  their  hearts. 

With  strange  calmness,  after  these  utterances  of  emotion,  yet 
giving  example  of  the  common  feeling,  Mr.  Hamilton's  sensible, 
regretful  voice  interposes  once  more  in  the  narrative,  telling  over 
again,  with  the  sigh  of  impatient  wonder  natural  to  a  man  so  sa- 
gacious and  unexcitable,  those  same  prophecies  and  revelations 
given  by  Mr.  Baxter,  which  Irving  had  reported  in  full  conviction 
of  their  imj)ortance.  "  I  merely  mention  the  above  to  give  you 
some  idea  of  the  nature  of  the  manifestations  which  have  been 
made  in  the  Church,"  he  writes.  "  There  have  been  others,  how- 
ever, of  a  much  more  comforting  tendency.  I  believe  that  a  large 
proportion  of  the  present  congregation  agree  with  Edward  in  the 
belief  of  the  reality  of  those  manifestations,  and  that  they  will  fol- 


462  FUNDAMENTAL  QUESTION  INVOLVED. 

low  him  wherever  he  may  remove  to ;  and  I  must  say  that  they 
are  in  general  very  pious  people,  zealous  for  God,  and  most  exem- 
plary in  the  discharge  of  their  religious  duties.  As  for  Edward, 
he  continues  unwearied  and  unceasing  in  his  labors ;  indeed,  it  is 
a  marvel  to  me  how  he  is  able  to  bear  up  under  them  all.  I 
never  knew  any  man  so  devoted  to  the  service  of  his  Master,  or 
more  zealous  in  the  performance  of  what  he  conceives  to  be  his 
duty." 

Such  being  the  condition  of  affairs,  the  question  came  before 
the  London  Presbytery  to  its  final  trial.  "  Is  there  any  thing  in 
the  constitution  of  the  Church  which  forbids  the  exercise  of  the 
prophetic  gift,  supposing  it  to  be  real?"  asks  Mr.  Hamilton,  with 
sudden  acuteness,  in  the  letter  above  quoted.  Such  a  question 
would  indeed  seem  to  be  the  first  and  most  urgent,  seeing  that 
the  emergency  was  distinctly  unexpected  and  unprovided  for  by 
the  original  legislators  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  But,  so  far  as 
I  am  aware,  nobody  attempted  to  give  an  answer  to  this  funda- 
mental inquiry.  In  the  trial  which  followed,  it  does  not  seem  ever 
to  have  been  taken  into  consideration  at  all.  The  matter  was 
contracted  and  debased,  at  the  very  outset,  to  a  superficial  inquiry 
into  facts,  the  complaint  of  the  trustees  being  entirely  confined  to 
the  assertion  that  unauthorized  persons,  "neither  ministers  nor 
licentiates  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,"  and  in  some  cases  "  neither 
members  nor  seat-holders"  of  the  individual  congregation,  had 
been  permitted  to  "  interrupt  the  public  services  of  the  Church." 
The  Presbytery,  of  course,  did  not  confine  themselves  to  the  prov- 
ing of  this  simple  issue ;  but,  amid  all  the  inquisitions  that  follow- 
ed, no  one  seems  to  have  been  sensible  that  the  first  question  to 
be  asked  in  the  matter  was  that  put  by  Mr.  Hamilton,  or  that, 
supposing  the  strange  possibility  of  Irving's  belief  proving  true, 
it  was  necessary  to  find  out  whether  God  Himself  might  not  be 
an  unauthorized  speaker  in  His  too  well-defended  Church.  This 
hypothesis  the  little  ecclesiastical  court  did  not  take  into  consid- 
eration for  a  moment.  They  put  it  aside  arbitrarily,  as  it  is  al- 
ways so  easy  to  do,  and,  indeed,  never  seem  to  have  thought,  or 
to  have  had  suggested  to  them,  that  this  profounder  general  ques- 
tion lay  under  the  special  case  which  they  had  immediately  in 
hands,  and  that  no  radical  settlement  could  be  made  of  the  indi- 
vidual matter  without  some  attempt,  at  least,  to  establish  the  gen- 
eral principle. 

Before,  however,  these  final  proceedings  were  commenced,  Ir- 


LAST  REMONSTRANCE.  463 

ving  addressed  yet  another  letter  to  liis  opponents.  It  is  witliout 
date,  but  was  evidently  intended  to  reach  them  on  the  occasion 
of  a  conclusive  meeting,  of  which  he  had  been  informed ;  and, 
while  less  familiar  and  more  solemn  than  his  former  letters,  still 
overflows  with  personal  affection. 

"Men  and  Brethren, — As  a  man  and  the  head  of  a  family, 
bound  to  provide  for  himself  and  those  of  his  own  house,  I  am  ena- 
bled of  God  to  be  perfectly  indifferent  to  the  issue  of  your  delibera- 
tions this  night,  though  it  should  go  to  deprive  me  of  all  my  income, 
and  cast  me — after  ten  years  of  hard  service,  upon  the  wide  world, 
with  my  Avife  and  my  children — forth  from  a  house  which  was  built 
almost  entirely  upon  the  credit  of  my  name,  and  primarily  for  my 
life  enjoyment,  where  also  the  ashes  of  my  children  repose. 

"  As  a  minister  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  hath  been  honored 
of  Him  to  bring  forth  from  obscurity  a  whole  system  of  precious 
truth,  and  especially  to  proclaim  to  this  land  the  glad  and  glorious 
tidings  of  His  speedy  coming,  and  strengthened  of  Him  to  stand  for 
the  great  bulwarks  of  the  faith,  ofttimes  almost  single  and  alone,  I 
am  still  indifferent  to  the  issue  of  this  night's  deliberations,  which  can 
bring  little  addition  to  the  burdens  of  one  groaning  under  the  re- 
proach of  ten  thousand  tongues,  in  ten  thousand  ways  put  forth 
against  his  good  and  honorable  name.  For  I  am  well  assured  that 
my  God  whom  I  serve,  and  for  whom  I  suffer  reproach,  will  support 
and  richly  reward  me,  even  though  ye  also  should  turn  against  me, 
whom  the  Lord  set  to  be  a  defense  and  protection  round  about  me. 
As  the  pastor  of  a  flock,  consisting  of  several  hundreds  of  precious 
souls,  and  the  minister  of  the  Word  unto  thousands  weekly,  nay,  daily 
congregating  into  our  beautiful  house,  though  it  hath  cost  me  many 
a  pang,  I  am  also  entirely  resigned  to  His  will,  and  can  cast  them  all 
upon  His  rich  and  bountiful  providence,  who  is  the  good  Shepherd 
of  the  sheep,  and  doth  carry  the  lambs  in  His  bosom,  and  gently  lead 
those  that  are  great  with  young.  On  no  account,  therefore,  be  ye 
assured,  personal  to  myself  as  a  man,  as  a  minister  of  Christ,  or  as  a 
pastor  of  His  people,  do  I  intrude  myself  upon  your  meeting  this 
night  with  this  communication  ;  but  for  your  sakes  I  wait,  even  for 
yours,  who  are,  every  one  of  you,  dear  to  my  heart.  Bear  with  me, 
then,  the  more  patiently,  seeing  it  is  for  your  sakes  I  take  up  my  pen 
to  write. 

"  I  do  you  solemnly  to  wit,  men  and  brethren,  before  Almighty 
God,  the  heart-searcher,  that  whosoever  lifteth  a  finger  against  the 
work  which  is  proceeding  in  the  Church  of  Christ  under  my  pastor- 
al care  is  rising  up  against  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  I  warn  him,  even 
with  tears,  to  beware  and  stand  back,  for  he  will  assuredly  bring  upon 
himself  the  wrath  and  indignation  of  the  God  of  heaven  and  earth 
if  he  dare  to  go  forward.  Many  months  of  most  painstaking  and 
searching  observation,  the  most  varied  proofs  of  every  kind,  taken 
with  all  the  skill  and  circumspection  which  the  Lord  hath  bestowed 
upon  me ;  the  substance  of  the  doctrine,  the  character  of  the  Spirit, 
and  the  form  and  circumstances  of  the  utterances  tried  by  the  Holy 


464  NOT  THE  SHADOW  OF  A  DOUBT. 

Scriptures,  and  whatever  remains  most  venerable  in  the  traditions  of 
the  Church  ;  the  present  power  and  penetration  of  the  Word  spoken 
over  the  souls  of  the  most  holy  persons,  Avith  the  abiding  eifects  of 
edification  upon  hundreds  who  have  come  under  ray  own  personal 
knowledge;  the  nature  of  the  opposition  which,  from  a  hundred 
quarters,  most  of  them  entirely  indiflerent,  infidel,  and  atheistical, 
liatli  arisen  against  it,  together  with  the  efiects  which  the  opposition 
hath  had  upon  the  minds  of  honest  and  good  persons  who  have 
stumbled  at  it ;  their  haste  and  headiness ;  their  unrest  and  trouble 
of  mind ;  the  attempt  of  Satan,  by  mimicry  of  the  work,  and  thrust- 
ing in  upon  it  of  seduction  and  devil-possessed  persons  to  mar  it,  and 
the  jealous  holiness  with  which  God  hath  detected  all  these  attempts, 
and  watched  over  His  own  work  to  keep  it  from  intermixture  and 
pollution ;  and,  above  all,  the  testimony  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  my 
own  conscience,  as  a  man  serving  God  with  my  house ;  the  discern- 
ment of  the  same  Holy  Ghost  in  me  as  a  minister  over  His  truth  and 
watchman  over  His  people — all  these,  and  many  other  things,  which 
I  am  not  careful  to  set  out  in  order  or  at  large,  seeing  the  time  for 
argument  is  gone  by,  and  the  time  for  delivering  a  man's  soul  is 
come,  do  Igave  not  a  shadow  of  doubt  on  my  mind  that  the  work 
which  hath  begun  under  the  roof  of  our  sanctuary,  and  which  many 
of  you  are  taking  steps  to  prevent  from  proceeding  there,  is  the  "work 
of  God — is  verily  the  mighty  woek  of  God,  the  most  sacred  work 
of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  which  to  blaspheme  is  to  blaspheme  the  Holy 
Ghost ;  which  to  act  against  is  to  act  against  the  Holy  Ghost.  This 
is  the  guilt  of  the  action  you  are  proceeding  in ;  whether  there  be 
sufficient  cause  for  bringing  down  such  a  load  upon  your  heads,  dear- 
ly-beloved brethren,  judge  ye.  For  my  part,  I  would  rather,  were  I 
a  trustee,  lose  all  my  property  ten  times  told  than  move  a  finger  in 
hinderance  of  this  great  work  of  God,,  which  God  calleth  on  you  to 
further  by  all  means  in  your  power,  and  to  abide  the  consequences  of  a 
prosecution,  yea,  all  consequences  between  life  and  death,  rather  than 
hinder.  Oh, '  what  is  a  man  profited  if  he  gain  the  whole  world  and 
lose  his  own  soul ;  or  what  shall  a  man  give  in  exchange  for  his  soul  ?' 
"You  have  determined  to  lodge  a  complaint  against  me  to  the 
London  Presbytery  for  no  immorality  of  conduct,  for  no  neglect  of 
duty,  for  no  breach  of  good  faith,  for  no  change  of  ordinance  proper 
to  the  Church  of  Scotland,  for  no  departure  from  the  constitution  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  for  no  cause,  in  point  of  fact,  which  was  or 
could  have  been  contemplated  in  the  formation  of  the  trust-deed,  but 
simply  and  solely  because  God,  in  His  great  love  and  mercy,  hath  re- 
stored the  gifts  of  Providence  to  the  Church  under  my  care,  and  I, 
the  responsible  minister  under  Christ,  being  convinced  thereof,  have 
taken  it  upon  me  to  order  it  according  to  the  mind  and  will  of  Christ, 
the  only  Head  and  Potentate  of  His  Church,  as  the  same  is  express- 
ed in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  I  ask  ye  before  God,  and  as  ye  shall  an- 
swer at  the  great  day,  if  the  trust-deed  could  have  been  intended  to 
prevent  the  spiritual  gifts  from  ever  being  exercised  within  the  build- 
ing, or  from  being  ordered  according  to  the  Word  of  God  ?  May  I 
go  farther,  and  ask  whether  the  constitution  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
laud,  or  of  any  church,  could  be  intended  to  keep  the  voice  of  Jesus 


IMPASSIONED  APPEAL.  465 

from  being  heard,  as  heretofore  it  was  Avont  to  be,  within  the  assem- 
blies of  His  people  ?  Oh,  beloved  brethren,  how  can  you  find  it  in 
your  hearts  to  complain  against  one  who  hath  been  so  faithful  among 
you  to  declare  the  whole  counsel  of  God,  and  to  do  every  thing  by 
night  and  by  day  for  the  good  of  the  flock  and  of  all  men,  merely  be- 
cause he  hath  been  faithful  to  his  Lord,  as  well  as  to  the  people  of  the 
Lord,  and  would  not  by  a  mountain  of  opposition  be  daunted  from 
acknowledging  the  work  and  walking  by  the  counsel  of  his  God  ?  I 
beseech  you  to  search  your  hearts,  and  examine  how  much  of  this 
complaint  ariseth  from  a  desire  to  do  your  duty  as  trustees,  how 
much  from  dislike  and  opposition  to  the  Avork,  from  the  influence  of 
the  popular  stream,  and  the  fear  of  the  popular  odium,  from  your  own 
pride  of  heart  and  unwillingness  to  examine  any  thing  new,  from  the 
love  of  being  at  ease  in  Zion,  and  from  other  evil  causes  over  which 
I  have  a  constant  jealousy  in  myself  and  in  my  flock,  whom  I  should 
love  better  than  myself.  I  do  not  judge  any  one  in  this  matter ;  but 
I  Avould  be  blind  indeed  if  I  did  not  discern  the  working  of  these  and 
the  like  motives  of  the  flesh  in  many  of  you,  and  I  would  be  unfaith- 
ful if  I  did  not  mention  them.  I  fear  lest  I  may  have  been  unfaithful 
in  time  past ;  if  so,  God  forgive  me,  and  do  you  forgive  me,  and  take 
this  as  the  last  and  complete  expression  of  my  love  to  all  of  you. 
Oh,  my  brethren,  take  time  and  think  what  tenant  may  be  expected 
to  come  and  take  up  his  abode  in  that  house  from  which  the  Holy 
Ghost  hath  been  cast  forth !  It  will  never  prosper  or  come  to  any 
good  until  it  hath  been  cleansed  from  this  abomination  by  sore  and 
sorrowful  repentance.  How  can  you  make  a  fashion  of  calling  it  a 
house  of  praise  or  prayer  any  longer,  after  having  banished  forth  of 
it  the  voice  of  Jesus  lifted  up  in  the  midst  of  the  Church  of  His 
saints,  which  is  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost?  Surely  disappoint- 
ment and  defeat  will  rest  upon  it  forever.  God  will  not  bless  it ;  the 
servants  of  God  will  flee  away  from  it ;  it  will  stand  a  monument  of 
folly  and  infatuation.  Nay,  so  much  hath  the  Lord  made  me  to  per- 
ceive the  iniquity  of  this  thing,  that  I  believe  it  will  bring  down  judg- 
ment upon  all  who  take  part  in  it,  upon  their  houses,  upon  the  city 
itself  in  which  the  National  Scotch  Church  hath  been  a  lamp,  yea, 
and  a  light  unto  the  whole  land,  and  to  the  distant  parts  of  the  earth. 
Oh,  my  brethren,  retrace  your  steps ;  leave  this  work  in  the  hands  of 
the  Lord.  Come  forward  and  confess  your  sin  in  having  thought  or 
spoken  evil  against  it.  Come  to  the  help  of  God  against  the  mighty. 
I  beseech  you  to  hear  my  words.  They  have  been  written  with  pray- 
er and  fasting ;  and  when  I  read  them  over  about  an  hour  ago  in  the 
hearing  of  one  gifted  with  the  Spirit,  that  the  Lord,  if  He  saw  good, 
might  express  His  mind,  the  consequences  which  he  denounced  upon 
the  doing  of  this  act  were  frightful  to  hear.  I  had  little  thought  of. 
mentioning  this  to  any  one,  but  it  seemeth  to  be  not  right  to  hide  it 
in  my  own  breast.  If  you  desire,  dear  brethren,  any  personal  com- 
munication with  me  upon  this  awful  subject,  I  beseech  you  to  send 
for  me,  and  I  will  be  at  your  call ;  for  I  could  stand  to  be  tortured 
from  head  to  foot  rather  than  any  one  of  you  should  go  forward  in 
such  an  undertaking  as  to  prevent  the  voice  of  God  from  being  heard 
in  any  house  over  which  you  have  any  jurisdiction. 

Gg 


466  THE  TRUSTEES'  COMPLAINT. 

"  May  the  Lord  preserve  you  from  all  evil,  and  lead  you  in  the  way 
of  His  own  blessed  will !     Amen  and  Amen ! 

"  Your  faithful  and  loving  pastor  and  friend, 

"  Edwd.  Irving." 

This  wonderful  letter  proves  over  again,  if  more  proof  were 
needed,  how  impossible  it  was  for  Irving  to  open  his  mouth  with- 
out unfolding  his  very  heart  and  soul. 

The  trustees  of  the  church  received  this  impassioned  appeal, 
knowing  better  than  any  other  men  how  true  were  those  asser- 
tions of  his  own  purity  and  faithfulness  to  which  Irving  was  driv- 
en ;  but,  with  such  an  address  in  their  hands,  went  forward  calm- 
ly to  the  Presbytery  and  presented  the  complaint,  which  he  mar- 
vels, with  grieved  surprise  and  wounded  affection,  how  they  could 
"  find  it  in  their  heart"  to  prefer  against  him.  This  complaint, 
which  begins  by  setting  forth  the  character  of  the  trust-deed,  and 
the  rigid  particularity  with  which  it  had  bound  the  Eegent  Square 
Church  to  the  worship  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  finally  settles 
into  five  charges  against  the  minister.  Perhaps  it  was  in  tender- 
ness for  him  that  every  hint  of  divergence  in  doctrine,  or  even  of 
extravagance  in  belief,  was  kept  back  from  this  strange  indict- 
ment ;  but  it  is  impossible  to  read,  without  wonder,  those  charges 
upon  which  the  existence  of  a  congregation,  and  the  position  of  a 
man  so  notable  and  honored,  now  depended.  They  are  as  fol- 
lows: 

"  First.  That  the  Rev.  Edward  Irving  has  suffered  and  permitted, 
and  still  allows,  the  public  services  of  the  Church  in  the  worship  of 
God,  on  the  SalDbath  and  other  days,  to  be  interrupted  by  persons 
not  being  either  ministers  or  licentiates  of  the  Church  of  Scotland. 

"  Second.  That  the  said  Rev.  Edward  Irving  has  suffered  and  per- 
mitted, and  still  allows,  the  public  services  of  the  said  church,  in  the 
worship  of  God,  to  be  interrupted  by  persons  not  being  either  mem- 
bers or  seat-holders  of  the  said  church. 

"  TJiird.  That  the  said  Rev.  E.  Irving  has  suffered  and  permitted, 
and  also  publicly  encourages,  females  to  speak  in  the  same  church, 
and  to  interrupt  and  disturb  the  public  worship  of  God  in  the  church 
on  Sabbath  and  other  days. 

"  Fourth.  That  the  said  Rev.  E.  Irving  hath  suffered  and  permit- 
ted, and  also  publicly  encourages,  other  individuals,  members  of  the 
said  Church,  to  interrupt  and  disturb  the  public  worship  of  God  in 
the  church  on  Sabbath  and  other  days. 

"  Fifth.  That  the  said  Rev.  E.  Irving,  for  the  purpose  of  encour- 
aging and  exciting  the  said  interi'uptions,  has  appointed  times  when 
a  suspension  of  the  usual  worshij)  in  the  said  chui'ch  takes  place,  for 
said  persons  to  exercise  the  supposed  gifts  with  which  they  profess 
to  be  endowed." 


MEETING  OF  THE  PRESBYTERY.  467 

After  all  tlie  agitation  and  excitement,  after  the  sorrowful  strug- 
gle v/hich  had  just  come  to  an  end,  and  all  the  depths  of  feeling 
and  suffering  involved,  this  bald  statement  comes  with  all  the  ef- 
fect of  an  anti-climax  upon  the  interested  spectator.  Was  this, 
then,  all?  these  mere  matters  of  fact — this  breach  of  common  reg- 
ulation and  decorum  ?  Was  this  important  enough  to  call  for  all 
the  formal  paraphernalia  of  law — the  reverend  bench  of  judges — 
the  witnesses  and  examinations — the  pleas  of  accuser  and  defend- 
er ?  The  court,  we  may  be  sure,  had  no  mind  to  confine  itself  to 
the  mere  proof  of  charges  so  trifling  in  themselves.  A  month  aft- 
er the  presentation  of  this  indictment  the  Presbytery  assembled 
for  "  the  hearing  of  parties."  There  were  present  six  ministers 
and  three  elders,  and  the  place  of  meeting  was  the  old  Scotch 
Church  in  London  Wall.  With  that  odd  simulation  of  legal 
forms,  and  affectation  of  scrupulous  rule  and  precedent,  joined  to 
all  the  irregularities  of  a  household  examination,  which  charac- 
terize a  Presbyterian  Church  Court  in  a  country  where  Presbyte- 
rianism  has  no  acknowledged  authority,  and  where  the  unrecog- 
nized tribunal  is  without  professional  guidance,  the  judges  took 
their  places,  and  the  process  began.  A  Mr.  Mann,  one  of  the 
trustees,  appeared  for  the  complainers ;  Irving  stood  by  himself 
on  his  defense  —  Mr,  Cardale,  a  solicitor,  accompanying  him,  and 
making  what  hopeless  attempts  he  could,  now  and  then,  to  recall 
the  precautions  of  a  court  of  justice  to  the  recollection  of  the  as- 
sembly. The  witnesses  called  by  the  complainers  were  three  of 
Irving's  closest  supporters ;  one,  a  "  gifted  person,"  who  had  him- 
self taken  a  very  decided  part  in  the  "interruptions"  which  he 
was  called  to  prove.  Thus,  with  wonderful  and  apparently  cause- 
less cruelty,  in  very  strange  contrast  to  the  consideration  they  had 
hitherto  shown  him,  his  opponents  contrived  his  downfall  by  the 
hands  of  those  who  not  only  believed  with  him,  but  one  of  whom 
had  been  an  actual  instrument  of  his  peril. 

On  this  same  eventful  April  morning,  before  coming  with  those 
three  witnesses,  whom  a  common  faith  made  his  natural  defend- 
ers, but  whom  the  selection  of  his  adversaries  had  chosen  to  sub- 
stantiate their  case  against  him,  to  the  court  where  he  was  to  take 
his  place  at  the  bar,  a  still  more  cruel  and  utterly  unexpected  blow, 
fell  upon  Irving.  He  who,  of  all  the  prophetic  speakers,  had 
spoken  with  most  boldness  and  claimed  the  highest  authority ; 
he  who,  "in  the  power,"  had  expounded  the  most  mysterious 
prophecies  of  the  Apocalypse,  and  pronounced  the  very  limit  of 


468  KECANTATION  OF  BAXTER. 

time,  the  three  years  and  a  half  which  were  to  elapse  before  the 
witnesses  were  received  up  to  heaven ;  he  whose  utterances  only 
a  month  or  two  before,  Irving,  in  all  the  assurance  of  utter  trust, 
had  sent  to  his  friends,  that  they  too  might  be  edified  and  triumph 
in  the  light  which  God  was  giving  to  his  Church,  Eobert  Baxter, 
came  suddenly  up  from  Yorkshire  to  intimate  the  total  downfall 
of  his  own  pretensions,  and  to  disown  the  inspiration  of  which  so 
short  a  time  before  he  had  convinced  the  troubled  pastor,  who  for 
that  once  found  it  "hard"  to  believe.  "I  reached  him  on  the 
morning  of  his  appearance  before  the  Presbytery  of  London," 
writes  this  penitent,  apparently  as  impetuous  and  absolute  in  his 
renunciation  as  in  his  former  claims.  "Calling  him  and  Mr,  J. 
Cardale  apart,  I  told  them  my  conviction  that  we  had  all  been 
speaking  by  a  lying  spirit,  and  not  by  the  Spirit  of  God."  A 
most  startling  and  grievous  preface  to  the  defense  which  was  that 
day  to  be  made.  The  little  group  went  doubtless  with  troubled 
souls  to  that  encounter,  knowing  well  how  strong  a  point  this 
would  be  for  their  opponents,  and  themselves  dismayed  and 
brought  to  a  sudden  stand-still  by  a  desertion  so  unlooked  for. 
Had  Irving's  heart  been  discourageable,  or  his  faith  less  than  a 
matter  of  life  and  death,  such  a  blow,  falling  at  such  a  time,  might 
well  have  disabled  him  altogether.  There  is  no  trace  that  it  had 
any  effect  upon  him  on  that  important  day.  When  they  had 
reached  London  Wall,  and  the  Moderator  of  the  Presbytery  was 
opening  the  sitting  with  prayer,  a  message  suddenly  burst,  with 
echoing  preface  of  the  "  tongue,"  from  one  of  the  three  witnesses. 
Perhaps  it  comforted  that  heart  torn  with  many  sorrows,  which, 
when  needing  so  emphatically  all  its  strength,  had  been  subject 
to  so  overwhelming  a  discouragement.  At  all  events,  it  was  with 
dignity  and  steadfastness  unbroken  that  Irving  met  the  harassing 
and  irritating  process  which  now  opened.  As  an  example  of  the 
manner  in  which  this  so-called  trial  was  conducted,  I  quote  a  pas- 
sage here  and  there  from  the  report : 

"The  first  witness  called  was  Mr.  Mackenzie.* 

'•'•  Mr.  Man7i  (the  spokesman  of  the  comi^lainers).  You  are  an  el- 
der of  the  National  Scotch  Church  ? 

"  I  am.  A  jurat  proof  of  oath  before  a  Master  in  Chancery  was 
here  put  in. 

"  You  were  an  elder  of  the  Chiu-ch  prior  to  October,  1831  ?  Yes, 
I  was. 

*  This  gentleman  was  the  only  elder  who  entirely  sympathized  with  Irving,  and 
went  with  him  when  shut  out  from  Regent  Square. 


BEGINNING  OF  THE  TRIAL.  469 

"  Will  you,  to  save  the  time  of  the  Presbytery,  detail  some  of  those 
exhibitions  which  you  witnessed  in  the  Scotch  Church  betwixt  No- 
vember and  March  last  ? 

"  Moderator.  That  is  too  leading  a  question.  You  may  ask  if  he 
has  witnessed  any  thing  in  the  church  which  is  a  breach  of  order 
prior  to  that  date. 

"  J/r.  3Iann.  I  admit  this  is  not  right,  but  I  ask  him  the  detail  of 
the  j3roceedings,  and  the  j^ersons  concerned  in  them.  If  he  declines, 
I  will  put  the  question  seriatim.  To  the  Avitness :  Detail  the  occur- 
rences different  from  ordinary  worship  prior  to  that  time,  if  any  ? 
There  have  certainly  occurrences  taken  place  in  the  church  since  the 
period  stated  which  had  not  taken  place  in  the  church  before. 

"  State  what  they  are  ?  Certain  persons  have  spoken  who  had 
never  spoken  in  the  church  before." 

A  detailed  account  of  the  persons  who  had  thus  spoken  was 
then  drawn  from  the  witness,  along  with  the  fact  that  interrup- 
tions of  the  worship,  consisting  of  objections  to  points  of  doctrine, 
made  by  strangers,  had  occurred  previous  to  October,  1831,  and 
■been  promptly  put  down.     The  examination  then  proceeded. 

"  Moderator.  Do  any  members  of  the  com*t  wish  to  put  questions 
to  the  witness  ? 

'■'•  Mr.  Maclean.  Pray,  Moderator,  will  you  allow  me  to  ask  whether 
the  witness  considers,  from  what  he  had  previously  heard  there,  that 
there  were  new  doctrines  taught  ? 

"  Solicitor.  I  object  to  the  question :  this  is  not  an  examination 
into  Mr.  Irving's  doctrines. 

"  Moderator.  It  is  a  valid  objection. 

"  Ml-.  Miller  questioned  this  opinion,  and  pressed  the  question.  Mr. 
Maclean  waived  it. 

"  Moderator.  I  wish  to  put  one  other  question.  You  have  alluded 
to  interruptions  that  have  taken  place  as  being  objections  to  the  doc- 
trines taught  at  the  time.  Now  you  are  a  party  on  oath  ;  has  there 
ever  been  declared  in  that  church  a  connection  between  that  doctrine 
and  the  manifestations  in  question?  I  do  not  perceive  the  connec- 
tion of  that  question  with  the  previous  question.  It  was  a  stranger 
that  objected  to  the  doctrine. 

"  Moderator.  Have  you  heard  the  manifestations  adduced  as  a  sup- 
port to  that  doctrine  ?  I  do  not  recollect  what  the  doctrine  was  that 
was  objected  to,  so  I  can  not  answer  your  question,  sir." 

After  much  more  of  the  same  loose  and  confused  interrogations, 
Irving,  doubtless  as  informal  as  his  judges,  himself  took  the  wit- 
ness in  hand,  and  by  means  of  broadly  suggestive  questions  estab- 
lished their  concurrence  of  belief  that  the  interruptions  complain- 
ed of  were  utterances  not  "made  by  the  persons  themselves," 
but  "in  the  strength  and  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  He 
then  proceeded  to  ask,  "  So  far  as  you  have  been  able  to  search, 


470  EXAJVIINATION.— THE  PROPHET  TAPLIN. 

does  it  agree  with  the  things  written  in  the  Scripture  or  not?" 
when  immediately  a  tumult  of  opposition  arose.  The  Moderator 
interfered  at  once  to  declare  the  question  irregular,  as  no  doubt, 
under  any  pretense  of  adherence  to  legal  forms,  it  was.  The  ob- 
jection of  the  Presbyterial  president,  however,  was  not  that  the 
witness's  opinion  was  asked  where  only  his  evidence  as  to  matters 
of  fact  was  admissible,  but  that  the  matter  in  dispute  was  not 
whether  these  "interruptions"  were  according  to  Scripture,  but 
whether  they  were  in  accordance  with  the  standards  of  the  Church. 
A  hot  but  brief  discussion  followed,  in  which,  with  a  courage  for 
which  they  certainly  deserve  credit,  every  clerical  member  of  the 
court  declared,  individually,  in  opposition  to  Irving's  protest,  that 
"  the  reverend  defender  was  quite  out  of  order  in  appealing  to 
the  Scriptures,"  and  that  "  the  question  was  not  the  Word  of  God, 
but  the  trust-deed  and  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  of  Scotland." 
This  matter  being  settled,  the  business  proceeded,  and  the  second 
witness,  Mr.  Taplin,  one  of  the  "  gifted  persons,"  who  had  already 
given  practical  evidence  on  the  subject  by  the  utterance  with 
which  he  had  interrupted  the  opening  prayer,  was  called.  After 
eliciting  from  this  witness  the  fact  of  his  own  frequent  exercise 
of  the  prophetic  gift,  and  that  he  had  been  once  reproved  by  "  a 
sister"  for  speaking  by  "  a  spirit  of  error,"  the  following  questions 
were  put : 

"  3Ir.  Mann.  "When  you  have  thus  spoken,  has  it  been  duiing  the 
public  service  of  the  Church  on  Sunday  ?  I  do  not  remember  ever 
speaking  but  once  on  the  Sunday. 

"  Was  that  during  the  service  ?  It  was  at  the  close  of  Mr.  Irving's 
sermon." 

The  Moderator  now  interposed  with  what  seems,  considering 
the  transparent  and  candid  character  of  the  accused,  an  inconceiv- 
able insinuation. 

"  Now,  sir,"  said  this  Christian  judge,  "  was  it  not  hy  a  previous 
arrangement  luith  Mr.  Irving  that  you  then  spoke  ?"  The  amazed 
witness  answered  with  natural  indignation,  "Do  you  think,  sir, 
we  stand  before  you  knaves  ?  I  should  have  abhorred  the  idea 
of  it.  I  could  not  have  entered  into  such  an  arrangement  had 
Mr.  Irving  been  willing;  but  I  believe  his  heart  is  too  pure  to 
have  been  a  party  to  such  a  proceeding." 

"  Was  there  not  an  arrangement  that  the  speaking  should  not  take 
place  till  after  the  sermon  ?  I  understand  you  to  ask  if  it  was  by 
concert  or  private  arrangement  previously  entered  into,  whereas  the 
arrangement  was  made  some  time  afterward. 


A  DISTINCTION  OF  NAMES.  471 

"  By  this  answer  now  given,  the  witness  recognizes  an  arrange- 
ment to  have  been  afterward  entered  into  ?  The  arrangement  was 
not  made  with  the  gifted  persons ;  it  was  Mr.  Irving's  own  order ; 
and  in  making  it  he  never  consulted  with  us ;  and  wlien  I  heard  of  it 
afterward,  I  said  in  my  heart,  Will  he  set  bounds  to  the  Spirit  ? 
Will  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  submit  to  speak  when  he  pleaseth  ? 

"  Mr.  Irving.  For  the  honor  of  a  Christian  minister,  I  must  say 
one  word  here.  I  made  an  order  that  the  speaking  should  be  per- 
mitted after  the  service,  because  I  did  not  wish  to  agitate  the  feelings 
of  the  congregation ;  I  was  desirous  of  feeling  my  way  tenderly  to- 
ward them,  and  yet  not  to  prevent  the  Spirit  speaking  at  other  times. 

"  Moderator.  Did  you  hear  any  conversation  any  where  respecting 
the  revival  of  these  gifts  before  you  exercised  them  ?  I  heard  Mr. 
Irving,  I  believe,  first  teach  that  he  saw  no  reason  why  the  gifts  of 
the  Spirit  should  have  been  withdrawn  from  the  Church ;  and  I  was 
led  by  that,  and  hearing  of  their  revival  in  Scotland,  to  read  the  Scrip- 
tures foi'  myself  on  the  subject ;  and  I  found  in  the  last  chapter  of 
Mark,  the  Lord  had  promised  'that  signs  should  follow  them  that 
believe ;'  and  I  thought,  What  is  a  Church,  or  the  authority  of  a 
Church,  if  it  set  aside  the  plain  promise  of  Scripture  ?" 

To  this  explanation  the  Moderator  replies  significantly,  "  Sir, 
you  have  answered  quite  enough,"  and  proceeds  to  pursue  the 
question,  which  it  will  be  apparent  has  no  connection  whatever 
with  the  matter-of-fact  complaint  in  proof  of  which  the  witness 
was  examined,  into  farther  metaphysical  depths. 

"  Do  you  consider  that  all  j^ersons  not  having  these  manifestations 
in  themselves  have  not  the  seal  of  faith?  I  can  not  answer  that 
question. 

"  I  ask  you  in  the  sight  of  God,  upon  your  oath. 

"  Mr.  Irving.  It  is  a  deep  theological  question,  which  I  could  not 
answer  myself;  he  means  not  that  he  will  not  answer  it,  but  that  he 
is  not  competent  to  answer  it. 

"  Mr.  Taplin.  I  read  that  these  signs  shall  follow  them  that  be- 
lieve ;  and  although  I  have  not  a  positive  conviction,  I  am  inclined 
to  believe  that  persons  may  have  the  seal  of  faith  who  have  not  re- 
ceived these  gifts. 

"  Moderator.  Proceeding  on  this  answer,  that  persons  may  have 
the  seal  of  faith  without  these  extraordinary  gifts,  I  ask  you  whether 
it  is  just  to  condemn  any  Church  or  any  one  who  does  not  believe 
them  ?     Do  I  condemn  any  one  ?  or  have  I  condemned  any  man  ? 

'•''Mr.  3Iiller.  I  object  to  such  a  question. 

"  Mr.  Irving.  The  witness  has  only  deposed  that  I  said  they  were 
in  error  on  that  subject. 

"  Mr.  Mann.  Were  the  exhibitions  of  tongues  in  the  church  by 
you  and  others  similar  to  the  exhibition  you  made  this  morning  ?  It 
was  no  exhibition,  and  I  will  not  answer  the  question  if  you  use  that 
word. 

"  Well,  display,  then  ?    It  was  no  display,  sir. 


472  EXAMINATION  CONTINUED.— DEACON  KER. 

"  Well,  manifestations,  as  you  call  them ;  for  I  do  not  admit  them 
to  be  of  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  I  call  them  an  outrage  on  decency. 
(General  disapprobation,  with  cries  of  order.)  I  shall  not  answer 
your  question. 

"  Well,  I  will  put  it  in  a  different  form :  Were  the  manifestations 
in  the  church  by  you  and  others  similar  to  that  we  heard  this  morn- 
ing? Our  gifts  differ  in  some  respects,  although  they  are  similar  in 
kind.     We  sj^eak  each  a  different  tongue. 

"Did  you  understand  what  you  spoke  this  morning?  I  under- 
stood the  English. 

"  Mr.  Maclean.  I  object  to  the  question. 

"  Solicitor.  Such  questions,  I  submit,  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
subject," 

Such  questions,  however,  continue  to  be  put  for  some  time  lon- 
ger, the  witness  being  required  to  declare  whether  be  believes 
these  manifestations  to  be  of  the  Spirit  of  God ;  whether  he  be- 
lieves them  in  accordance  with  the  standards  of  the  Church ; 
whether  he  would  ever  have  been  impelled  to  speak  had  not  Ir- 
ving prayed  for  the  gifts ;  whether  he  did  not  believe  his  own  ut- 
terances to  be  of  higher  authority  than  Irving's  preaching ;  and, 
finally,  by  a  dexterous  side  wind,  whether  any  of  these  utterances 
"  referred  to  the  humanity  of  our  blessed  Lord."  This  new  ques- 
tion, altogetlier  alien  to  the  inquiry,  and  which  the  Presbytery 
were  perfectly  well  known  to  have  publicly  concluded  upon  long 
before,  was,  however,  reserved  for  the  next  witness,  Mr.  Ker,  a 
deacon  of  the  National  Scotch  Church,  and  devoted  adherent  of 
Irving,  concurring  witb  him  in  all  his  belief.  His  examination, 
after  a  few  questions  as  to  points  of  fact,  was  conducted  by  the 
Presbytery,  who  proceeded  to  ask  him  whether  he  had  heard  va- 
rious matters  of  doctrine,  in  the  first  place  the  second  coming  of 
Christ  and  tbe  millennial  reign,  confirmed  by  the  gifted  persons 
as  the  message  of  the  Spirit. 

"  Solicitor.  I  object  to  such  questions  as  irrelevant. 

"  Mr.  Irving.  Although  my  solicitor  considers  the  question  irrele- 
vant, I  desire  that  all  technical  objections  may  be  waived ;  and  what- 
ever tends  to  bring  out  what  I  have  taught,  let  it  be  promulgated  to 
the  world.  I  desire  no  concealment  or  reserve  in  respect  to  my  doc- 
trine." 

Upon  which  the  examination  proceeded : 

"Have  you  heard  such  a  statement  as  this — That  Christ's  human- 
ity was  fallen  and  corrupt  humanity.  I  have  heard  it  declared  that 
His  flesh  was  fallen. 

"  Mr.  Maclean  to  the  Cleric  noting  the  evidence.  He  has  heard  it 
declared  that  our  Lord's  flesh  was  fallen  and  corrupt. 

"  Mr.  Irving  instantly  rose  and  said,  He  has  not  said  any  such  word, 


SUDDEN  BLANDNESS  OF  THE  EXAMINERS.       473 

sir,  as  corrupt ;  why  will  you  make  additions  of  your  own  to  the  ev- 
idence ? 

"  The  Witness  to  Mr.  Maclean.  I  did  not  say  corrupt ;  the  addi- 
tion of  one  such  word  will  alter  the  whole  meaning." 

A  multitude  of  other  questions  follow,  in  which  it  is  endeav- 
ored to  drive  the  witness  to  a  declaration  that  the  fact  of  these 
manifestations  sealed  as  perfect  every  word  taught  in  the  Church 
— a  statement  from  which,  however,  he  guarded  himself.  When 
this  was  over,  the  examination  relaxed  into  a  generosity  as  irrel- 
evant and  out  of  order  as  the  inquisition  which  preceded  it. 

"  In  case  we  may  not  have  got  the  whole  truth  of  this  case," 
said  the  president  of  the  court,  with  a  blandness  which,  followed 
as  it  was  by  renewed  questions,  looks  quite  as  much  like  an  at- 
tempt to  entrap  the  unwary  speaker  into  some  rash  admission  as 
to  extend  to  him  a  grace  and  privilege,  "  is  there  any  thing  which 
you  wish  to  add  in  exoneration  of  your  minister?" 

"  I  thank  you,  sir,"  answered  the  surprised  witness,  with  a  kind 
and  anxious  simplicity  most  characteristic  of  the  man,  and  which 
his  friends  will  readily  recognize.  "  I  would  only  say  that  I  be- 
lieve nothing  could  be  so  painful  to  Mr.  Irving  as  that  any  one 
should  interrupt  the  public  services  of  the  Church  except  those 
persons  through  whom  the  Holy  Ghost  speaks." 

A  renewed  flood  of  questions  as  to  who  is  to  be  the  judge  wheth- 
er the  Holy  Ghost  speaks,  etc.,  etc.,  followed  this  affectionate  and 
natural  speech,  and  the  whole  concluded  with  a  return  to  the  ques- 
tion of  doctrine. 

"  Mr.  Macdonald.  It  has  been  said  that  the  doctrine  taught  re- 
specting the  Lord's  humanity  is  that  He  came  in  fallen  flesh ;  has  the 
witness  said  that  the  manifestations  commended  this  doctrine  partic- 
ularly ?     Yes. 

"  Moderator.  Have  the  complainers  finished  their  case  ? 

"  3Ir.  3fann.  We  have. 

"  The  court  was  then  adjourned  till  next  day  at  eleven  o'clock." 

This  was  the  entire  amount  of  evidence  taken.  Some  time  aft- 
er, the  Times^  taking  the  trouble  to  interfere  in  an  elaborate  lead- 
ing article,  congratulated  the  public  that,  after  a  "  laborious  inves- 
tigation," the  Presbytery  had  decided  unanimously.  This  one 
day,  however,  of  theological  fence,  varied  with  such  occasional  in- 
solences as  few  men  endowed  with  the  temporary  power  of  cross- 
examination  seem  able  to  deny  themselves,  is  the  total  amount  of 
the  inquiry  so  ostentatiously  described.     Had  the  reverend  judg- 


474  UNANIMITY  OF  THE  WITNESSES. 

es  confined  themselves  to  the  real  evidence  which  the  complaint 
demanded,  their  sitting  need  not  have  lasted  above  an  hour  or 
two;  but  the  greater  part  of  the  day  engaged  in  this  "laborious 
investigation"  was  occupied  with  personal  inquisition  into  the 
thoughts  and  opinions  of  the  three  witnesses,  which  had  no  bear- 
ing whatever  upon  the  case.  So  easy  is  it  to  give  with  a  word  a 
totally  false  impression  even  of  a  contemporary  event.  I  need 
not  draw  attention  to  the  very  peculiar  character  of  the  evidence, 
which  must  strike  every  one  in  the  least  degree  interested.  The 
three  witnesses  thus  examined  upon  oath  proved,  so  far  as  a  man's 
solemn  asseveration  can,  not  that  unlawful  and  riotous  interrup- 
tions had  taken  place  in  the  Kegent  Square  Church,  but  that  the 
Holy  Ghost  had  there  spoken  with  demonstration  and  power. 
This  was  the  real  evidence  elicited  by  the  day's  examination. 
Nobody  attempted  to  impeach  the  men,  or  declare  them  unworthy 
of  ordinary  credit;  and  this  was  the  point  which,  according  to 
the  common  principles  of  evidence,  they  united  to  establish.  I 
can  not  tell  what  might  be  the  motive  of  the  complainants  for 
keeping  back  all  who  held  their  own  view  of  the  question,  and 
resting  their  case  solely  upon  the  testimony  of  believers  in  the 
gifts ;  but  the  fact  is  apparent  enough,  and  one  of  the  most  strange 
features  of  the  transaction,  that  the  witnesses,  upon  whom  no  im- 
putation of  falsehood  was  cast,  consistently  and  solemnly  agreed 
in  proving  an  hypothesis  which  the  court  that  received  their  tes- 
timony, and  professed  to  be  guided  by  their  evidence,  not  only 
negatived  summarily,  but  even  refused  to  take  into  consideration.* 
From  this  day's  work,  anxious  and  harassing  as  it  naturally 
must  have  been  to  him,  Irving  went  home,  not  to  rest,  or  refresh 
among  his  loyal  supporters  the  spirit  which  was  grieved  with  the 
antagonism  of  his  former  brethren,  but  to  meet  with  Mr.  Baxter, 
and  to  be  assailed  by  that  gentleman's  eager  argument  to  prove 

*  I  can  scarcely  express  the  painful  surprise  with  which,  bom  a  Presbyterian,  and 
accustomed  to  I'cgard  with  affectionate  admiration,  scarcely  less  than  that  which  an- 
imated Irving  himself  during  almost  all  his  life,  the  economy  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, I  have  discovered,  and  the  reluctance  with  which  I  have  felt  myself  constrained 
to  point  out,  the  singular  heedlessness,  haste,  and  unfairness  of  these  Presbyterial  in- 
vestigations. The  discovery  was  as  novel  and  as  painful  to  me,  who  have  in  former 
days  been  very  confident  on  the  other  side  of  the  question,  as  it  can  be  to  the  most 
devoted  lover  of  Presbyterian  discipline  and  order.  I  can  not  allow,  even  now,  that 
it  is  necessary  to  the  system,  which  is  surely  capable  of  better  things ;  but  that  the 
Presbytery  of  London  were  not  singular  in  their  manner  of  exercising  their  judicial 
functions  is  proved  by  the  voluminous  proceedings  of  the  Presbyteries  of  Dunbarton 
and  Irvine  in  the  cases  of  Messrs.  Campbell  and  Maclean. 


UNMOVED  BY  DISCOURAGEMENTS.  475 

himself  in  the  wrong,  and  attempts  to  overthrow  the  fabric  which 
he  had  done  so  much  to  bring  into  being.  "I  saw  him  again  in 
the  evening,  and  on  the  succeeding  morning  I  endeavored  to  con- 
vince him  of  his  error  of  doctrine,  and  of  our  delusions  concern- 
ing the  work  of  the  Spirit,"  says  the  prophet,  so  suddenly  disen- 
chanted, and  so  vehement  in  his  abrupt  recantation,  "but  he  was 
so  shut  up  he  could  not  see  either."  This  evening  and  morning, 
which  were  vexed  by  Mr.  Baxter's  arguments,  might  well  have 
been  spared  to  the  all-laboring  man,  who  was  now  to  appear  for 
himself  at  the  bar  of  the  Presbytery,  and  make,  before  the  curious 
world  which  watched  the  proceedings  in  that  obscure  Scotch 
church  at  London  Wall,  his  defense  and  self-vindication.  Fresh 
from  the  endeavors  of  Mr.  Baxter  to  convince  him  that  the  most 
cherished  belief  of  his  heart  was  a  delusion,  Irving  once  more 
took  his  way  through  the  toiling  city  in  the  April  sunshine,  which 
beguiles  even  London  into  spring  looks  and  hopes.  Little  sun- 
shine, only  a  lofty  constancy  and  steadfast  composure  of  faith  was 
in  his  heart — that  heart  which  had  throbbed  with  so  many  heroic 
hopes  and  knightly  projects  under  those  same  uncertain  skies. 
Another  of  the  "  gifted,"  who  had  woven  so  close  a  circle  round 
him,  had  just  then  lost  heart,  and  wavered  like  Baxter  in  her 
faith.  With  such  discouragements  in  his  way,  and  with  all  the 
suggestions  of  self-interest  (so  far  as  he  was  capable  of  them),  and 
a  hundred  more  delicate  appeals,  reminders  of  old  affection  and 
tender  habitude,  to  hold  him  back  to  the  old  paths,  he  went  to  the 
bar  of  the  Presbytery.  The  speech  he  was  to  make  to-day  must 
tear  asunder,  in  irrevocable  disruption,  the  little  remnant  of  life 
which  remained  to  him  from  all  the  splendid  past — must  throw 
him  into  a  new  world,  strange  to  all  his  associations,  unacquainted 
with  those  ways  of  thought  and  habit  he  was  born  in,  totally  un- 
aware of  the  extent  and  bitterness  of  bis  sacrifice.  That  intrusive 
apparition  of  the  prophet  penitent,  declaring  his  own  prophetic 
gift  a  delusion,  makes  the  strangest  climax  to  the  darkness,  the 
pain,  and  the  difficulty  of  the  position.  Irving,  however,  shows 
no  signs  of  hesitation — betrays  no  tumult  in  his  mind.  His  faith 
was  beyond  the  reach  even  of  such  a  blow ;  and,  in  full  posses- 
sion of  all  that  natural  magnificence  of  diction,  noble  reality,  and 
power  of  moving  men's  hearts,  which  even  his  enemies  could  not 
resist,  he  presented  himself  to  make  his  defense. 

This  speech,  which  is  a  thoroughly  characteristic  production,  I 
give  at  length  in  the  Appendix,  only  indicating  here  the  nature 


476  ORDER  OF  IRVING'S  DEFENSE. 

of  the  argument.  After  declaring  that  it  is  "for  the  name  of 
Jesus,  the  Baptizer  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  I  now  stand  here 
before  you,  and  before  this  court,  and  before  all  this  people,  and 
am  called  in  question  this  day,"  he  announces  the  order  according 
to  which  he  intends  to  make  his  explanation : 

First.  As  I  am  to  justify  the  thing  which  I  have  done,  it  is  need- 
ful to  show  the  grounds  on  which  I  did  it ;  and  to  show  the  grounds 
on  which  I  did  it,  it  is  needful  to  show  the  thing  in  the  Word  of 
God,  which  I  believe  God  has  given  us.  Next.  It  is  needful  that  I 
show  you  that  the  thing  which  we  have  received  is  the  very  thing 
contained  in  the  Word  of  God,  and  held  out  to  the  hope  and  expect- 
ation of  the  Church  of  God ;  yea,  of  every  baptized  man.  Thirdly. 
That  I  show  you  how  I  have  ordered  it  as  minister  of  the  Church ; 
and  show  also  that  the  way  in  which  I  have  ordered  it  is  according 
to  the  Word  of  God,  and  in  nothing  contradictory  to  the  standards 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  Fourthly.  To  speak  a  little  concerning 
the  use  of  the  gifts ;  and,  finally,  to  show  how  we  stand  as  parties, 
and  how  the  case  stands  before  this  court." 

He  accordingly  proceeds  to  set  forth  the  scriptural  grounds  on 
which,  some  years  before,  he  had  been  led  to  conclude  that  the 
extraordinary  gifts  of  the  Spirit  might  be  legitimately  looked  and 
prayed  for ;  and  then  coming  down  to  the  real  course  of  events, 
relates,  with  all  his  wonderful  power  of  close-  and  minute  narra- 
tive, the  first  circumstances  of  their  appearance ;  his  own  anxious 
trying  of  the  spirits ;  the  long  and  careful  investigation  to  which 
he  subjected  them,  and  the  final  entire  satisfaction  and  belief  of 
his  own  mind  and  of  many  others.  I  have  quoted  so  largely  from 
this  narrative  in  a  previous  chapter  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  go 
over  it  again,  and  I  proceed  to  the  more  personal  defense,  only 
pausing  to  remind  the  reader  of  the  lofty  ingenuousness  with 
which  Irving  declares  his  own  mind  to  have  been  biased,  to  begin 
with,  by  his  perfect  conviction  that  God — from  whom  he  and  his 
disciples  had  daily,  with  an  absolute  sincerity  and  fervor  of  which 
the  leader  of  these  entreaties  has  no  doubt,  asked  the  baptism 
with  the  Holy  Ghost — would  not  give  them  a  stone  instead  of 
bread.  He  then  enters  into  a  lofty  vindication  of  his  own  ofiice 
and  authority : 

"  It  is  complained  by  the  trustees  ....  that  I  have  allowed  the 
worship  of  God  to  be  interrupted  by  persons  speaking  who  are  nei- 
ther ordained  ministers  nor  licentiates  of  the  Church  of  Scotland. 
Now,  respecting  the  ordering  of  it,  which  is  here  complained  against 
as  a  violation  of  the  trust-deed,  and  a  violation  of  the  constitution  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  I  can  say,  with  the  Apostle  Paul,  when  he 
went  to  Rome  to  his  countrymen, '  That  unto  this  day  not  only  have 


THE  HEAD  OF  EVERY  MAN.  477 

I  done  nothing  contrary  to  the  "Word  of  God,  but,  men  and  brethren, 
I  have  done  nothing  against  the  people  or  the  customs  of  our  fathers.' 
I  lay  it  down  as  a  solemn  principle  that  as  a  minister  of  Christ  I  am 
responsible  to  Him  at  every  instant,  in  every  act  of  my  ministerial 
character  and  conduct,  and  owe  to  Him  alone  an  undivided  allegi- 
ance ;  and  I  say  more,  that  every  man  is  responsible  to  Jesus  at  every 
instant  of  his  life,  and  for  every  act  of  his  life,  and  not  to  another,  in 
an  undivided  allegiance.  He  is  the  Head  of  every  man,  and  upon 
this  it  is  that  the  authority  of  conscience  resteth ;  on  this  it  is  that 
toleration  resteth ;  on  this  it  is  that  all  the  privileges  of  man  rest ; 
that  Jesus  is  the  Head  of  every  man ;  and  this  is  His  inalienable  pre- 
rogative. .  .  .  And  if  any  person  or  court,  or  the  Pope  of  Rome,  or 
any  court  in  Christendom,  come  between  a  man,  or  a  minister,  and 
his  Master,  and  say, '  Before  obeying  Jesus,  you  must  consult  us,'  be 
they  called  by  what  name  they  please,  they  are  anti-Christ.  I  say  no 
Protestant  Church  hath  ever  done  so.  I  deny  the  doctrine  that  was 
held  forth  yesterday,*  that  it  is  needful  for  a  minister  to  go  to  the 
General  Assembly  before  he  does  his  duty.  I  deny  the  doctrine  that 
he  can  be  required  to  go  up  to  the  General  Assembly  for  authority 
to  enable  him  to  do  that  which  he  discerneth  to  be  his  duty. 

"  3Ioderator.  Let  these  words  be  taken  down. 

"  Mr.  Irving.  Ay,  take  them  down,  take  them  down !  I  repeat 
the  "woi'ds :  I  deny  it  to  be  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  of  Scotland 
that  any  miiiister  is  required  to  go  up  to  the  General  Assembly  for 
authority  to  do  that  xohich  he  discerneth  to  be  his  duty.  Ye  are 
pledged  to  serve  Jesus  in  your  ordination  vows.  Ye  are  the  minis- 
ters of  Jesus,  and  not  ministers  of  any  assembly.  Ye  are  ministers 
of  the  Word  of  God,  and  not  ministers  of  the  standards  of  any 
Church." 

He  then  explains  the  "  arrangements"  he  had  made  to  allow 
room  for  the  utterances,  which  had  been  largely  commented  on, 
partly  by  way  of  showing  that  he  had  encouraged  the  interrup- 
tions, and  partl}^  that,  taking  his  own  view  of  the  subject,  he  had 
himself,  in  some  measure,  been  guilty  of  limiting  the  Spirit. 

"  It  is  charged  that  I  appointed  set  times  for  the  suspension  of  the 
worship  in  order  to  encourage  and  allow  these  interruptions.  This 
needs  a  little  explanation.  When  I  saw  it  was  my  duty  to  take  the 
ordinance  into  the  church,  I  then  considered  wdth  myself  what  was 
the  way  to  do  it  with  the  greatest  tenderness  to  my  flock — so  as  to 
cause  the  least  anxiety  and  disturbance.  ...  I  observed,  therefore, 
what  -was  the  manner  of  the  Spirit  in  the  morning  meetings,  and  I 
found  generally  it  was  the  manner  of  the  Spirit  when  I,  the  pastor, 
had  exhorted  the  people,  to  add  something  to  the  exhortation,  either 

*  This  refers  to  a  statement  made  by  the  Moderator,  that  in  case  of  any  new  de- 
velopment of  doctrine  unprorided  for  in  the  standards,  the  constitutional  mode  of 
procedure  for  a  Scotch  minister  was  to  call  the  attention  of  the  General  Assembly  to 
it  by  means  of  an  overture  from  his  own  Presbytery.  I  despair  of  making  the  phrase- 
ology of  Scotch  Church  courts  intelligible  to  English  readers. 


478  KECORDS  OF  ECCLESIASTICAL  ANTIQUITY. 

to  enforce  it,  if  it  were  according  to  the  mind  of  God,  or  to  add  to  it, 
or  graciously  and  gently  to  correct  it  if  it  were  incorrect.  I  also  ob- 
served it  was  the  way  of  the  Spirit  not  to  do  this  generally,  but  in 
honor  of  the  pastor ;  and  that  the  spirits  in  the  prophets  acknowl- 
edged the  ofBce  of  the  angel  of  the  Church  as  standing  for  Jesus ; 
and  accordingly  I  said,  wishing  to  deal  tenderly  with  the  flock,  let  it 
begin  with  this  order,  that  after  I  have  opened*  the  chapter,  and  aft- 
er I  have  preached,  I  will  pause  a  httle,  so  that  then  the  prophets  may 
have  an  opportunity  of  prophesying  if  the  Spirit  should  come  upon 
them ;  but  I  never  said  that  the  prophets  should  not  prophesy  at  any 
other  time.  I  did  this  in  tenderness  to  the  people ;  and  feeling  my 
way  in  a  case  where  I  had  no  guidance,  I  did  it  according  to  the  best 
records  of  ecclesiastical  antiquity ;  and  I  was  at  great  pains  to  con- 
sult the  best  records ;  and  I  found  Mosheim,  in  his  most  learned  dis- 
sertation on  Church  History,  declare  to  this  eflect :  that  in  the  first 
three  ages  of  the  Church,  it  was  the  custom,  after  the  pastor  had  ex- 
horted the  people,  for  the  congregation  to  rest,  and  the  prophets 
prophesied  by  tAvo  or  three ;  so  that  I  walked  in  the  ordinances  of 
the  Church  of  Christ." 

He  then  proceeds  to  show,  with  large  quotations  from  the  first 
"  Book  of  Discipline,"  that  a  regular  "  exercise"  for  "  prophesying 
or  interpreting  the  Scriptures"  had  been  instituted  in  the  early 
Eeformation  Church,  by  which  it  was  provided  that  learned  men, 
or  those  that  had  "  somewhat  profited  in  God's  Word,"  should  not 
only  be  exhorted  to  meet  for  joint  exposition  of  the  Scriptures 
according  to  the  apostolic  rule — "  Let  two  or  three  prophets  speak, 
and  let  the  rest  judge" — but  that,  "if  found  disobedient,  and  not 
willing  to  communicate  the  gifts  and  special  graces  of  God  with 
their  brethren,  after  sufficient  admonition,  discipline  must  proceed 
against  them ;"  from  which  he  justly  argues,  that  "  if  our  Church 
has  ruled  that  in  a  matter  of  ordinary  gifts  there  should  be  liberty 
given  to  speak,  can  any  one  believe  that  if  the  gifts  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  had  been  in  the  Church,  they  would  not  have  ruled  it  for 
these  extraordinary  gifts  also  ?"  Then  rising  into  loftier  self-vin- 
dication as  he  proceeds,  he  declares  that,  had  there  been  ordinances 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland  forbidding  the  manifestations  (whicb 
there  were  not),  he  would  still  have  felt  it  necessary  to  disobey 
them  in  exercise  of  the  higher  loyalty  which  he  owed  to  the  Head 
of  the  Church ;  and  winds  up  this  part  of  his  address  by  the  fol- 
lowing solemn  disavowal : 

"I  deny  every  charge  brought  against  me  seriatim,  and  say  it  is 
not  persons,  but  the  Holy  Ghost  that  speaketh  in  the  church.  I  do 
not  say  what  the  judgment  of  the  Presbytery  might  be  if  they  could 

*  Meaning,  in  other  words,  expounded  the  lesson. 


THE  CONSCIENCE  OF  THE  PRESBYTEKY.  479 

say  that  these  persons  do  not  speak  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  But  this 
they  can  not  do.  This  is  Avhat  I  rest  my  case  upon^  This  is  the  root 
of  the  matter.  This  is  what  I  press  on  the  conscience  of  the  Pres- 
bytery ;  and  it  is  laid  before  them  out  of  the  mouths  of  all  the  wit- 
nesses. The  evidence  is  entirely  to  this  effect ;  not  one  witness  hath 
witnessed  to  the  contrary.  I  say,"  he  proceeds  after  an  interruption, 
"  I  submit  this  matter  to  the  Presbytery  as  to  a  number  of  men  en- 
dowed with  conscience — with  the  conscience  and  discernment  of  the 
truth — and  who  are  beholden  to  exercise  their  conscientious  discern- 
ment for  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  the  Head  of  this  court,  and 
the  Head  of  every  man,  and  who  are  beholden  to  judge  all  things 
according  to  the  law  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  is  the  law  of  this  court — 
the  law  of  every  man ;  and  I  say  that  this  Presbytery  are  called  upon 
before  the  Lord  Jesus  to  see  and  ascertain  whether  that  thing  which 
I  have  declared  to  them  upon  the  veracity  of  a  minister,  which  is 
substantiated  by  the  testimony  on  their  table,  given  by  Avitnesses 
yesterday,  all  of  their  own  selection,  and  which  I  will  pledge  myself 
to  authenticate  farther  by  the  testimony  of  not  less  than  five  hundred 
persons,  of  unblemished  life  and  sound  faith,  that  it  is  the  work  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  speaking  with  tongues  and  prophesying.  And  as 
all  the  witnesses  have  borne  one  uniform  testimony  to  it  as  the  work 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Presbytery  can  not — they  may  not,  before 
God,  before  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  before  all  those  M^itnesses, 
shut  their  eyes  willfully  against  such  testimony  in  this  matter.  .  .  . 
It  is  instructed  before  you  (surely  the  Presbytery  will  not  shut  its 
eyes  to  the  evidence  on  the  table)  that  it  is  by  the  Holy  Ghost  that 
these  persons  speak.  There  is  no  civil  court  whatever  that  would 
refuse  to  receive  the  evidence  lying  on  your  table ;  and  you  may  not 
as  members  of  a  Christian  Church — you  may  not  as  ministers  and 
elders — you  may  not  as  honest  men,  turn  aside  from  the  matter  of 
fact  that  has  been  certified  to  you,  and  say, '  We  will  leave  that  mat- 
ter in  the  background ;  we  will  not  consider  it  at  all ;  we  wall  go  sim- 
ply by  the  canons  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  see  what  they  say 
on  the  subject.'  They  say  nothing  on  it,  seeing  they  could  say  noth- 
ing— seeing  there  was  then  no  such  thing  in  being.  ...  It  will  be  a 
burdensome  thing  to  this  Presbytery  if  it  shall  give  judgment  against 
that  which  hath  been  instructed  before  them  to  be  the  work  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  which  none  of  them  can  say,  on  their  own  conscience 
or  discernment,  not  to  be  the  Holy  Ghost,  since  they  have  not  come 
to  witness  it,  they  have  not  attempted  to  prove  it.  .  .  .  Think  ye,  oh 
men,  if  it  should  be  the  Holy  Ghost,  what  ye  ai'e  doing ;  consider  the 
possibility  of  it,  and  be  not  rash ;  consider  the  possibility  of  the  evi- 
dence being  true,  of  our  averments  being  right,  and  see  what  you  are 
doing !  All !  I  tell  you,  it  will  be  an  onerous  day  for  this  city  and 
this  kingdom,  in  the  which  ye  do,  with  a  stout  heart  and  a  high  hand, 
and  without  examination  or  consideration,  upon  any  ground,  upon 
any  authority,  even  though  ye  had  the  commandment  of  the  king 
himself — shut  up  that  house  in  which  the  voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is 
heard — that  house  in  which  alone  it  is  heard !  .  .  .  I  beseech  you  to 
pause.  ...  Be  Avise,  men ;  come  and  hear  for  yourselves,  when  you 
will  have  an  opportunity  of  judging.    Come  and  hear  for  yourselves. 


480  SPEECH  OF  THE  ACCUSER. 

Tlie  cliurch  is  open  every  morning ;  the  Lord  is  gracious  almost  every 
morning  to  speak  to  us  by  His  Spirit.  The  church  is  open  many 
times  in  the  week ;  and  the  Lord  is  gracious  to  us,  and  speaks  through 
His  servants  very  often.__^  .  I  have  no  doubt  in  saying  it,  and  I 
would  be  an  unfaithful  man,  pleading  not  my  cause,  but  the  cause  of 
God — the  cause  of  Christ — the  cause  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  Pres- 
bytery (for  it  is  not  the  cause  of  a  man ;  no,  man  has  no  charge 
against  me ;  I  stand  unimpeached,  unblemished  before  them),  did  I 
not  say  it.  It  is  only  this  interruption,  this  neAV  thing  (for  it  is  not 
an  interruption)  that  hath  occurred,  which  is  instructed  by  the  evi- 
dence to  be  the  voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  this  speaking  with  tongues 
and  prophesying,  which  I  have  declared  to  be  the  same,  which  hath 
given  offense.  And  I  sit  down  solemnly  declaring  before  you  all, 
before  God  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  on  the  faith  of  a  minister  of 
Christ,  that  I  believe  it  to  be  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  .  .  ." 

This  speech,  interrupted  two  or  three  times  by  hot  discussions 
and  calls  to  order,  was  replied  to  on  the  same  day  by  Mr.  Mann, 
the  spokesman  of  the  trustees,  who  "  considered  it  his  duty  to 
reply  to  the  unseemly  and  untimely  denunciations  with  which 
he  was  bold  to  say  the  reverend  defender  had  attempted  to  stem 
the  torrent  of  justice,"  And  proceeding  in  the  unequal  strife, 
not  content  with  the  manifold  disadvantages  under  which  he  la- 
bored as  opposed  to  Irving's  noble  eloquence,  this  gentleman  did 
all  he  could  to  vulgarize  and  debase  the  whole  question,  by  con- 
tending that  it  was  a  question  of  discipline  only,  in  which  the 
Word  of  God  was  no  authority ;  and  called  upon  the  reverend 
defender  to  bethink  himself  of  the  Confession  of  Faith  which  he 
had  signed,  and  as  an  honest  man  to  separate  himself  in  fact  from 
the  Church  from  which  he  had  already  separated  in  spirit.  After 
this  the  court  adjourned  for  a  week,  during  the  course  of  which 
the  "reverend  defender"  thus  assailed  went  on  with  those  labors 
which  one  of  his  friends  called  "  unexampled,"  in  no  way  with- 
drawing from  his  wonderful  exertions,  preparing,  with  all  the 
catechisings  and  preparatory  services  usual  before  a  Scotch  com- 
munion, for  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  On  the  follow- 
ing Wednesday  the  Presbytery  again  assembled ;  and  with  a  gleam 
of  magnanimity,  in  consideration  of  the  fact  that  Irving  had  no 
appeal  from  their  decision,  but — contrary  to  Presbyterian  usage, 
which,  had  he  been  in  Scotland,  would  have  permitted  him  a 
double  appeal  to  the  Provincial  Synod  and  General  Assembly — 
must  accept  their  sentence  as  final,  offered  him  the  privilege  of 
answering  the  speecli  of  Mr.  Mann,  which  he  did  accordingly  in 
an  impassioned  and  noble  oration.*  still  more  intense,  because 

*  See  Appendix  C. 


IRVING'S  REPLY.  481 

more  personal  than  the  former ;  thrilling  with  all  the  indignation, 
the  grief,  the  faith  absolute  and  immovable,  the  injured  and  mourn- 
ful affection  which  rent  his  breast.  That  there  are  some  passages 
in  this  splendid  address  where  the  speaker,  flushed  with  palpable 
injustice,  and  angry  in  his  righteous  heart  at  the  superficial  basis 
on  which  a  question,  to  himself  the  most  momentous,  was  thus  in- 
juriously set  down,  delivers  himself  of  warnings  too  solemn  and 
startling  to  chime  in  with  the  mild  phraseology  of  modern  days, 
is  undeniable ;  but  the  point  on  which  he  insists  is  so  plainly  a 
necessity  to  any  just  decision  of  the  matter  involved,  that  few 
people  who  consider  it  seriously  will  be  surprised  to  find  that  Ir- 
ving is  betrayed  into  a  certain  impatience  by  the  pertinacious  de- 
termination, shown  equally  by  his  accusers  and  his  judges,  not  to 
enter  into  the  question  by  which  alone  the  case  could  be  decided. 
Such  a  singular  and  obstinate  evasion  of  the  real  point  at  issue, 
involving  as  it  did  all  his  dearest  interests,  might  well  chafe  the 
spirit  of  the  meekest  of  men ;  yet  he  returns  again  and  again  with 
indignant  patience  to  the  question  which  his  judges  refused  to 
consider. 

"  If  these  be  the  manifestations  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  he  asks, "  what 
court  under  heaven  would  dare  to  interpose  and  say  they  shall  not 
be  suffered  to  proceed  ?  Tell  me  if  that  body  does  exist  on  the  face 
of  the  earth  which  would  dare  to  rule  it  so  if  they  believed  the  work 
to  be  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Surely  not  in  the  Christian  Church  does 
such  a  body  exist.  Therefore  the  decision  must  entirely  depend  on 
this :  whether  it  be  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  or  whether  it  be  not  of  the 
Holy  Ghost ;  for  if  it  be,  who  dare  gainsay  it  ?  "Will  any  one  say, 
if  it  be  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  any  rule  of  discipline  or  statute  of 
the  Church,  supposing  the  statutes  were  sevenfold  strong  instead  of 
being  none  at  all — for  on  this  subject  the  canons  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland  are  entirely  silent — will  any  one  dare  to  say  that  if  it  be  the 
voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  all  laws  and  statutes  in  which,  during  the 
days  of  her  ignorance,  the  Church  might  have  sought  to  defend  her- 
self against  the  entering  in  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  should  be  allowed 
to  keep  Him  out  ?  And  is  it  possible  that  the  Presbytery  should 
shuffle  off  the  burden  of  this  issue,  and  act  upon  the  assertion  made 
that  it  is  not  the  matter  of  doctrine  which  is  to  be  entered  into ;  the 
more  Avhen  the  evidence  upon  the  table  is  unanimous  to  this  point, 
that  it  is  the  voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost  ?" 

After  this  most  just  protest,  he  descends  to  enter  the  lists  with 
his  accusers  upon  their  own  ground,  and  assert  that  "  there  is  not 
one  word  in  the  standards  against  the  thing  I  have  done ;"  the 
fact  being  that  the  only  reference  in  those  documents,  according 
to  the  admission  of  the  Presbytery  themselves,  is  a  statement  in 

Hh 


482  THE  PROPHETIC  CHARACTER. 

the  Westminster  Confession,  that  the  "  extraordinary"  offices  of 
apostle,  prophet,  etc.,  had  ceased — a  statement  which  the  earlier 
Book  of  Discipline,  the  authority  of  which  the  Church  of  Scotland 
had  never  repudiated,  limits  by  the  more  modest  suggestion,  that 
"  they  may  be  revived  if  the  Lord  sees  good."  After  this  Irving 
enters  into  a  most  remarkable  discussion  of  the  character  of  the 
prophetic  office,  and  the  possibility  of  a  prophet  deceiving  him- 
self by  attempting  to  make  an  arbitrary  interpretation  of  the  Di- 
vine message  he  utters ;  in  which  he  takes  as  his  text  the  singu- 
lar utterance  of  the  Prophet  Jeremiah — "  0  Lord,  Thou  hast  de- 
ceived me,  and  I  was  deceived" — and  proceeds  to  elucidate  a  char- 
acter which  most  of  his  hearers  believed  utterly  extinct,  with  all 
the  close  and  intense  observation  which  distinguished  him,  and 
with  a  lofty,  visionary  reasonableness  which,  could  the  charac- 
ter itself  be  but  granted  real  and  existent,  would  make  this  an 
exposition  of  high  metaphysical  value.  In  the  course  of  this  sin- 
gular and  close  picture  of  the  prophetic  temperament  and  its  per- 
ils, he  refers  in  the  following  terms  to  Baxter,  whose  name  was 
by  this  time  discussed  every  where,  and  whose  desertion  was  the 
heaviest  possible  blow  in  the  eyes  of  the  public  to  the  new  faith. 

"  A  dear  friend  of  my  own,"  said  Irving,  coming  fresh  from  that 
troublesome  and  impetuous  friend's  remonstrances  and  recantation, 
"  who  lately  spake  by  the  Spirit  of  God  in  my  church — as  all  the 
spiritual  of  the  Church  fully  acknowledged,  and  almost  all  acknowl- 
edge still — I  mean  Mr.  Baxter,  whose  name  is  in  every  body's  mouth, 
hath,  I  believe,  been  taken  in  this  very  snare  of  endeavoring  to  inter- 
pret by  means  of  a  mind  remarkably  formal  in  its  natural  structiire 
the  spiritual  utterances  which  ho  was  made  to  give  forth ;  and  per- 
ceiving a  want  of  concurrence  between  the  word  and  the  fulfillment, 
he  hastily  said, '  It  is  a  lying  spirit  by  which  I  have  spoken.'  No  lie 
is  of  the  truth ;  no  prophet  is  a  liar ;  and  if  the  thing  came  not  to 
pass,  he  hath  spoken  i^resumptuously.  But  while  this  is  true,  it  is 
equally  true  that  no  prophet  since  the  world  began  has  been  able  to 
interpret  the  time,  place,  manner,  and  circumstance  of  the  fulfillment 
of  his  own  utterances.  And  to  Jeremiah  thus  unwarrantably  em- 
ploying himself,  God  seemed  to  be  a  deceiver  and  a  liar,  as  the  Holy 
Ghost  hath  seemed  to  be  to  my  honored  and  beloved  friend,  whom 
may  the  Lord  speedily  restore  again." 

The  orator  then,  leaving  this  mysterious  subject — to  his  expo- 
sition of  which  his  audience  seems  to  have  listened  in  rapt  silence, 
probably  too  much  carried  away  by  the  strange  influence  of  his 
faith,  and  the  life-like  personality  in  which  he  clothed  this  unbe- 
lievable, prophetic  ideal,  to  object — returns  to  the  more  personal 
question,  and  bursts  forth  in  natural  and  manful  indignation.     "  I 


"DISHONESTY!"  483 

was  taxed  with  dishonesty,"  he  exclaims,  "  and  I  was  told  if  I  was 
an  honest  man  I  ought  to  have  gone  forth  of  the  Church.  Let 
me  repress  the  feeling  that  riseth  in  my  bosom  while  I  repel  the 
insinuation ;  for  I  must  not  speak  out  of  the  resentment  of  nature, 
but  out  of  the  charity  of  grace.  Dislionesty  1  if  it  be  such  a  moot 
point  and  simple  case  of  honesty  and  dishonesty,  why  trouble  they 
the  Presbytery  to  consider  it  ?  .  .  .  It  is  a  great  and  grave  ques- 
tion affecting  the  rights  of  the  ministers  and  prophets  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church ;  a  question  of  the  most  deep  and  sacred  importance ; 
a  question  not  of  discipline  only,  but  of  doctrine ;  and  is  a  ques- 
tion of  doctrine  and  of  discipline,  and  of  ordinance  and  of  person- 
al right,  to  be  called  a  question  of  common  honesty,  as  if  I  were 
a  knave  ?"  Then  changing,  as  he  could,  with  the  highest  intu- 
itions of  harmony,  the  stops  of  that  noble  organ,  the  great  preach- 
er falls  into  the  strain  of  self-exposition,  so  full  of  simple  grandeur, 
with  which  he  was  wont  to  reveal  the  working  of  his  own  candid 
soul  and  tender  heart. 

"  This  is  a  temptation  which  has  come  over  my  brethren,  arising 
from  their  loose  and  unholy  way  of  thinking  and  speaking  upon  this 
subject,  as  if  it  were  a  common  bargain  between  the  trustees  upon 
the  one  hand  and  myself  upon  the  other.  I  would  it  had  been  such  ; 
neither  they  nor  you  would  have  been  troubled  with  it  this  day. 
For  the  world  is  wide,  and  the  English  tongue  is  widely  diffused 
over  it;  and  I  am  used  to  live  by  faith,  and  love  my  calling  as  a 
preacher  of  the  Gospel  as  well  as  I  do  my  calling  of  a  pastor.  I  also 
have  been  tempted  with  the  like  temptation  of  making  this  a  matter 
of  personal  feeling.  One  whole  day  I  remember,  before  meeting  the 
elders  and  deacons  of  my  church,  upon  the  first  breaking  out  of  this 
matter,  I  abode  in  the  mind  of  giving  way  to  my  own  feelings,  and 
saying  to  them, '  Brethren,  we  have  abidden  now  for  so  many  years 
in  love  and  unity,  never,  or  hardly  once,  dividing  on  any  question, 
that,  rather  than  cause  divisions  which  I  see  can  not  be  avoided,  I 
will  take  my  leave  of  you,  and  betake  myself  to  other  quarters  and 
other  labors  in  the  Church.  And  do  you  seek  out  for  some  one  to 
come  and  stand  in  my  room,  to  go  in  and  out  before  this  great  peo- 
ple, and  rule  over  them,  for  I  can  no  longer  be  faithful  to  God,  and 
preserve  the  body  in  peace  and  unity.  I  can  not  find  in  my  heart 
to  grieve  you ;  let  me  alone  and  entreat  me  not ;  I  will  go  and  preach 
the  Gospel  in  other  parts,  whither  God  may  call  me.'  In  this  mood, 
which  these  men*  would  call  honest  and  honorable — which  I  call  self- 

*  In  justice  to  the  speaker  on  the  other  side,  it  ought,  however,  to  be  noted  here 
that  Irving  seems  to  have  mistaken  his  meaning,  which  I  presume  to  be  the  ordinaiy, 
arbitrary,  and  easy  conclusion,  that  when  a  clerg}-man  expands  or  alters  his  views, 
so  as  under  any  interpretation  to  vary  from  the  laws  of  his  Church,  scrupulous 
honor  would  dictate  his  withdrawal  from  its  communion ;  a  notion  very  specious 
upon  the  face  of  it. 


484  lEVING  PREFEKS  HIS  DUTY  TO  HIS  FEELINGS. 

ish  and  treacherous  to  my  Lord  and  Master — I  did  abide  for  the 
greater  part  of  the  most  important  day  of  my  Hfe,  whereof  the  even- 
ing was  to  determine  this  great  question ;  but  the  Lord  showed  me 
before  the  hour  came — He  showed  me,  with  whom  alone  I  took  coun- 
sel in  the  secret  place  of  my  own  heart,  that  I  was  not  a  private  man 
to  do  what  liked  me  best,  but  the  pastor  of  a  church,  to  consider 
their  well-being,  and  the  minister  of  Christ,  to  whom  I  must  render 
an  account  of  my  stewardship.  I  put  away  the  temptation,  and  went 
up  in  the  strength  of  the  Lord  to  contend  with  the  men  whom  I  loved 
as  my  own  bowels ;  and  to  tell  them,  face  to  face,  that  I  w^ould  dis- 
please every  one  of  them,  yea,  and  hate  every  one  of  them,  if  need 
should  be,  rather  than  flinch  an  iota  from  my  firm  and  rooted  pur- 
pose to  live  and  die  for  Jesus.  God  only  knows  the  great  searchings 
of  heart  that  there  have  been  within  me  for  the  divisions  of  the  Kirk 
Session  and  flock  of  the  National  Scotch  Church.  But  they  have 
rooted  and  grounded  me  in  my  standing  as  a  pastor,  which  I  had  un- 
derstood, but  never  practiced  before,  and  in  the  subordinate  standing 
of  an  elder,  which  is  very  little  understood  in  the  Church  of  Scotland 
whereof  I  am  a  minister.  And  they  have  knit  me  to  my  flock  in  a 
bond  which  can  not  be  broken  until  God  do  break  it.  I  preferred 
my  duty  as  a  pastor  to  my  feelings  as  a  man,  and  abode  in  my  place. 
And  what  hath  the  faithfulness  and  bounty  of  my  God  yet  done  ? 
Within  six  months  thereafter,  by  the  preaching  of  the  Word  and  the 
witness  of  the  Spirit,  there  were  added  two  hundred  members  to  the 
Church,  not  a  few  of  whom  were  converted  from  the  depths  of  im- 
morality and  vice  to  become  holy  and  God-fearing  men ;  and  as  I  sat 
yesterday  in  ray  vestry  for  nearly  five  hom-s  examining  applicants  for 
the  liberty  of  sitting  down  with  my  contemned  and  rejected  Church, 
I  thought  within  myself, '  Ah !  it  was  good  thou  stoodest  here  in  the 
place  where  the  Lord  had  planted  thee,  and  wentest  not  forth  from 
hence  at  the  bidding  of  thine  own  troubled  heart.  Behold  what  a 
harvest  God  hath  given  thee  in  this  time  of  shaking !  Wait  on  thy 
Lord,  and  be  of  good  courage ;  commit  thy  way  xmto  Him ;  trust 
also  in  Him,  and  He  will  bring  it  to  pass.'  These  were  my  thoughts, 
I  do  assure  you,  no  farther  gone  than  yesterday,  when  I  sat  wearied 
out  with  the  number  and  weight  of  the  cases  which  were  brought 
before  me  in  my  pastoral  vocation.  And  for  your  encouragement,  ye 
ministers  of  Christ  who  sit  here  in  judgment,  that  ye  may  labor  with 
good  hope  in  this  city,  through  good  report  and  through  bad  report, 
and  that  ye  may  not  put  your  hands  rashly  upon  the  man  of  God,  I 
do  give  you  to  wit  that  by  my  labors  in  this  city,  not  himdreds,  but 
thousands — at  least  upward  of  a  thousand,  have  been  converted  by 
my  ministry ;  and  I  feel  an  assurance  that,  let  men  do  their  utmost  to 
prevent  it,  thousands  more  will  yet,  by  the  same  feeble  and  worthless 
instrument,  be  brought  into  the  fold  of  the  Father,  out  of  which  no 
power  shall  be  able  to  pluck  them.  I  have  no  bargain  with  these 
trustees.  I  am  not  their  pensioner,  nor  bound  to  them  by  any  obli- 
gation, nor  indebted  to  them  in  any  matter,  that  they  should  charge 
dishonesty  upon  me.  I  am  another  man's  servant,  another  man's 
debtor.  .  .  .  If  this  deed  to  which  they  have  obliged  themselves  com- 
pel them  to  raise  an  action  against  me  before  this  Presbytery,  then 


A  LAMB  OF  THE  FLOCK.  485 

let  them  do  it,  and  leave  the  issue  to  the  competent  judges;  but  do 
not  let  them  dare  to  accuse  their  minister  as  a  dishonest  man  because 
he  sees  it  his  duty  to  his  Master  to  abide  where  his  Master  hath 
placed  him,  and  where  he  hath  offended  neither  against  the  ordi- 
nances of  God  nor  the  covenants  of  man." 

Thus,  in  his  most  characteristic  strain,  did  Irving  make  his  de- 
fense ;  not  without  frequent  reference  to  the  great  point  of  the 
first  day's  proceedings,  which  was  the  refusal  of  the  Presbytery 
to  permit  his  appeal  to  the  Scriptures,  a  resolution  against  which. 
he  entered  his  solemn  protest,  but  which  his  judges,  with  many  lit- 
tle interruptions  of  self- vindication,  adhered  to.  When  his  speech 
was  concluded,  he  withdrew  with  an  apology  to  the  Presbytery 
for  his  inability  to  be  present  at  their  decisive  meeting,  which  was 
to  take  place  the  same  evening,  as  he  had  to  preach  that  night. 
Before  he  left  the  court,  however,  Mr.  Mann,  the  spokesman  of 
the  trustees,  who  had  vainly  begged  to  be  heard  in  reply,  assailed 
the  much-tried  defender  with  another  arrow.  One  of  the  proph- 
etesses, a  Miss  Hall,  about  whom  I  can  find  no  details,  had,  like 
Baxter,  accused  herself  of  delusion. 

"  Does  Mr.  Irving  consider  he  has  acted  fairly  and  honestly  by  the 
Presbytery,"  said  his  accuser,  who  seems  to  have  lost  in  the  heat  of 
conflict  the  affectionate  and  reverential  feelings  which  all  entertained 
toward  the  great  preacher  before  this  actual  antagonism  with  its  an- 
gry impulses  commenced,  "  in  not  acknowledging  to  them  that  Miss 
Hall  has  been  acting  under  delusion  ? 

"  Tlie  Moderator.  That  is  not  before  the  court. 

"  Mr.  Irving.  She  is  one  of  the  lambs  of  my  flock — she  is  carried 
in  my  bosom.  Oh,  she  is  one  of  the  lambs  of  my  flock !  and  shall  I 
bring  one  of  the  lambs  of  my  flock,  who  may  have  been  deluded  and 
led  astray,  before  a  public  court  ?  Never — never,  while  I  have  a  pas- 
tor's heart !" 

This  exclamation  of  natural  feeling  moved  the  general  audi- 
ence out  of  propriety.  It  was  received  with  involuntary  applause, 
which  seems  to  have  led  to  the  immediate  adjournment  of  the  of- 
fended court. 

In  the  evening  the  Presbytery  met  again  to  determine  upon 
their  sentence — a  sentence  on  the  nature  of  which  nobody  could 
have  any  doubt,  if  it  were  not  the  generous  soul  of  the  accused 
himself,  who  "  could  not  endure  to  think"  that  they  would  decide 
against  him.  Five  clerical  members  of  the  court  spoke  one  after 
another,  announcing  with  such  solemnity  as  they  could  their  sev- 
eral but  unanimous  conclusion.     I  have  no  desire  to  represent 


486  DECISION  OF  THE  PRESBYTEKY. 

these  men  as  judging  unfairly,  or  as  acting  in  this  new  matter 
upon  their  own  well-known  prior  conclusions.  But  the  fact  is 
remarkable,  in  a  country  so  familiar  as  ours  with  all  the  cau- 
tion and  minute  research  of  law,  that  the  judgment  of  this  Pres- 
bytery, involving  as  it  did  not  only  the  highest  privileges  of 
Christian  freedom,  but  practical  matters  of  property  and  income, 
uttered  itself  in  the  shape  of  so  many  opinions,  as  loose,  slight, 
and  irregular  as  might  be  the  oracles  of  a  fireside  conclave.  In- 
stead of  close  and  cool  examination  of  those  canons  of  the  Church 
to  which  they  had  demonstrated  their  allegiance  with  protesta- 
tions unnecessarily  vehement,  their  only  appeal  to  law  consisted 
of  one  or  two  cursory  quotations  which  bore  only  superficially 
upon  the  subject.  "  The  public  worship  being  begun,"  says  one 
of  the  judges,  quoting  from  the  Directory  for  Public  Worshi2J,  "the 
people  are  wholly  to  attend  upon  it,  forbearing  to  read  any  thing 
except  what  the  minister  is  then  reading  or  citing,  and  abstaining 
much  more  from  all  private  whisperings,  conference,  etc.,  and  oth- 
er indecent  behavior  which  may  disturb  the  minister  or  people, 
or  hinder  themselves  or  others  in  the  service  of  God."  Another 
announces  the  ground  of  his  decision  in  the  words  of  the  West- 
minster Confession,  that  "  the  whole  counsel  of  God,  concerning 
all  things  necessary  for  His  own  glory,  man's  salvation,  faith,  and 
life,  is  either  expressly  set  down  in  Scripture,  or  by  good  and  nec- 
essary consequence  may  be  deduced  from  Scripture,  unto  which 
nothing  at  any  time  is  to  be  added,  whether  by  new  revelations 
of  the  Spirit,  or  traditions  of  men."  A  third  cites  the  statement 
of  the  same  Confession,  that  "the  Holy  Scripture  is  most  neces- 
sary, tliose  former  ivays'^  (i.  e.,  direct  revelations)  "q/"  God^s  reveal- 
ing His  tuill  to  His  people  being  noio  ceased ;''''  and  another  from  the 
Directory  of  Public  WorsMp,  to  the  effect  that  the  extraordinary 
offices  of  apostles,  pro|)hets,  and  evangelists  have  ceased.  These 
slight  quotations  constitute  the  entire  reference  made  to  the  can- 
ons of  ecclesiastical  law  in  order  to  settle  a  matter  so  important. 
To  people  who  are  accustomed  to  see  the  columns  of  newsjDapers 
filled  day  after  day  with  close,  lengthened,  and,  it  may  be,  tedious 
arguments  concerning  the  true  meaning  of  the  Articles  of  the 
Church,  it  will  be  almost  inconceivable  that  any  decision,  bearing 
weight  in  law,  could  be  come  to  upon  grounds  so  trivial ;  yet 
such  was  the  case ;  and  the  extraordinary  recklessness  which 
could  stake  an  honorable  man's  character  and  position  upon  the 
opinions  or  impressions  of  a  group  of  fellow-clergymen,  supported 


SCRAPS  OF  THE  CONFESSION.  487 

by  the  merest  shreds  of  quotation  from  those  Articles  by  which, 
and  by  which  alone  they  professed  to  be  guided,  has  never,  so  far 
as  I  am  aware,  been  so  much  as  remarked  by  the  community 
most  interested.  If  he  was  to  be  judged  by  the  standards  of  the 
Church,  it  must  be  apparent  to  every  one  that  the  merest  superfi- 
cial rules  of  justice  required  a  close  examination  of  those  stand- 
ards, a  patient  and  detailed  scrutiny,  care  being  had  to  arrive  at 
the  true  meaning,  and  to  put  aside  the  individual  and  local  cir- 
cumstances which  so  evidently  and  avowedly  color  those  produc- 
tions of  a  belligerent  age.  Nothing  can  be  more  evident,  for  ex- 
ample, than  that  the  extract  from  the  Directory  above  quoted  re- 
Wns,  simply  to  the  irreverent  behavior  in  church  of  a  half-enlight- 
ened people,  and  is  entirely  innocent  of  any  allusion  to  utterances 
of  either  real  or  pretended  inspiration ;  and  few  people  will  im- 
agine that,  apart  from  other  evidence,  the  declaration  of  the  West- 
minster divines  that  "those  former  ways  of  God's  revealing  His 
will  to  His  people  have  now  ceased,"  could  either  finally  settle 
the  question,  or  was  ever  intended  by  those  very  divines  them- 
selves to  settle  it.  The  Presbytery  decided  that  to  suffer  unau- 
thorized persons  to  speak  in  the  Church  was  a  capital  offense 
against  the  laws  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  in  direct  opposition 
to  those  directions  quoted  by  Irving  for  the  exercise  of  "prophe- 
sying or  interpreting  the  Scriptures,"  which  appear  in  one  of  the 
authoritative  books  of  that  Church,  and  which  point  to  an  assem- 
bly almost  identical  with  that  over  which  Irving  presided,  with 
the  exception  that  the  former  laid  claim  to  no  miraculous  gifts. 
"  This  has  just  exactly  the  reverse  meaning  of  what  the  reverend 
defender  had  endeavored  to  extract  from  it,  not  to  mention  that 
there  is  nothing  here  about  these  prophets  speaking  on  a  Sun- 
day," says  the  Moderator,  with  a  simple  and  amusing  dogmatism 
which  attempts  no  proof;  and  the  other  members  of  the  court 
give  forth  their  opinions  with  equal  looseness,  each  man  using  a 
few  inapplicable  words  out  of  the  Confession,  as  if  it  were  a  charm 
which  could  convert  his  personal  notions  into  a  solemn  judgment. 
I  neither  assert  nor  imagine  that  there  was  the  least  dishonesty 
in  the  conclusions  so  strangely  arrived  at,  or  that  the  judges  were 
not  quite  conscientious,  and  convinced  that  they  were  doing  their 
duty  ;  but,  so  far  as  law  and  justice  are  concerned,  the  entire  pro- 
ceedings were  a  mere  mockery,  only  rendjered  more  palpably  fool- 
ish by  the  show  of  legal  form  and  ceremony  with  which  they  were 
conducted.     Had  the  matter  been  argued  before  a  civil  court,  it 


488  CHARACTER  OF  PRESBYTERIAN  WORSHIP. 

might,  indeed,  have  been  decided  that  the  proceedings  complained 
of  were  contrary  to  the  usage  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  no  doubt 
an  important  point;  but  it  must  have  been  satisfactorily  estab- 
lished that  no  ecclesiastical  law*  forbade  them,  and  that  no  direct 
ordinance  of  the  Church  had  been  in  any  way  transgressed. 

At  the  same  time,  while  this  is  very  evidently  the  case,  it  is 
necessary  to  admit  that  the  spiritual  manifestations  then  taking 
place  in  Irving's  church  were,  though  contrary  to  no  ecclesiasti- 
cal canon,  yet  thoroughly  contrary  to  the  character  and  essence 
of  Presbyterian  worship ;  and  that  only  the  existence,  not  to  be 
hoped  for,  of  an  imperturbable  judicial  mind,  resolute  in  the  maj- 
esty of  law,  and  beyond  the  influence  of  feeling,  in  the  court  th* 
judged  him,  could  have  made  a  different  result  possible.  Those 
outbursts  of  prophetic  voices,  exciting  and  unexpected,  were  pal- 
pably at  the  wildest  variance  with  the  rigid  decorums  of  that  na- 
tional worship  which  has  so  carefully  abstracted  every  thing  which 
can  influence  either  imagination  or  sense  from  its  austere  services. 
And  a  body  of  men  trained  to  the  strictest  observance  of  this  af- 
fronted order  of  worship,  totally  unaccustomed  to  the  exactitude 
of  law,  and  important  in  the  exercise  of  an  authority  which  they 
would  have  unanimously  declared  it  an  infraction  of  Christ's  sov- 
ereignty in  His  Church  had  any  qualified  adviser  attempted  to 
guide,  were  scarcely  to  be  supposed  so  superior  to  Presbyterial 
precedent  as  to  conduct  this  trial  on  the  cautious  principles  of 
civil  equity.  They  quoted  ecclesiastical  law  as  uninstructed  con- 
troversialists quote  texts,  by  way  of  giving  a  certain  vague  author- 
ity to  their  own  opinions,  but  the  idea  of  examining  scrupulously 
what  that  law  really  enforced  and  meant,  or  wherein  the  actions 
of  the  accused  were  opposed  to  it,  never  seems  to  have  entered 
the  minds  of  the  hasty  Presbyters.  The  Confessions  of  Faith  and 
Books  of  Discipline,  to  which  Irving  referred  so  often,  had,  in  fact, 
nothing  to  do  with  the  matter.  Apart  from  all  disputed  doctrine 
and  irritated  theological  temper,  a  simple  matter  of  fact,  visible  to 
all  the  world,  had  to  be  dealt  with ;  a  startling  novelty  had  sud- 
denly disturbed  the  sober  composure  of  the  Scotch  Church,  which 
was  no  way  to  be  reconciled  with  its  habitual  reserve  and  grav- 
ity, and  somehow  had  to  be  got  rid  of  Scotch  observers,  looking 
back  at  the  present  moment,  regretful  of  the  necessity,  still  ask, 

*  That  this  is  the  case,  and  that  no  such  rigid  adherence  to  the  proprieties  of  cus- 
tom binds  the  Church  when  she  chooses  to  be  tolerant,  might  be  proved  by  the  many 
irregularities  permitted  iu  connection  with  the  late  "  revivals." 


THE  VERDICT.  489 

What  could  they  do  ?  And  I  can  not  tell  what  they  could  have 
done  except  examine,  and  wait,  and  tolerate — three  things  which 
the  national  temperament  finds  more  difficult  than  any  action  or 
exertion.  "  I  do  not  dissent  from  your  assertion  that  the  Scotch 
Consistory  had  no  choice  but  to  expel  Irving  from  the  body," 
writes  the  Eev.  F,  D.  Maurice ;  "  I  do  not  say  that  the  authorities 
of  the  English  Church,  if  they  had  (unhappily)  the  same  kind  of 
jurisdiction,  might  not  or  may  not  exercise  it  in  the  same  man- 
ner; but  I  know  few  signs  which  (in  the  latter  case)  I  should 
deem  so  sure  a  prognostic  of  coming  desolation."  The  Scotch 
mind,  much  less  tolerant  and  more  absolute  than  the  English — 
that  same  mind  which  makes  it  by  times  a  "unanimous  hero  na- 
tion," had  already  learned  to  make  abrupt  settlement  of  such 
questions ;  and,  unless  the  Presbytery  had  been  content  to  wait 
with  Gamaliel  and  see  whether  this  thing  was  of  God  or  not,  the 
decision  they  came  to  was  the  only  one  to  be  looked  for  from 
them.  But  the  laws  of  the  Church,  those  standards  which  they 
themselves  set  up  as  the  ultimate  reference,  had  absolutely  noth- 
ing at  all  to  do  with  the  matter. 

The  verdict — elaborately  enveloped,  as  will  be  seen,  in  the  per- 
plexing obscurity  of  Scotch  law  terms,  which,^taken  in  connection 
with  the  wonderful  lack  of  law  in  the  proceedings  themselves, 
throw  an  air  almost  of  absurdity  upon  it — was  as  follows : 

"At  a  meeting  of  the  London  Presbytery,  held  at  the  Scotch 
Church,  London  Wall,  this  2d  day  of  May,  ISSfOL- 

"  Whereas  the  Trustees  of  the  National  Scotch  Church,  Regent 
Square,  having,  on  the  22d  day  of  March  last,  delivered  to  the  Mod- 
erator of  this  Presbytery  a  memorial  and  complaint,  charging  the 
Rev.  Edward  Irving  with  certain  deviations  from  the  doctrine  and 
discipline  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  in  the  said  complaint  particu- 
larly set  forth,  and  praying  that  this  Presbytery  would  forthwith  take 
the  same  into  their  consideration,  so  as  to  determine  the  question 
whether,  by  such  breaches  of  doctrine  and  discipline,  the  said  Rev. 
Edward  Irving  hath  not  rendered  himself  unfit  to  remain  the  minis- 
ter of  the  said  National  Scotch  Church,  and  ought  not  to  be  removed 
therefrom,  in  pursuance  of  the  conditions  of  the  trust-deed  of  the  said 
church.  And  whereas  the  said  Rev.  Edward  Irving,  having  previous- 
ly been  delated  and  convicted  before  this  Presbytery  on  the  ground 
of  teaching  heresy  concerning  the  human  nature  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  has  been  declared  to  be  no  longer  a  member  thereof,  yet,  in 
respect  that  the  trust-deed  of  the  said  church,  legally  drawn  and 
concluded  with  the  consent  of  the  said  Rev.  Edward  Irving,  and  the 
said  trustees  as  parties  thereto,  expressly  provides  not  only  that  this 
Presbytery  shall  or  may  act  and  adjudicate  in  all  cases  of  complaint 
brought  in  the  manner  therein  specified  against  the  minister  of  the 


490  IRVING  "UNFIT  TO  EEMAIN  A  MINISTER." 

said  church  for  the  time  being,  by  certain  persons  tlierein  specified ; 
but  tliat  the  award  or  decision  of  this  Presbytery  in  all  such  matters, 
so  referred  to  them  as  aforesaid,  shall  be  final  and  conclusive. 

"And  further,  in  regard  that  the  trustees  of  the  said  church,  being 
of  the  parties  competent  to  complain  as  aforesaid,  have  laid  before  this 
Presbytery,  in  the  manner  prescribed  by  the  said  trust-deed,  the  me- 
morial and  complaint  hereinbefore-mentioned  or  referred  to,  against 
the  said  Rev.  Edward  Irving,  charging  him  as  aforesaid  with  certain 
deviations  from  the  doctrine  and  discipUue  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
as  mentioned  in  the  said  complaint  particularly,  in  as  far  as  he  has 
permitted  and  publicly  encouraged,  during  public  worship  on  Sab- 
bath and  other  days,  the  exercise  of  certain  supposed  gifts  by  persons 
being  neither  ministers  nor  licentiates  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  in 
contravention,  as  well  of  his  ordination  vows,  as  of  the  true  intent 
and  meaning  of  the  said  trust-deed,  Avhich,  in  the  governing  clause 
thereof,  provides  that  the  said  National  Scotch  Church,  of  which  the 
said  Rev.  Edward  Irving  is  the  present  minister,  shall,  at  all  times 
hereafter,  be  used,  occupied,  and  enjoyed  as  a  place  for  the  jiublic  re- 
ligious worship  and  service  of  God,  according  to  the  doctrines,  forms 
of  worship,  and  modes  of  discipline  of  the  Established  Church ;  an 
account  of  all  which  deviations  and  innovations  the  said  trustees,  of- 
fering proof  of  the  same,  have  petitioned  this  Presbytery  to  decern 
in  the  premises,  according  to  the  provisions  of  the  said  trust-deed. 
And  farther,  in  regard  that  the  said  complaint  has  in  all  respects 
been  orderly  proceeded  in.  And  that  on  the  26th  and  27th  days  of 
April  last,  and  on  this  2d  day  of  May  instant,  the  said  trustees  on  the 
cue  part,  and  the  sai^  Rev.  Edward  Irving  on  the  other,  having  sev- 
erally compeared  before  this  Presbytery,  and  probation  having  been 
taken  on  said  complaint  by  the  examination  of  witnesses  uj^ou  oath, 
and  by  documentary  evidence  lodged  in  process,  and  parties  having 
been  heard  and  removed ;  therefore  this  Presbytery,  having  seriously 
and  deliberately  considered  the  said  complaint  and  the  evidence  ad- 
duced, together  with  the  statements  made  in  court  by  the  said  Rev. 
Edward  Irving,  and  acting  under  a  deep  and  solemn  sense  of  their 
responsibility  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  the  great  Head  of  the 
Church,  do  tind  that  the  charges  in  said  complaint  are  fully  proven; 
and  therefore,  while  deeply  deploring  the  painful  necessity  thus  im- 
posed upon  them,  they  did  and  hereby  do  decern  that  the  said  Rev. 
Edward  Irving  has  rendered  himself  unfit  to  remain  the  minister  of 
the  National  Scotch  Church  aforesaid,  and  ought  to  be  removed 
therefrom,  in  pursuance  of  the  conditions  of  the  trust-deed  of  the  said 
church.  James  Reid  Brown, 

"  Moderator  of  the  Presbytery  of  the  Established 
Church  of  Scotland  in  London." 

The  following  morning  had  scarcely  dawned  when  the  triumph- 
ant press  echoed  and  celebrated  this  decision.  Never  before  was 
a  Presbytery  out  of  Scotland  so  watched  and  so  applauded.  The 
Times  itself  opened  with  a  discharge  of  its  great  guns  in  honor  of 
the  victory,  devoting  a  leading  article  to  the  subject : 


TRIUMPH  OF  THE  PRESS.— "TIMES"  AND  "RECORD."      49I 

"The  blasphemous  absurdities  which  have  for  some  months  past 
been  enacted  in  the  Caledonian  Church,  Regent  Square,"  says  the 
leadiug  journal,  "  are  now,  we  trust,  brought  to  an  eflectual  conclu- 
sion. The  Scotch  Presbytery  in  London,  Avho  are,  by  the  trust-deed 
of  the  chapel,  appointed  to  decide  on  any  alleged  departure  of  its 
minister  from  the  standards  of  the  Kirk  of  Scotland,  to  which,  by  the 
samp  deed,  he  is  sworn  to  adhere,  last  night,  after  a  lahorioics  inves- 
tigation, declai'ed  that  the  fooleries  which  he  had  encouraged  or  per- 
mitted Avere  inconsistent  Avith  the  doctrine  and  discii)line  of  the 
Scotch  National  Establishment.  It  Avould,  indeed,  have  been  a  sub- 
ject of  Avonder  had  they  come  to  a  different  conclusion,  though  they 
had  had  the  benefit  of  a  concert  upon  the  '  tongues'  from  the  whole 
male  and  female  band  of  Mr.  Irving's  select  performers.  So  long  as 
the  reverend  gentleman  occupied  the  stage  himself,"  continues  this 
great  authority  in  religious  doctrine,  "  he  Avas  heard  with  patience — 
l)erhaps  sometimes  with  pity ;  .  ,  .  .  but  Avhen  he  entered  into  part- 
nership Avith  knaves  and  impostors,  to  display  their  concerted  '  mani- 
festations'— when  he  profaned  the  sanctuary  of  God  by  introducing 
hideous  interludes  of 'the  unknown  tongues,' it  was  impossible  any 
longer  to  tolerate  the  nuisance." 

Sucli  terms  bad  Irving,  with  his  lofty  sense  of  honor  and  chiv- 
alrous truthfulness,  to  hear  applied  to  himself  and  to  endure. 
The  Record,  with  milder,  but  not  less  triumphant  satisfaction,  fol- 
lows in  a  similar  strain,  emphasizing  its  rejoicing  by  congratula- 
ting its  readers  not  only  upon  Baxter's  recantation,  but  upon  the 
timely  withdrawal  of  Irving's  assistant  and  missionary  from  the 
falling  house — that  gentleman  having  not  only  had  his  eyes  open- 
ed to  the  delusion  of  the  gifts,  but  also  to  the  "  awful  heresy  in  re- 
gard to  our  Lord's  humanity,  which  it  has  been  the  privilege  of 
this  journal  steadfastly  to  resist."  Such  were  the  pasans  with 
which  the  perfectly  illogical  and  indefensible  decision  of  the  Lon- 
don Presbytery  was  received  in  the  outside  world,  and  such  the 
accompaniments  with  which  this  heavy  blow  fell  upon  Irving. 
The  assistant  who  deserted  him  at  so  painful  a  crisis  had  been  his 
companion  for  but  a  short  time,  and  appears  but  little  either  in 
the  history  of  the  struggle,  or  in  those  all-demonstrative  letters  in 
which  Irving,  incapable  of  concealment,  reveals  his  heart  and  soul. 

It  is  a  relief  to  turn  from  all  this  misrepresentation  and  injust- 
ice ;  from  the  reckless  Presbyters  who  refused  to  examine  either 
their  own  law  or  the  real  question  at  issue ;  from  the  contemptu- 
ous journalists,  to  whom  this  matter  was  only  one  of  the  wonders 
of  the  day,  a  fanaticism  as  foreign  and  unintelligible  as  heaven ; 
from  disenchanted  prophets  and  failing  friends,  to  Irving  himself, 
spending  the  next  day  after,  morning  and  evening  and  at  noon,  in 


492  THE  FAST-DAY.— CLOSING  OF  THE  CHUKCH. 

the  labors  and  devotions  of  that  dedicated  day  preparatory  to  the 
communion,  which  Scottish  piety  still  calls  ])ar  excellence  the  Fast- 
day,  totally  as  the  ordinance  of  fasting  has  disappeared  from  the 
nation.  He  did  not  intermit  those  services,  although  it  was  now 
uncertain  whether  the  church  would  be  open  to  him  on  the  next 
Sunday  for  the  celebration  of  the  sacrament.  "  The  tokens*  were 
given,  to  be  kept  (if  not  delivered  up  on  Sunday)  as  a  bond  of 
union  till  such  time  as  the  Lord  shall  guide  the  flock  to  some  oth- 
er place  of  refuge,"  writes  a  lady,  whose  diffuse  woman's  letter 
deepens  into  momentary  pathos  when,  speaking  of  Irving  in  that 
day's  services,  she  exclaims,  "  I  verily  believe  he  offered  to  God 
the  sacrifice  of  a  hrolcen  heart."  It  was  the  last  sacrifice  of  his 
ever  to  be  offered  in  that  place  where  "  the  ashes  of  his  children 
rested,"  as  he  himself  mournfully  said.  The  next  morning,  in  the 
early  May  sunshine,  before  the  world  was  half  awake,  the  daily 
congregation,  gathering  to  their  matins,  found  the  gates  of  the 
church  closed  upon  them.  Perhaps  it  was  that  "  wrath  with 
those  we  love,"  working  "  like  madness  in  the  brain,"  the  bitter 
anger  of  a  brother  offended,  which  moved  the  trustees  to  so  ab- 
rupt a  use  of  their  power,  "I  strongly  urged  them  to  allow  the 
church  to  remain  open  till  after  the  dispensation  of  the  sacra- 
ment," writes  Mr.  Hamilton,  who  had  been  a  sad  spectator 
throughout,  specially  intimating  his  non-concurrence,  as  being 
himself  a  trustee,  in  the  complaint  of  the  others,  although  unable 
in  conscience  to  offer  any  opposition  to  them ;  "  but  they  refused 
to  do  so  on  the  ground  that,  as  they  could  not  conscientiously  join 
with  Edward  themselves,  they  would  thereby  be  deprived,  under 
the  provisions  of  the  trust-deed,  from  having  a  voice  in  the  elec- 
tion of  a  future  minister,  and  also  because  it  would  bring  a  great 
accession  of  friends  to  Edward" — two  hundred  new  members,  ac- 
cording to  the  same  authority,  having  applied  for  admission ;  so 
they  put  an  arbitrary  stop  to  all  the  multiplied  services  with  which 
the  Church  of  Scotland  prefaces  its  communion,  and  just  as  the 
sacred  table  was  about  to  be  spread,  silently  prohibited  that  sol- 
emn farewell  feast,  and  left  the  large  congregation,  with  its  two 
hundred  new  members,  to  seek  what  accommodation  it  could  find 
in  the  two  days  which  intervened.  They  found  it  in  a  place  of 
which  the  Morning  Watch  declares,  "  Nothing  could  be  more  re- 

*  Admission  to  the  communion  being  in  the  Scotch  Church  hedged  in  with  many 
restrictions,  it  is  customary  to  distribute  these  "  tokens"  before  every  observance  of 
the  ordinance,  without  whicli  no  one  is  admitted  to  the  "  fenced"  and  guarded  table. 


GKAY'S  INN  ROAD.  493 

pugnant  to  tlie  judgment,  taste,  and  feeling  of  all  the  members 
than  the  asylum  to  which  they  were  driven.  A  barn  or  a  cow- 
shed would  have  been  preferable,  but  none  such  were  to  be  ob- 
tained." This  was  a  large  room  in  Gray's  Inn  Eoad,  occupied  at 
other  times  by  the  well-known  Kobert  Owen,  and  which  was  not  -| — 
only  desecrated  by  that  association,  but  too  small  to  hold  the  large 
body  of  Irving's  adherents.  In  this  place,  however,  in  that  dis- 
mal centre  of  London  life,  the  holy  feast  was  held  on  the  6^  of 
May,  by  almost  the  entire  Church,  about  eight  hundred  communi- 
cants ;  and  here,  for  some  months,  the  more  solemn  services  of  the 
Church  were  celebrated ;  while  Irving  preached  out  of  doors  in 
various  places,  sometimes  in  Britannia  Fields,  sometimes  in  Isling- 
ton Green,  to  the  multitudes  who  assembled  wherever  his  presence 
was  known. 

Such  was  the  first  step  he  had  to  make  in  that  new  world,  out- 
side what  his  followers  call  "the  splendid  towers  of  Kegent 
Square,"  outside  the  ancient  circle  of  companions  and  counselors 
who  had  deserted  him.  Of  the  pangs  of  that  parting  he  hence- 
forth says  not  a  word,  but  goes  on  in  sad  grandeur,  feeling  to  the 
depths  of  his  heart  all  the  fullness  of  the  change.  Between  the 
church  he  had  founded  and  watched  over  as  stone  upon  stone  it 
had  grown  into  being,  and  round  which,  in  his  fond  imagination, 
the  venerable  prestige  of  the  Church  of  his  fathers  had  always 
hovered,  and  the  big  room  in  that  squalid  London  street,  where 
foolish-benevolent  Unbelief*  shared  the  possession  with  him,  and 
played  its  frivolous  pranks  of  philanthropy  under  the  same  roof 
which  echoed  his  religious  voice,  amid  all  the  sneers  of  the  preju- 
diced world  outside,  what  a  difference  was  there !  But  after  the 
struggles  of  the  so-called  "  trial"  were  over,  not  a  word  of  com- 
plaint or  reproach  comes  to  his  lips ;  he  proceeds  with  those  "  un- 
exampled labors."  Multitudes  stand  hushed  before  him  on  those 
summer  days,  as  on  the  parched  suburban  grass,  or  under  the 
walls  of  the  big  prison,  he  preaches  the  Gospel  of  his  Master,  with 
an  eloquence  deeper  and  richer,  a  devotion  more  profound  and 
perfect,  than  when  the  greatest  in  the  land  crowded  to  his  feet, 
and  all  that  was  most  wise  and  most  fair  in  society  listened  and 

*  I  may  notice  here,  so  strong  is  the  power  of  even  a  momentary  and  fortuitous 
connection  of  two  names,  that  some  friends  of  my  own,  entirely  ignorant  otherwise 
of  Irving,  have  confidently  assured  me  that  he  had  something  to  do  with  the  infidel 
Owen,  as  I  was  sure  to  find  out  on  examination !  This  is,  I  need  not  say,  the  entire 
amount  of  that  connection. 


494  OUT-DOOR  PREACHING.— THE  LOST  CHILD. 

thrilled  to  his  prophet  voice.  But  not  his  now  the  j^rophet  voice ; 
by  his  side,  or  in  the  crowd  near  him,  is  some  obscure  man  or 
woman,  to  hear  whom,  when  the  burst  of  utterance  comes  upon 
them,  the  great  preacher  pauses  with  rapt  looks  and  ear  intent ; 
for  that  utterance,  because  he  believes  it  to  be  the  voice  of  God, 
he  has  borne  "reproach,  casting  out,  deprivation  of  every  thing 
save  life  itself,"  writes  one  of  his  female  relatives,  with  aggrieved 
andf)athetic  indignation ;  and  there  he  stands,  in  the  unconscious 
splendor  of  his  humility,  offering  magnificent  thanks  when  those 
strange  ejaculations  give,  what  he  believes  a  confirmation  from 
heaven,  to  the  Word  he  has  Jpeen  teaching ;  a  sight,  if  that  voice 
were  true,  to  thrill  the  universe ;  a  sight,  if  that  voice  were  false, 
to  make  angels  weep  with  utter  love  and  pity ;  any  way,  whether 
true  or  false,  an  attitude  than  which  any  thing  more  noble  and  af- 
fecting has  never  been  exhibited  by  man  to  men. 

One  of  those  outdoor  sermons  was  distinguished  by  a  thorough- 
ly characteristic  and  beaiitiful  incident.  It  was  shortly  after  his 
ejection  from  Eegent  Square,  on  a  summer  Sunday  morning,  when 
surrounded  by  a  little  band  of  his  own  people,  and  raised  in  "a 
temporary  pulpit  or  platform  made  for  his  use  by  one  of  his  flock," 
Irving  was  preaching  to  the  dense  crowd  which  had  gathered 
round  him.  The  subject  of  his  discourse  was,  as  the  lady  from 
whom  I  have  the  information  believes,  that  doctrine  of  regenera- 
tion in  baptism  with  which  so  many  pangs  of  parental  love  and  an- 
guish were  associated  in  his  mind.  Suddenly  he  was  interrupted 
by  an  appeal  from  the  crowd ;  a  child  had  been  lost  in  the  throng 
by  its  parents,  and  was  now  held  up  by  the  stranger  who  had  ex- 
tricated it,  and  who  wanted  to  know  what  he  should  do  with  the 
forlorn  little  creature.  "Give  me  the  child,"  said  the  preacher; 
and  with  difliculty,  through  the  multitude,  the  lost  infant  was 
brought  to  him.  "  Mr.  Irving  stretched  out  his  arms  for  it,"  says 
my  informant,  "  and  in  a  moment  it  was  nestling  (just  as  we  used 
to  see  his  own  little  baby  do),  with  the  most  perfect  confidence  and 
contentment,  against  his  broad  shoulder.  It  was  a  poor  child,  and 
poorly  clothed,  but  he  was  not  the  man  to  love  it  less  on  that  ac- 
count. We  shall  none  of  us  ever  forget  the  luonderful  manner  in 
which  Mr.  Irving  could  hold  an  infant.  This  one  appeared  to  be 
perfectly  happy  from  the  moment  it  was  in  his  arms,  while  he 
continued  to  preach  with  as  much  ease  and  freedom  as  before ; 
and  interweaving  at  once  into  his  discourse  (to  which  it  was,  of 
course,  most  appropriate)  our  Lord's  own  lesson  about  the  little 


AFFECTIONATE  RECOLLECTION.  495 

children,  made  this  little  one,  as  it  were,  the  text  of  his  last  clauses, 
which  he  prolonged  considerably ;  when  he  had  concluded,  in  his 
final  prayer  and  blessing,  he  particularly  prayed  for  and  blessed 
"  the  little  child ;"  and  after  the  psalm  had  been  sung,  he  beckon- 
ed to  the  parents,  who  (as  he  had  intended)  had  seen  it  from  the 
time  he  took  it  into  his  arms,  to  come  and  receive  it  back."  The 
affectionate  writer  goes  on,  with  a  little  outburst  of  that  loving 
recollection  which  brings  tears  to  the  eyes  and  a  tremor  to  the 
voice  of  every  one  who  remembers  Irving,  to  say  that  in  his  life- 
time they  "  hardly  dared  to  speak  or  think  of  those  natural  gifts 
which  had,  previously  to  his  more  spiritual  ministry,  gained  for 
him  the  praises  of  the  world."  But  now,  at  a  distance  of  thirty 
years,  his  friends  can  venture  to  recall  the  picture — that  figure  al- 
most gigantic,  with  the  lost  baby  "  literally  cradled"  in  his  arms ; 
the  summer  heavens  blazing  above ;  the  breathless  crowd  below ; 
the  solemn  harmony  of  that  matchless  voice,  full  of  all  the  intona- 
tions of  eloquence,  to  which  nobody  could  listen  unmoved ;  and 
that  living  sign  of  a  tenderness  which  embraced  all  helpless  things, 
the  love  with  which  his  forlorn  heart,  wounded  to  its  depths,  yearn- 
ed to  its  brethren.  "An  intense  sunshine  bathed  the  whole,"  con- 
cludes the  lady,  whose  notes  I  have  quoted.  Under  that  sunshine, 
in  fervid  midsummer,  silent  thousands  stood  and  listened.  This 
was  now  the  only  means  remaining  to  Irving  of  communication 
with  the  outside  world. 

And  in  these  preachings,  with  but  here  and  there  a  scattered 
individual  who  retained,  or  ever  had  known,  allegiance  to  the 
Church  of  Scotland  near  him,  and  in  the  room  in  Gray's  Inn  Eoad 
— and  still  more  strangely  in  the  chapel  where  the  Eev.  Nicholas 
Armstrong,  not  long  before  a  clergyman  of  the  English  Church, 
and  of  fervent  Irish  blood,  established  the  first  dependent  congre- 
gation of  the  new  sect — one  sign  of  Irving's  influence,  as  remark- 
able as  it  is  affecting,  accompanied  the  services.  So  far  as  the 
London  Presbytery  could  do  it,  the  great  preacher  had  been  cast 
out  of  the  Church  of  his  fathers ;  he  had  been  pronounced  unfit  to 
occupy  any  longer  a  pulpit  bound  to  the  Church  of  Scotland ;  but, 
wherever  Irving's  friends  and  followers  sang  the  praises  of  God, 
it  was  that  rugged  version  of  the  Psalms  of  David  which  we,  in 
Scotland,  know  from  our  cradles,  and — all  poetic  considerations 
out  of  the  question — cherish  to  our  graves,  which  ascended  from 
the  lips  of  the  unaccustomed  crowd.  Those  rugged  measures,  by 
times  grand  in  their  simplicity,  by  times  harsh  and  unmelodious 


496  THE  SCOTCH  PSALMS. 

as  only  translated  lyrics  can  be,  wliicli  cheered  the  death-passion 
of  the  Covenanter,  and  which  Carlyle,  with  an  almost  fantastic  loy- 
alty (in  rebellion)  to  the  faith  that  cradled  him,  puts  into  the 
mouths  of  his  medieeval  monks,  Irving,  in  actual  reality,  put  into 
the  mouths  of  his  English  followers.  When  his  bold  disciples  in- 
terposed their  Gospel  into  the  din  of  every-day  life  in  the  heart  of 
London,  and  preached  at  Charing  Cross  in  the  heat  of  the  labori- 
ous hours,  it  was  not  the  smooth  hymns  of  modern  piety,  but  the 
strange  songs  of  a  sterner  faith,  which  mingled  with  the  confused 
noises  of  the  life-battle.  To  find  those  harsh  old  verses,  sometimes 
thrilling  with  an  heroic  touch,  but  at  all  times  as  unlike  the  effu- 
sions of  devotion  in  our  days  as  can  well  be  conceived,  preserved 
amid  records  of  "manifestations"  and  sermons,  upon  neither  the 
speakers  nor  the  hearers  of  which  they  had  the  least  claim  of  as- 
sociation, is  a  singular  memorial  of  the  affectionate  reverence  with 
which  all  his  followers  regarded  Irving.  I  can  not  tell  how  long 
this  lasted  j*  but  in  these  days  of  excitement  and  commotion,  when 
the  expelled  Church  had  no  refuge,  but  snatched  its  solemn  cel- 
ebrations in  the  obnoxious  concert-room  which  Eobert  Owen 
shared,  and  wandered  out  about  those  noisy  suburbs  to  find  space 
for  its  preaching,  it  is  always  the  old  Psalms  of  Scotland  which 
rise  quaint  and  strange  upon  the  air,  used  to  smoother,  if  not  to 
nobler  measures.  And  throughout  this  summer  there  is  a  con- 
tinual changing  of  scene  and  place.  The  old  green  of  Islington, 
swallowed  up  out  of  all  village  semblance  in  the  noisy  centre  of 
population ;  the  still  less  pleasant  space  overshadowed  by  Clerk- 
enwell  prison — nay,  even,  as  we  have  said.  Charing  Cross,  which 
sometimes,  in  insular  arrogance,  we  call  the  centre  of  the  world, 
all  saw  the  wandering  nucleus  of  devoted  worshipers,  the  gather- 
ing crowd,  the  preaching  evangelist, 

Nor  was  there  always  the  same  veneration  shown,  even  to  the 
great  preacher  himself,  as  in  the  instance  we  have  quoted.  The 
newspapers  of  the  day  mention  a  threatened  assault  upon  him  by 
the  Jews,  to  whom  he  had  preached  in  Goodman's  Fields ;  and  he 
himself  refers  to  the  presence  of  "a  multitude  of  strangers  and 
gazers,"  who  "have  insulted  me,  and  do  insult  me  daily ;"  while, 
at  the  same  time,  he  desires  the  prayers  of  the  Church  "  for  two 
brethren  now  lying  in  prison,"  who  were  suffering  for  their  zeal 
in  this  respect.     The  newspapers,  in  the  mean  time,  were  full  of 

*  I  am  told  that  their  use  was  continued  for  several  years,  until  the  system  of  chant- 
ing the  Psalms  in  the  prose  version,  as  in  the  Church  of  England,  was  adopted. 


PRINCELY  HOSPITALITY.  497 

sneers  and  contemptuous  self-congratulations  on  having  foreseen 
the  depths  of  the  "  foolery"  into  which  this  new  fanaticism  had 
fallen  ;  but  I  can  not  help  thinking  that  this  summer  conveyed, 
amid  the  labors  that  refreshed  his  soul,  a  little  repose  to  Irving, 
who,  at  last,  was  done  with  all  the  harassing  cares  of  daily  contest 
— the  struggle  with  his  friends.  It  was  over  now ;  and  if  desert- 
ed on  many  sides,  he  was  comparatively  unmolested.  After  the 
morning  services  the  worshipers  pour^  into  his  house,  which  was 
still  in  Judd  Place,  and  which,  in  that  moment  of  transition,  had 
no  certain  provision  even  for  its  own  necessities,  and  crowded 
round  the  breakfast-table,  where  the  man  who  knew  how  to  live 
by  faith  exercised,  as  Mr.  Drummond  described  to  me,  "a  prince- 
ly hospitality."  During  the  entire  summer,  the  Morning  Watch 
informs  us,  the  members  of  the  expelled  Church  had  been  "inde- 
fatigable in  seeking  to  purchase,  hire,  or  build  a  chapel."  None 
eligible  offered  for  the  former  purpose ;  and  when  it  was  resolved 
to  erect  a  building,  and  money  had  been  collected  toward  defray- 
ing the  expense,  the  Spirit  expressly  forbade  it,  saying  "  that  the 
Lord  would  provide  in  His  own  time."  And,  in  fact,  a  place  adapt- 
able for  the  purpose  was  found  in  the  beginning  of  autumn,  in  the 
large  picture-gallery  which  had  belonged  to  West,  the  painter,  and 
which  was  attached  to  his  house  in  Newman  Street,  where,  accord- 
ingly, after  a  little  interval,  the  changed  congregation  established 
itself,  remodeled  and  reorganized. 

That  was  a  year  almost  as  momentous  and  exciting  to  the  na- 
tion at  large  as  it  was  to  Irving  and  his  people.  It  was  the  year 
of  the  Eeform  Bill,  and  half  the  periodical  literature  of  the  day  was 
awful  in  prognostications  which  one  reads  nowadays  with  incred- 
ulous smiles  ;  and  still  more  closely  interesting  and  important,  it 
was  the  year  of  the  cholera,  when  men's  hearts  were  failing  them 
for  fear  of  the  uncomprehended  plague,  which  stole,  insidious  and 
sudden,  alike  through  crowded  streets  and  quiet  villages.  In  the 
June  number  of  the.Mormng  Watch  appears  a  letter  from  Irving, 
touching  an  attack  of  this  malady  to  which  he  himself  had  been 
subject,  and  the  manner  in  which  he  had  surmounted  it,  which  is 
remarkable,  as  all  his  letters  are,  for  the  simple  and  minute  picture 
it  gives  of  his  own  heart  and  emotions. 

The  idea  that  disease  itself  was  sin,  and  that  no  man  with  faith 
in  his  Lord  ought  to  be  overpowered  by  it,  was  one  of  the  princi- 
ples which  began  to  be  adopted  by  the  newly-separated  commu- 
nity. 

Il 


498  HOW  TO  OVERCOME  DISEASE  BY  FAITH. 

"  To  the  Editor  of  the  '  Morning  Watch.' 

"My  dear  Fkiend, — As  you  have  asked  me  to  give  you  an  ac- 
count of  the  gracious  dealings  of  our  heavenly  Father  with  me,  His 
unworthy  servant,  on  the  occasion  of  my  being  seized  Avith  what  was 
in  all  appearance,  and  to  the  conviction  of  medical  men,  when  de- 
scribed to  them,  seemed  to  be,  that  disease  which  has  proved  fatal  to 
so  many  of  our  fellow-creatures  in  this  and  other  lands,  I  sit  down  to 
do  so  with  much  gratitud«|of  heart  to  my  God,  who  enabled  me  to 
hold  fast  my  confidence  in  "Him,  and  who  did  not  forsake  me  when  I 
trusted  in  Him,  nor  suffer  the  adversary  to  triumph  over  me,  but  gave 
me  power,  through  faith  in  Christ  my  risen  Head,  to  overcome  him 
when  he  endeavored,  by  his  assault  in  my  flesh,  to  shake  my  faith  in 
my  God,  and  to  prevent  me  from  fulfilling  that  day  to  two  difierent 
congregations  the  office  of  a  minister  of  Christ.  ...  I  feel  I  ought 
to  mention  that,  on  the  evening  preceding  my  attack,  I  had  preached 
from  the  words  in  the  12th  of  1  Cor.,  'To  another  the  gifts  of  heal- 
ing by  the  same  Spirit.'  I  was  led  in  discourse  to  show  out  to  my 
flock  that  the  standing  of  the  members  of  Christ  was  to  be  without 
disease,  and  that  this  had  ever  been  the  standing  of  God's  people. 
.  .  .  And  I  added  that  if  disease  did  come  upon  them,  as  in  the  case 
of  Job,  it  was  either  for  chastening  for  some  sin,  whether  in  them- 
selves or  in  the  body  of  Christ,  for  God  ever  views  us  as  one,  or  per- 
mitted as  a  trial  of  our  faith.  Having  stated  these  things  out  fully, 
I  exhorted  the  saints  of  God  before  me  to  live  by  faith  continually 
on  Jesus  for  the  body  as  well  as  the  soul.  .  .  .  Or,  should  their  faith 
be  put  to  the  test  by  disease,  I  entreated  them  to  hold  fast  their  con- 
fidence, and  to  plead  the  Lord's  own  many  and  gracious  promises  to 
the  members  of  His  Church,  and  in  faith  to  go  about  the  occupations 
which  in  His  providence  they  were  called  to  perform,  ever  bearing 
in  mind  that  whatsoever  they  did  should  be  for  His  glory,  and  that 
I  had  no  doubt  but  they  would  ever  experience  that  the  Lord  hon- 
ored their  faith  in  His  word. 

"  On  the  following  morning  I  arose  in  perfect  health  at  the  usual 
hour,  and  was  in  the  church  by  half  past  six  o'clock.  During  the 
prayer-meeting  I  began  to  feel  pain,  but  was  able  to  go  through  the 
service.  A  number  of  friends  accompanied  me  home  to  breakfast. 
On  reaching  home  I  became  very  chill,  and  had  very  severe  pain. 
.  .  .  After  resting  a  while  I  felt  a  little  relieved,  and  entered  the  room 
where  my  friends  were,  and  sat  down  by  the  fire,  unable  to  taste  any 
thing.  The  hour's  pain  I  had  endured,  and  the  other  trial  of  my  con- 
stitution, had  even  then  had  such  an  effect  on  my  frame  that  my  ap- 
pearance shocked  my  friends.  I  could  take  no  interest  in  the  con- 
versation going  forward,  but  endeavored  to  lift  uj)  my  heart  to  my 
God,  having  a  presentiment  that  I  was  called  upon  to  show  forth  the 
faith  which  I  had  on  the  preceding  evening  been  led  to  exhort  my 
people  to  have  in  their  heavenly  Father.  In  the  strength  of  God  I 
proceeded,  when  my  friends  had  finished  breajifast,  to  conduct  family 
worship,  which  I  was  enabled  to  do,  though  my  body  Avas  so  enfee- 
bled that  I  could  neither  kneel  nor  stand,  having  tried  both  positions, 
but  had  to  sit  while  I  prayed.     I  then  retired  to  my  own  room,  in 


SUFFERINGS.— RESOLVED  TO  FALL  AT  HIS  POST.  499 

order  to  search  myself  in  the  presence  of  God,  to  confess  ray  sins, 
to  cast  myself  entirely  on  the  mercy  of  my  Father,  and  to  seek  for 
strength  to  perform  the  duties  of  that  day,  having  to  preach  that 
forenoon  at  half  past  eleven  o'clock,  and  again  in  the  evening  at  sev- 
en.    I  Avas  now  very  sick,  with  a  feeling  of  wringing  or  gnawing 
pain  through  my  whole  body.  ...  I  was  so  weak  that  I  could  not 
sit  up,  and  in  sore  pain,  with  a  painful  chill  all  over  my  body.     I 
therefore  wrapped  me  up  in  blankets  and  laid  me  on  my  bed,  desii'- 
ing  to  be  left  alone  until  a  few  minutes  befoi-e  the  time  for  setting 
out  for  the  house  of  God,  Avhere  I  should  minister  to  His  people. 
My  orders  Avere  obeyed,  and  my  wish  attended  to.     My  wife  entered 
my  room  about  a  quarter  past  eleven  o'clock.     I  felt  so  exhausted  that 
I  did  not  attempt  to  speak  to  her.     She  saw  my  Aveakness  and  spoke 
not,  but  hurried  doAvn  stairs  to  prepare  a  little  arroAA^-root  and  bran- 
dy for  me,  and  to  desire  that  ray  fellow-laborer,  the  raissionary  of  our 
Church,  should  go  and  take  ray  place,  as  she  thought  there  was  little 
hope  of  ray  reaching  the  church  at  the  hour  Avhen  the  service  should 
coramence.     When  my  wife  had  left  the  room,  though  I  Avas  no  bet- 
ter, I  said  in  the  strength  of  the  Lord  I  Avill  rise  and  do  my  duty.     I 
arose,  and  came  down  stairs  in  tottering  weakness,  but  holding  fast 
my  assurance  that,  though  brought  very  Ioaa^,  the  Lord  Avould  not  for- 
sake me.  .  .  .  My  sunken  eyes  and  pallid  cheeks,  and  altogether  my 
ghastly  appearance,  ray  Avife  afterward  told  rae,  rerainded  her  of  her 
grandsire  of  eighty-four,  Avhose  frame  had  been  Avasted  Avith  disease. 
.  .  .  With  sloAV  and  difficult  steps,  accompanied  by  ray  Avife  and  a 
young  friend,  I  proceeded  to  the  church,  about  a  quarter  of  a  raile 
from  my  house ;  and  on  entering,  found  ray  friend  and  fellow-laborer 
standing  and  rainistering  in  ray  roora.     All  things  terapted  me  to 
shrink  back  from  my  office ;  but  I  felt  no  hesitation  to  instruct  ray 
faithful  beadle,  though  he  remonstrated  much,  to  go  up  to  the  pulpit 
and  inform  my  brother  that  Avhen  he  had  finished  the  first  prayer  I 
Avould  take  ray  place,  and  by  God's  help  perform  ray  own  duty. 
Meanwhile,  I  stretched  rayself  on  three  chairs  before  the  fire  in  the 
vestry,  barely  able  to  keep  myself  in  heat,  and,  by  perfect  stillness  in 
one  position,  a  little  to  abate  the  pain.     Ever  as  I  shifted  my  posi- 
tion I  endured  much  suffering,  and  Avas  alraost  involuntarily  impelled 
to  draw  up  my  limbs  in  order  to  keep  the  pain  under.     Nevertheless, 
Avhen  I  stood  up  to  attire  myself  for  the  pulpit,  and  went  forAvard  to 
ascend  the  pulpit  stairs,  the  pains  seemed  to  leave  me.     Over  and 
over  again  my  kind  and  true-hearted  brother  besought  me  to  let  him 
proceed ;  but  ray  raind  was  raade  up  to  fall  at  my  post,  which  I  had 
an  iuAvard  assurance  my  Master  would  not  suffer  me  to  do.     I  began 
to  read  the  chapter,  expecting  the  poAver  of  spiritual  exposition,  which 
was  wont  to  abound  to  me  in  this  above  all  ray  other  services ;  but, 
to  ray  astonishment,  I  had  no  thought  in  ray  heart,  nor  Avord  upon 
my  lips,  and  felt  it  Avas  all  I  could  do  to  keep  on  reading.     About 
the  sixth  verse  ray  Avords  began  to  be  indistinct  in  the  sound.     I 
could  not  strike  thera  shrill  and  full  out;  they  fell  short  of  ray  usual 
utterance  all  I  could  do.     My  eye  becarae  dim,  and  the  woi'ds  of  the 
book  looked  hazy.     Then  ray  head  began  to  SAvira,  and  my  heart  to 
become  faint ;  and  I  laid  bold  on  the  pulpit-sides,  and  looked  Avist- 


500  VICTORY  OVER  THE  BODY. 

fully  about,  Avondering  what  was  to  befall  me.  But  the  most  painful 
symptom  of  all  was  that  I  felt  it  a  great  effort  to  draw  my  breath. 
At  this  moment,  when  the  disease  was  come  to  a  crisis,  and  all  na- 
ture was  sinking  down  within  me,  I  had  only  one  feeling,  for  the  hon- 
or of  Jesus,  my  Lord  and  Master,  that  he  should  be  put  to  shame 
through  my  unbelief,  and  that  I  should  fall  before  the  enemy  in  the 
place  of  testimony  and  in  the  sight  of  all  the  people.  One  thought, 
one  prayer,  shot  across  my  spirit,  which  was  this :  '  Surely  Thou,  oh 
Jesus,  art  stronger  in  my  spirit  than  Satan  is  in  my  flesh !'  That  in- 
stant a  cold  sweat,  chill  as  the  hand  of  death,  broke  out  all  over  my 
body,  and  stood  in  lai*ge  drops  upon  my  forehead  and  hands.  From 
that  moment  I  seemed  to  be  strengthened.  My  reading,  which  had 
not  been  interrupted  by  all  this,  though  strongly  affected  so  as  to  be 
sensible  to  all  present,  proceeded  more  easily  to  the  end  of  the  chap- 
ter, but  all  without  my  being  able  to  add  one  word  of  exposition. 
Nevertheless,  after  the  singing  a  few  stanzas  of  a  Psalm,  I  undertook 
to  preach  on  the  last  verse  of  the  3d  chapter  of  John's  Gospel,  which 
came  in  order.  According  to  my  custom  I  had  premeditated  noth- 
ing, and,  as  hath  been  said,  while  reading  the  chapter,  found  myself 
utterly  incapable  of  originating  any  thing.  But  I  knew  the  Master 
whom  I  serve,  and  set  out  on  His  charges.  Slowly  and  with  great 
weakness  the  words  dropped  from  me,  and  I  was  ill  able  to  indite 
sentences  or  bind  them  into  regular  discourse ;  but  I  gave  myself  to 
the  Spirit,  and  went  forward.  I  had  not  proceeded  many  minutes 
until  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  one  of  the  prophets,  burst  in  upon  my  dis- 
course, speaking  with  tongues  and  prophesying.  This  brought  me 
rest  and  refreshing,  and  some  of  the  words  Avere  made  to  me  spirit 
and  life,  so  that  I  resumed  with  fresh  strength,  but  still  as  a  dead 
man  both  in  respect  of  body  and  of  mind,  alive  in  respect  of  the  Spirit. 
I  continued  my  discourse  for  about  an  hour  with  more  unction,  as  it 
appeared  to  myself  and  all  who  spake  of  it,  than  I  had  ever  preached 
before.  After  the  service  I  walked  home  and  conversed  with  my 
friends,  and  took  a  little  simple  food,  expecting  to  strengthen  my 
body  for  my  evening  duty  by  eating  heartily  at  dinner.  But  God 
was  resolved  that  for  this  day  the  glory  of  my  strength  should  stand 
only  in  Him ;  for  I  was  able  to  eat  little  or  nothing,  yet  had  more 
power  given  me  in  preaching  to  about  two  hundred  poor  people  in  a 
crowded  schoolroom  than  I  ever  remember  to  have  had.  And  next 
morning  I  rose  to  my  duty  before  the  sun,  and  was  enabled  to  go  for- 
ward with  renewed  strength  unto  this  hour.  For  all  which,  let  the 
glory  be  given  to  Jehovah  by  His  name — '  I  am  the  Lord  God  which 
healeth  thee.'  JIdwd.  Irving." 

The  perfect  simplicity  of  this  narrative  may,  perhaps,  bring  a 
smile  upon  some  faces ;  but  I  can  not  pretend  to  offer  any  excuses 
for  a  man  who  felt  the  everlasting  arms  always  under  him,  and 
recognized  no  dull  intervening  world  between  himself  and  bis 
God.  The  occurrence  thus  described  evidently  took  place  before 
his  expulsion  from  Regent  Square,  and  at  a  time  when  men's 
minds  were  highly  strung,  and  as  delicate  to  deal  with  as  the. 


A  REMAKKABLE  PASSAGE.  501 

wavering  bands  of  an  army  in  the  first  thrill  of  panic,  which  the 
merest  stumble  of  the  leader  might  throw  into  mad  rout  and  de- 
struction. Perhaps  the  steadfast,  pallid  figure,  holding  by  the 
sides  of  the  pulpit,  and  maintaining  its  Christian  sovereignty 
over  the  body  and  its  pangs,  did  more  than  much  philosophy  to 
strengthen  the  hearts  of  the  watching  multitude  against  that  panic 
which  is  the  best  aid  of  pestilence. 

Notwithstanding  Irving's  declaration  that,  according  to  his  cus- 
tom, he  had  premeditated  nothing,  he  had  by  no  means  given  up 
the  composition  of  sermons ;  but  still,  and  to  the  end  of  his  days, 
continued  to  dictate  to  the  writing  of  here  and  there  a  joyful 
amanuensis,  honored  to  feel  her  female  pen  the  medium  of  record- 
ing his  high  thoughts  and  burning  exhortations.  Nor  does  it  ap- 
pear that  the  "falling  off,"  which  is  so  commonly  alleged  against 
him  at  this  agitated  period  of  his  life,  was  in  any  respect  more  true 
than  suppositions  framed  upon  general  probability  generally  are. 
On  the  contrary,  Mr.  Hamilton,  who,  deeply  affectionate  as  he 
was,  would  not  perhaps  have  been  sorry  could  he  have  seen  a 
momentary  feebleness  visible  in  the  brother  whose  convictions 
carried  him  into  paths  so  strange  and  dangerous,  could  not  say 
that  the  bewilderment  of  the  manifestations,  or  the  undue 'xaith 
with  which  Irving  regarded  them,  had  any  effect  upon  the  force 
and  fullness  of  his  preaching.  "  His  ministrations  in  the  pulpit," 
wrote  this  trusty  witness,  dating  the  4th  of  May,  "have  for  some 
time  past  been  extremely  powerful,  and  I  believe  instrumental  in 
winning  many  souls  to  Christ."  Certainly  his  few  printed  pro- 
ductions of  this  period  give  little  sign  of  any  decay  of  intellect. 
One  of  these,  published  in  the  Morning  Watch  of  March,  1832,  en- 
titled, A  Judgment  upon  the  Decisions  of  the  late  General  Assembly, 
contains  a  very  remarkable  passage  in  reference  to  the  future  fate 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  which,  uttered  without  any  prophetic 
pomp,  has  verified  itself  more  absolutely  than  any  of  the  profess- 
edly inspired  predictions  to  which  Irving  himself  gave  such  un- 
doubting  heed :  "  That  the  General  Assembly,  Synods,  Presbyter- 
ies, and  Kirk  Sessions,  with  all  the  other  furniture  of  the  Church, 
are  about,  like  the  veil  of  the  temple,  to  be  rent  in  iivain,  or  to  be  left, 
like  the  withered  fig-tree,  fruitless  and  barren,  I  firmly  believe, 
and  yet  would  do  all  I  could  to  retard  it,"  he  says;  regarding 
steadfastly,  not  any  premonition  of  a  rising  controversy  about 
Church  government,  nor  even  the  restless,  absolute  spirit  entering 
into  a  wild  struggle  with  all  the  conditions  of  nature,  which  took 


502  THE  SICK  CHILD. 

SO  readily  to  deposition  and  anathema,  but,  what  to  his  intent  eyes 
was  a  thousand  times  more  significant,  the  practical  denial  of  the 
love  of  the  Father  and  the  work  of  the  Son,  which  he  believed 
the  Church  of  Scotland  to  be  guilty  of.  After  the  event  which 
has  left  so  deep  a  scar  upon  the  heart  of  Scotland,  it  is  startling 
to  meet  with  such  words. 

The  Morning  Watch,  notwithstanding  its  dignity  as  a  Quarterly 
Eeview,  and  its  oft-repeated  declaration  that  the  majority  of  its 
readers  were  members  of  the  English  Church,  occupied  itself, 
throughout  those  exciting  months,  in  the  most  singular  manner, 
with  the  ecclesiastical  prosecution,  which  only  the  great  fame  of 
Irving,  and  the  remarkable  character  of  the  spiritual  question  in- 
volved, prevented  from  being  a  merely  local  and  individual  mat- 
ter. Though  a  periodical  of  the  highest  class  and  most  recondite 
pretensions,  it  palpitated  with  every  change  in  the  fortunes  of  the 
Kegent  Square  Church,  and  was  as  truly  the  organ  of  that  expel- 
led band,  large  as  a  congregation,  but  small  as  a  community,  which 
followed  Irving,  as  its  adversary  the  Record  was  the  organ  of  En- 
glish Evangelicism ;  and  not  only  abounded  in  discussions  and 
expositions  of  the  miraculous  gifts  and  cures,  and  of  the  doctrines 
specially  identified  with  Irving,  but  went  so  much  farther  as  to 
represent  "J/r,  Irving' s  Church  as  The  iSign  of  the  Times,^''  and  to 
discuss  the  position  of  the  body  in  its  temporary  and  disagreeable 
refuge  as  "  The  Ark  of  God  in  the  Temple  of  DagonP  Perhaps  the 
presence  in  the  new  community  of  a  man  so  rich,  so  determined, 
so  swift,  and  self-acting  as  Henry  Drummond,  sparing  no  cost, 
either  of  money  or  labor — a  potentate  considerable  enough  to 
have  an  "  organ"  in  his  own  right — goes  far  to  explain  the  pos- 
session, by  a  single  Church,  of  a  representative  so  magnificent  as 
a  Quarterly  Keview. 

I  am  not  informed  as  to  the  precise  period  when  Irving  re- 
moved his  family  into  the  house  in  Newman  Street,  which  in- 
cluded under  the  same  roof  the  large  picture-gallery  henceforward 
to  form  the  meeting-place  of  his  Church  ;  but,  before  going  on  to 
that,  there  occurs  another  of  those  anecdotes  which  his  friends 
have  hoarded  up  in  their  memories,  and  tell  with  tears  and  smiles. 
When  he  went  for  the  first  time  to  see  this  house,  some  time 
elapsed  before  he  could  get  admission ;  and  when,  at  last,  the  man 
who  was  in  charge  of  the  place  opened  the  door,  he  apologized 
for  the  delay,  saying  that  he  had  a  child  dying  up  stairs.  "  Then, 
before  we  do  any  thing  else,"  said  Irving,  on  the  threshold  of 


INVITATION  TO  THE  KIRKCALDY  RELATIVES.  503 

the  much-desired  building  which  might  hberate  him  from  Eobert 
Owen  and  Gray's  Inn  Road,  "  let  us  go  and  pray  that  it  may  be 
healed."  He  followed  the  astonished  and  sorrowful  custodian  of 
the  empty  house  up  through  the  echoing  staircase  to  the  attic 
where  the  little  sick-bed  was,  and,  kneeling  down,  poured  out  his 
soul  for  the  child,  over  whose  feeble  head  he  no  doubt  pronounced 
that  blessing  which  dropped  from  his  tender  lips  upon  all  little 
children.  Then  he  returned  to  the  business  which  had  brought 
him  there,  and  examined  the  extent  and  capabilities  of  the  place. 
Some  time  after,  he  returned  again  with  the  architect  who  was  to 
superintend  the  alterations,  and,  as  soon  as  the  door  was  opened, 
asked,  IIow  was  the  child?  The  father  answered  with  joy  that 
it  was  now  recovering.  "  Then,  before  we  do  any  thing  else,  let 
us  go  and  give  thanks,"  said  the  Christian  priest.  Hearing  of 
such  daily  incidents,  natural  accompaniments  of  that  full  life,  one 
can  not  wonder  at  the  exclamation  which  bursts  from  the  troubled 
bosom  of  his  sister  Elizabeth  when,  in  a  passion  of  mingled  doubt 
and  grief,  she  says,  "  There  are  moments  when  I  feel  as  if  God 
had  deserted  the  Church  altogether ;  for  if  He  is  not  in  the  midst 
of  Mr.  Irving's  family  and  flock,  where  is  God  to  be  found?" 
Surely,  amid  all  clouds  of  human  imperfection,  the  light  of  His 
countenance  fell  fair  upon  that  echoing  empty  house  where  His 
faithful  servant  gave  the  thanks  of  a  prince  and  poet  for  the  little 
life  of  the  poor  housekeeper's  child. 

Most  probably  that  eventful  summer  passed  without  much  in- 
tercourse between  the  household  which  was  in  direct  opposition 
to  all  its  kindred,  and  the  kind  but  grieved  relations  who  with- 
stood the  new  faith ;  for  in  August,  Mrs.  Irving  addressed  a  be- 
seeching woman's  letter,  tender  and  importunate,  evidently  writ- 
ten out  of  the  yearning  of  her  heart,  to  her  father  and  mother, 
begging  them  to  come  to  visit  her,  and  evidently  not  without  a 
hope  that,  if  they  did  but  see  and  hear  the  "  work"  which  was  go- 
ing on,  they  would  be  persuaded  of  its  truth.  When  she  had 
made  her  petition,  she  seems  to  have  transferred  the  letter  to  Ir- 
ving, who,  more  prescient  of  all  the  difficulties  involved,  yet  ten- 
der of  his  Isabella's  desire,  adds  to  the  anxious  conciliatory  letter 
the  following  sentences : 

"  If  your  hearts  draw  you  to  grant  this,  the  request  of  my  dear 
Isabella  and  myself,  let  not  the  expense  be  any  consideration,  for  we 
never  were  so  rich  since  we  began  house-keeping.  .  .  .  And  if  you 
should  not  wish  to  abide  in  our  house  by  reason  of  the  contrariety 


504  PROSPERED  BY  THE  LORD. 

of  our  faith  in  so  essential  a  point  as  the  voice  of  the  Good  Shepherd, 
which  is  more  spoke  under  our  roof  than  in  any  other  place,  you  have 
our  dear  brother  Mr.  Hamilton's  house  to  go  to,  who  will  be  too  glad 
to  receive  you.  For  my  own  part,  I  could  not  wish  you  to  abide  in 
that  holy  presence  and  stand  in  doubt  of  His  identity,  much  less 
speak  against  His  divinity,  and  worse  than  all,  speak  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  as  a  spirit  of  delusion.  .  .  .  You  would  certainly  be  continual- 
ly exposed  to  great  trials  in  this  way,  and  might  be  brought  under 
heinous  sin ;  but  God  might  be  pleased  to  give  you  to  acknowledge 
His  truth.  Do  as  seemeth  best  to  you,  being  guided  by  the  Lord  in 
all  things.  My  only  comfort  is  that  the  people  know  not  what  they 
have  spoken  against ;  were  it  otherwise,  I  would  be  ready  to  perish 
at  the  thought  of  the  despite  which  hath  been  done  to  the  Spirit  of 
grace.  The  Gospel  soundeth  out  ;t,hrough  the  whole  city  from  my 
Church.  I  should  suppose  there  are  not  fewer  than  thirty  or  forty 
who  now  preach  in  the  streets,  every  one  of  them  as  zealous,  and 
many  of  them  more  bold  than  I  am ;  and  for  myself,  the  Lord's  work 
by  me,  both  within  my  church  and  among  the  people,  prospers  above 
all  former  times.  Every  two  months  there  are  added  to  the  Church 
nearly  fifty  souls.  If  you  knew  it,  you  have  great  ground  of  thanks- 
giving on  our  account.  I  believe  the  Lord  is  doing  a  work  in  my 
Church  wherein  the  whole  world  shall  have  reason  to  rejoice. 

"  Your  affectionate  and  faithful  children,        E.  &  I.  Ikving." 

The  parents  naturally  did  not  come  to  complicate  all  his  diffi- 
culties ;  but  another  communication  passed  between  them  a  month 
later,  when  Irving  intimated  the  birth  of  another  son,  and  also 
that  "  the  Lord  prospers  us  otherwise  very  much.  He  hath  pro- 
vided us  with  a  house  and  church  under  one  roof,  where  I  believe 
the  Lord  will  work  blessings  manifold,  not  only  to  this  city  and 
nation,  but  to  the  whole  world,  because  He  is  gracious,  and  the 
time  to  visit  His  Church  is  come,  and  we  were  the  most  despised 
among  the  thousands  of  Israel." 

With  such  anticipations,  accordingly,  he  entered  into  possession 
of  the  new  church ;  and  now,  indeed,  the  ancient,  austere  usages 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland  began  to  yield  to  the  presence  of  that 
gradually  rising  tide  of  spiritual  influence  within.  Those  utter- 
ances, which  at  first  had  only  conveyed  exhortations  and  warn- 
ings to  the  people  of  God,  had,  in  the  hands  of  Baxter,  taken  an 
entirely  different  and  much  more  authoritative  character ;  up  to 
his  time,  the  prophets,  of  whom  the  majority  were  women,  seem 
only  to  have  given  stray  gleams  of  edification,  encouragement, 
and  instruction  to  the  believing  assembly.  Baxter,  on  the  con- 
trary, carried  matters  with  a  high  hand ;  he  not  only  interpreted 
prophecy,  but  uttered  predictions ;  he  fixed  the  day  and  the  year 
when  the  "  rapture  of  the  saints"  was  to  take  place,  in  opposition 


DEVELOPMENT,  505 

to  th.e  sentiments  of  many  of  the  "  gifted ;"  and  if  he  did  not  posi- 
tively assert  his  own  call  to  be  an  apostle,  at  least  intimated  it 
•with  more  or  less  distinctness.  Nor  was  this  all ;  he  also  declared 
in  "  the  power"  that  the  Church  no  longer  retained  the  privilege 
of  ordaining,  and  that  all  spiritual  offices  were  henceforth  to  be 
filled  by  the  gifted,  or  by  those  specially  called,  through  the  gift- 
ed, by  the  Spirit  of  God.  Before  the  opening  of  the  Newman 
Street  Church,  it  is  true,  the  prophet  himself  had  published  the 
wonderful  narrative,  in  which  he  repeated  the  predictions  which 
came  from  his  own  lips,  and,  appealing  to  the  whole  world  wheth- 
er they  had  been  fulfilled,  proclaimed  them  a  delusion.  But  the 
principle  which  he  had  introduced  did  not  fall  to  the  ground,  nor 
did  his  brother  prophets  cease  to  believe  in  his  prophecies.  And 
so  it  came  to  pass,  that  those  utterances  which  had  only  been  ex- 
pository and  exhortative  before  Baxter's  time,  after  his  revelation 
changed  their  nature,  and,  gradually  mingling  details  of  Church 
ceremonies  and  ordinances  with  their  previous  devotional  and 
hortatory  character,  became  ere  long  the  oracles  of  the  commun- 
ity, fluctuating  sometimes  in  gusts  of  painful  uncertainty  when 
one  prophet  rebuked  the  utterances  of  another,  and  reversed  his 
directions,  or  when  conclusions  too  summary  were  drawn  which 
had  inevitably  to  be  departed  from.  This  new  development  in- 
troduced, instead  of  the  steady  certainty  of  an  established  law,  the 
unsettled  and  variable  condition  naturally  resulting  from  depend- 
ence upon  a  mysterious  spiritual  authority,  which  might  at  any 
time  command  an  entire  change  in  their  proceedings,  and  was,  be- 
sides, liable  to  be  intruded  upon  by  equally  mysterious,  diabolical 
agencies,  which  could  with  difficulty  be  distinguished  from  the 
real  influence  of  the  Spirit.  When  the  principle  of  spiritual  ordi- 
nation was  once  established,  this  condition  of  painful  change  and 
fluctuation  became  inevitable.  If  it  was  indeed  the  Spirit  of  God 
which  declared  the  old  authority  of  the  Church  to  be  superseded, 
such  an  intimation  was  reasonably  to  be  supposed  the  preface  of 
spiritual  action ;  and  if  a  power  other  than  the  Spirit  of  God,  still 
more  certain  was  the  fruit  to  be  borne  by  a  suggestion  which  gave 
scope  to  every  burning  imagination  and  enthusiast  heart.  New 
names,  new  offices,  a  changed  order  of  worship  came  in  gradual 
succession ;  when  the  greater  matters  were  momentarily  settled, 
the  minutest  details  came  in  for  their  share ;  and  the  very  details 
became  important  when  it  was  believed  that  God  Himself  direct- 
ed and  suggested  every  arrangement  of  the  new  sanctuary. 


506  IRVING  ANNOUNCES  CERTAIN  CHANGES. 

I  do  not  attempt  to  follow  the  gradual  development  of  the 
"  Catholic  Apostolic  Church."  I  could  not  do  so  without  shock- 
ing the  holiest  feelings  of  some  of  the  most  excellent  people  I 
know,  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  much  courtesy  and  no  small  as- 
sistance. They  are  very  well  able  to  set  forth  and  defend  their 
own  faith,  and  it  would  be  ill  my  part  to  cast  the  faintest  shade 
either  of  ridicule  or  of  odium  upon  it.  I  only  pause  to  point  out 
the  moment  when  the  old  order  of  things  began  to  break  up  and 
disappear,  leaving  only  here  and  there  some  pathetic  shred  of  an- 
cient habitude,  such  as  the  use  of  the  Scotch  Psalms,  to  show 
where  the  former  landmarks  had  been.  In  the  excitement  of  the 
new  system  thus  gradually  forming,  in  the  proclamation  of  apos- 
tles about  to  be  consecrated,  and  prophets  about  to  be  sent  forth, 
and  a  new  tabernacle  of  testimony  against  the  world  lying  in 
wickedness  to  be  established  in  that  wilderness— a  living  taber- 
nacle, every  office-bearer  of  which  was  intended  by  God  to  stand 
in  the  place  of  some  one  of  the  symbolical  material  parts  of  Moses' 
tabernacle — it  would  have  been  marvelous  indeed  had  the  old 
forms  of  Scottish  worship  remained  intact  amid  so  many  convul- 
sions. 

In  a  sermon  preached  in  Gray's  Inn  Eoad  just  before  entering 
the  new  church,  Irving  thus  intimated  one  or  two  of  the  changes 
purposed : 

"  Because  I  have  been  sore  hindered  by  the  presence  of  the  multi- 
tude of  strangers  and  gazers  who  have  profaned  the  Lord's  house, 
and  have  insulted  me  and  do  insult  me  daily,  and  not  me  only,  but 
the  Lord  Jesus,  it  is  my  j^urpose,  by  God's  grace,  when  we  meet  to- 
gether again,  that  the  Church  shall  meet  together  alone  one  full  hour 
before  the  admission  of  the  people,  in  order  that  the  Church  may 
know  what  are  the  duties  of  the  Church,  and  that  we  may  together 
confess  our  sins  before  the  Lord,  and  humble  ourselves  before  the 
Lord,  and  bow  ourselves  down ;  and  that  I  may  speak  to  you  in  the 
confidence  of  a  pastor,  that  I  may  tell  you  more  plainly  than  in  the 
presence  of  strangers  what  be  our  faults,  what  be  our  shortcomings, 
in  order  that  we  may  all  be  before  the  Lord,  to  be  rebuked  of  Him 
accordingly.  Then,  when  the  service  of  the  Church  hath  thus  been 
gone  about,  it  is  my  purpose  that  the  doors  be  opened,  and  all  whom 
the  Lord  shall  please  to  send  shall  come  in,  that  we  may  pray  for 
them  and  minister  the  word  of  the  Gospel  unto  them.  ...  I  hope, 
at  no  great  distance  of  time  also,  that  we  shall  find  it  both  convenient 
and  desirable  to  eat  the  Lord's  Supper  together,  as  a  Church,  every 
Lord's  day.  But,  as  I  said  before,  I  do  not  wish  to  press  this  heav- 
ily, nor  to  enforce  any  thing,  but  that  by  the  gentle  leading  of  the 
Spirit  of  God  the  Church  may  be  led  into  it." 

The  new  Church  itself  bore  outward  evidence  of  the  change. 


EXAMPLE  OF  THE  UTTERANCES.  507 

III  a  second  pamphlet,  entitled  "  Irvingism,"  much  less  rare  and 
curious  than  his  "  Narrative,"  and  published  a  year  or  two  later, 
in  which  Mr.  Baxter  appears  calmed  down  out  of  his  prophetic 
passion  into  the  ordinary  tone  of  religious  controversy,  he  de- 
scribes the  place  as  follows :  "  The  room  adopted  for  their  meet- 
ings was  fitted  up  in  the  usual  style  of  pews  and  galleries,  as  in  a 
church ;  instead  of  a  pulpit,  however,  there  was  constructed  at  the 
upper  end  of  the  church  a  raised  platform,  capable  of  containing 
perhaps  fifty  persons.  In  the  ascent  to  this  platform  are  steps ; 
on  the  front  of  the  platform  are  seven  seats ;  the  middle  seat  is 
that  of  the  angel ;  the  three  on  each  side  of  the  angel  are  elders. 
Below  them,  on  the  steps,  and  in  a  parallel  line,  are  seven  other 
seats  belonging  to  the  prophets,  the  middle  seat  being  allotted  to 
Mr.  Taplin  as  the  chief  of  the  prophets.  Still  lower  in  a  parallel 
line  are  seven  other  seats  appropriated  to  the  deacons,  the  middle 
seat  being  occupied  by  the  chief  deacon.  This  threefold  cord  of 
a  sevenfold  ministry  was  adopted  under  direction  of  the  utterance. 
The  angel  ordered  the  service,  and  the  preaching  and  expounding 
was  generally  by  the  elders  in  order,  the  prophets  speaking  as  ut- 
terance came  upon  them."  The  opening  services,  however,  in  this 
church  seem  to  have  been  conducted  exclusively  by  Irving,  whose 
sermon,  interrupted  now  and  then  by  a  manifestation.,  I  have  now 
before  me.  It  was  on  Wednesday  evening,  the  24th  of  October, 
that  this  service  was  held ;  and  the  manifestations  are  reported  as 
they  occurred.  As  an  example  of  these  utterances  I  quote  them 
at  length.  In  the  course  of  his  exposition  of  the  1st  chapter  of 
the  First  Book  of  Samuel,  Irving  mentions  the  Church  as  barren 
— "  conceiving,  but  not  having  brought  forth,"  upon  which  the 
ecstatic  voice  interposes, 

"  Oh,  but  she  shall  be  fruitful ;  oh !  oh  !  oh !  she  shall  replenish  the 
earth !  Oh !  oh !  she  shall  replenish  the  earth  and  subdue  it — and 
subdue  it !" 

A  little  farther  on,  another,  less  apposite  to  the  subject  of  the 
discourse,  breaks  in  as  follows : 

"  Oh,  you  do  grieve  the  Spirit — you  do  grieve  the  Spirit !  Oh,  the 
body  of  Jesus  is  to  be  sorrowful  in  spirit !  You  are  to  cry  to  your 
Father — to  cry,  to  cry  in  the  bitterness  of  your  souls !  Oh,  it  is  a 
mourning,  a  mourning,  a  mourning  before  the  Lord — a  sighing  and 
crying  unto  the  Lord  because  of  the  desolations  ofZion — because  of 
the  desolations  of  Zion — because  of  the  desolations  of  Zion!" 

The  sermon  is  on  Reconciliation  to  God,  and  is  interrupted  by 


508  MANIFESTATIONS. 

the  following  "  manifestations,"  in  some  cases  with  only  a  few  sen- 
tences of  the  discourse,  and  in  the  first  two  with  only  a  few  words 
between,  Irving  is  exhorting  his  hearers  to  believe  that  "  there 
is  salvation  in  Christ  for  every  one  of  you,"  when  the  utterance 
bursts  forth  by  the  voice  of  Mr.  Drummond, 

"  Ah  !  shut  Him  not  out — shut  not  out  you  Savior !  Ah !  you  are 
proud  of  your  dignity  !  Ah !  truly  your  power  is  fearful !  Ah !  you 
have  a  power  of  resisting  your  God — you  have  a  power  of  resisting 
your  salvation !  Ah !  you  are  not  straitened  in  your  Father ;  you 
are  straitened  in  yourselves !  Oh,  receive  Him  now !  The  day  is  al- 
most closed.  Ah!  enter  now!  Delay  not — delay  not,  delay  not. 
Ah !  wherefore  stand  you  back  ?" 

Here  Irving  resumes :  "  Shut  not  the  Lord  out,  the  spirit  of  the 
Lord  speaking  in  his  servants,"  when  he  is  immediately  interrupt- 
ed again : 

"Oh,  I  have  set  before  thee — oh,  I  have  set  before  thee 
an  open  door ; 
Oh,  let  no  man  shut  it — oh,  let  no  man  shut  it !" 

And  the  following  occur  at  longer  intervals,  the  first  uttered  by 
a  lady : 

"Ah!  will  ye  despise — ah!  will  ye  despise  the  blood  of  Jesus? 
Will  ye  pass  by  the  cross,  the  cross  of  Jesus !  Oh !  oh  !  oh !  will  ye 
crucify  the  Lord  of  glory  ?  will  ye  put  Him  to  an  open  shame?  He 
died,  He  died,  He  died  for  you — He  died  for  you !  Believe  ye,  be- 
lieve ye  the  Lamb  of  God !  Oh,  He  was  slain,  He  was  slain,  and  He 
hath  redeemed  you — He  hath  redeemed  you — He  hath  redeemed  you 
— He  hath  redeemed  you  with  His  blood !  Oh,  the  blood,  the  blood, 
the  blood  that  speaketh  better  things  than  the  blood  of  Abel — which 
crieth  mercy  to  you  now — mercy  to  you  now !  Despise  not  His  love 
— despise  not  His  love — despise  not  His  love!" 

"  Oh,  grieve  Him  not !  Oh,  grieve  not  your  Father !  Rest  in  His 
love !  Oh,  rejoice  in  your  Father's  love !  Oh,  rejoice  in  the  love  of 
Jesus,  in  the  love  of  Jesus,  oh,  for  it  passeth  knowledge !  Oh,  the 
length,  oh,  the  breadth,  oh,  the  height,  oh,  the  depth  of  the  love  of 
Jesus !  oh,  it  passeth  knowledge !  Oh,  rejoice  in  the  love  of  Jesus ! 
Oh,  sinner !  for  what,  for  what,  what,  oh,  sinner,  what  can  separate, 
separate,  separate  from  the  love  of  Jesus  ?  Oh,  nothing,  nothing ! 
Oh,  none  can  pluck  you  out  of  His  hands !  Oh,  none  shall  be  able  to 
pluck  you  out  of  your  Father's  hand !" 

Irving  then,  the  sermon  being  concluded,  intimates  that  the 
church  is  free  throughout,  no  pew  letting  being  permitted — thus 
forestalling,  as  in  various  other  respects,  the  anxious  endeavors  of 
a  most  important  part  of  the  English  Church — that  it  is  to  be  open 
ten  times  a  week  for  public  worship,  besides  four  other  services  to 
which  only  members  of  the  Church  are  admitted,  "with  such  de- 


CHARACTER  OF  THE  MANIFESTATIONS.  509 

voiit  persons  as  they  may  introduce  by  tickets,"  all  others  being  ex- 
cluded except  to  the  porch  of  the  church.  This  intimation  is  scarcely 
completed  when  Mr.  Drummond's  voice  again  breaks  forth : 

"  Ah !  be  ye  warned !  be  ye  warned !  Ye  have  been  warned.  The 
Lord  hath  prepared  for  you  a  table,  but  it  is  a  table  in  the  presence 
of  your  enemies.  Ah !  look  you  well  to  it !  The  city  shall  be  build- 
ed — ah !  every  jot,  every  piece  of  the  edifice.  Be  faithful  each  under 
his  load — each  under  his  load ;  but  see  that  ye  build  with  one  hand, 
and  with  a  weapon  in  the  other.  Look  to  it — look  to  it.  Ye  have 
been  warned.  Ah !  Sanballat,  Sanballat,  Sanballat ;  the  Horonite,  the 
Moabite,  the  Ammonite !  Ah !  confederate,  confederate,  confederate 
with  the  Horonite !     Ah !  look  ye  to  it,  look  ye  to  it !" 

The  benediction  concluded  the  service. 

Thus  concluded  this  singular  service.  The  reader  will  perceive 
that  there  is  actually  nothing  in  those  exclamations  to  which  the 
most  orthodox  believer  could  object,  but  will  most  probably  won- 
der, as  I  confess  I  can  not  help  doing,  why  it  should  have  been 
necessary  to  interrupt  the  voice  of  the  preacher  for  utterances 
which  convey  so  little,  and  which,  to  read  them  in  common  print 
and  daylight,  are  not  more,  but  less  profound  and  instructive  than 
the  strain  of  the  discourse  which  pauses  to  give  them  place ;  many 
of  the  services,  however,  are  much  less  frequently  interrupted,  and 
some  not  at  all.  In  one  of  them  occurs  a  curious  instance  of  the 
expanded  ritual  grafted  upon  the  old  usage,  in  a  series  of  short 
addresses  spoken  to  each  individual  communicant  by  name,  with 
which  Irving  accompanied  the  distribution  of  the  "  tokens,"  and 
in  which  every  man  and  woman  of  all  those  unknown  appellations 
receives  a  curious  identity  in  all  the  various  particulars  of  poverty 
and  prosperity,  age  and  youth. 

Little  farther  of  Irving's  personal  history  appears  in  this  event- 
ful and  exciting  year.  Amid  all  its  agitation,  one  can  fancy  a 
certain  repose  lighting  upon  him  after  the  fiery  trial  with  which 
it  began.  ELe  was  forsaken  of  his  friends,  yet  love  still  surround- 
ed him ;  he  had  suffered  injustice,  despite,  and  loss,  but  the  imme- 
diate pangs  were  over.  Already  he  had  been  promised  the  mis- 
sion of  a  great  prophet  to  his  dear  native  country,  and  solace  was 
in  the  thought ;  and,  though  Baxter  had  fallen,  there  were  other 
prophets  standing  close  around  him,  who  renewed  and  held  up  to 
the  continued  hope  of  the  Church  those  predictions  which  they 
believed  Baxter  to  have  too  rashly  interpreted,  too  suddenly  de- 
sired fruition  of — and  the  sky  before  the  separated  community 
was  still  bright  with  glorious  hopes. 


510  ANOTHEK  ASSAULT. 

This  momentary  calm  was,  however,  once  more  broken  in  Oc- 
tober by  warnings  of  renewed  trouble.  The  Church  of  Scotland 
was  in  no  manner  called  upon  to  interfere.  The  scene  of  his 
labors  was  beyond  her  jurisdiction,  and  he  seems  to  have  had 
no  immediate  intention  of  visiting  Scotland,  or  bringing  himself 
within  the  reach  of  her  anathema.  But  perhaps  it  was  impossi- 
ble that  any  merely  human  corporation  of  men,  actuated  by  no 
greater  self-control  than  their  fellows,  could  have  passed  over  the 
solemn  and  indignant  judgment  pronounced  upon  their  proceed- 
ings by  Irving  in  the  Morning  Watch  without  using  such  means 
of  reprisal  as  were  in  their  power.  The  General  Assembly  of 
1831  bad  issued  orders  to  any  Presbytery  which  might  find  him 
ministering  within  their  bounds  to  "take  action"  against  him  for 
his  heretical  views ;  but,  stimulated  by  assault,  it  had  quickened 
its  movements,  and  by  means  of  its  commission,  a  kind  of  repre- 
sentative committee,  had  given  orders  to  the  Presbytery  which 
ordained  Irving  to  proceed  at  once  to  his  trial.  The  Presbytery 
of  Annan  accordingly  bestirred  themselves.  They  wrote  to  him 
demanding  whether  he  was  the  author  of  three  tracts  which  they 
specified.  Under  the  circumstances,  his  answer  was  purely  vol- 
untary ;  but,  with  his  usual  candor,  he  replied  at  once,  with  full 
avowal  of  the  fact,  and  vehement  condemnation  of  the  General 
Assembly,  with  which  he  declared  himself  able  henceforth  "to 
make  no  relationship  but  that  of  open  and  avowed  enmity."  The 
expressions  he  used  on  this  occasion  were  almost  violent,  his  vex- 
ed spirit,  to  which  no  rest  was  permitted,  bursting  forth  in  words 
more  suitable  to  an  Ezekiel  than  to  a  man  unjustified  by  inspira- 
tion. In  his  view,  the  highest  court  of  the  Church  of  Scotland 
had  rejected  God  in  all  the  three-fold  character  of  His  revelation 
— in  the  love  of  the  Pather,  the  humanity  of  the  Son,  and  the 
operations  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  and  his  heart  burned  with  a  sol- 
emn and  lofty  indignation,  all  the  more  intense  for  the  love  and 
reverence  with  which  he  had  formerly  regarded  the  Church  of  his 
fathers. 

With  this  renewed  thunderbolt  hanging  over  him  he  went 
through  the  rest  of  the  year.  "We  are  all  well,  and  the  Lord 
forbeareth  greatly  with  such  unworthy  creatures,  and  aboundeth 
in  love  to  us  for  Christ's  sake,"  are  the  wordfe  with  which  he  con- 
cludes a  letter  in  December.  A  certain  exhaustion,  yet  calm  of 
heart,  breathes  out  of  the  words.  Scarcely  a  man  of  all  those 
with  whom  he  had  been  used  to  take  counsel  but  had  fallen  aloof. 


GRADUAL  DEVELOPMENT.  511 

and  stood  afar  off,  disapproving,  perhaps  condemning,  and,  what 
was  a  still  harder  trial  to  Irving,  calling  that  which  to  him  was 
the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost  a  delusion.  But  his  heart  was  worn 
out  with  much  suffering ;  and,  in  the  interval  of  conflict,  a  certain 
tranquillity,  half  of  weariness,  enveloped  his  troubled  life. 


CHAPTER  XYin. 
1833. 


Inquiries  of  Mr.  Campbell. — Irving's  Reply. — The  Fountain  of  Sweet  Waters. — Let- 
ter to  Alan  Ker. — Position  of  the  Angel. — God's  Footsteps  are  not  known. — Ir- 
ving's Mode  of  explaining  himself. — His  Reasonableness. — Contrast  between  Ir- 
ving and  Baxter. — Doctrine  of  "the  Humanity." — Fighting  in  the  Dark. — An- 
nan Presbytery. — Incompetence  of  the  Judges. — Irving's  arrival  in  Annan. — Da- 
vid and  Goliath. — Irving's  Defense. — The  Captain  of  our  Salvation. — Decision  of 
the  Presbytery. — Scene  in  Annan  Church. — Irving  leaves  the  Church. — Deposi- 
tion.— His  Letter  to  his  People. — His  Deliverance. — Nithsdale  and  Annandale. — 
Set  aside  by  his  own  Church. — Reordination. — The  Christian  Priest. — "Our  dear 
Father's  Letter." — Another  Death. — Infant  Faith. — An  American  Spectator. — 
The  Morning  ^Yatch. — Conclusion  of  that  Periodical. — Irving's  Difficulties. — An 
embarrassing  Restraint. — The  Communion  in  Newman  Street. — Many  Trials. — 
Expectation  of  Power  from  on  High. — Walking  in  Darkness. 

The  course  of  events  went  on  in  natural  development  after  the 
separation  of  Irving  and  his  little  community.  To  a  large  extent 
secluded  within  themselves,  they  carried  out  their  newly-estab- 
lished principles,  and  "  waited  upon  the  Lord"  as  perhaps  no  other 
community  of  modern  days  has  ever  dreamed  of  doing,  guiding 
themselves  and  their  ordinances  implicitly  by  the  teaching  of  the 
oracles  in  the  midst  of  them.  In  this  career  of  daily  increasing 
isolation,  Irving  had  not  only  lost  the  support  of  his  immediate 
personal  friends  in  London,  but  also  of  those  much-loved  breth- 
ren in  faith,  in  whose  defense  he  had  lifted  his  mighty  voice,  and 
for  whom  he  had  denounced  the  Church  of  Scotland.  Mr.  Scott, 
though  entertaining  the  full  conviction  that  miraculous  gifts  were 
part  of  the  inheritance  of  Christians,  and  after  doing  much  to  per- 
fect that  belief  in  Irving's  own  mind,  as  well  as  in  those  of  the 
first  ecstatic  speakers,  had  totally  refused  his  sanction  to  the  pres- 
ent utterances ;  and  the  two  friends  were  now  separated,  to  drift 
farther  and  farther  apart  through  all  imaginable  degrees  of  un- 
likeness.  Mr.  Campbell,  for  whose  distinctive  views  Irving  had 
stood  forth  so  warmly,  and  whom  he  had  embraced  with  all  the 


512  ilR-  CAMPBELL'S  INQUIRIES.— IRVING'S  REPLY. 

overflowing  sympathy  and  love  of  his  heart,  was  equally  unable 
to  perceive  any  evidences  of  Divine  inspiration.  An  impression 
seems  to  have  prevailed,  if  not  in  Irving's  mind,  at  least  among 
several  members  of  his  community,  that  both  these  gentlemen 
would  naturally  fall  into  their  ranks,  and  add  strength  and  sta- 
bility to  the  new  Church.  I  have  in  my  possession  notes  of  a 
correspondence  carried  on  some  time  later  between  Mr,  Campbell 
and  some  members  of  the  Newman  Street  Church,  in  which  the 
Scotch  minister  had  to  hold  his  ground  against  two  most  acute 
and  powerful  opponents — one  of  whom  was  Henry  Drummond, 
brilliant  and  incisive  in  controversy  as  in  most  other  things — and 
to  defend  and  justify  himself  for  not  joining  them.  To  lose  the 
sympathy  of  these  special  brethren  was  very  grievous  to  Irving ; 
and  he  seized  the  opportunity  of  explaining  the  ground  of  his 
faith  and  that  of  his  people  in  answer  to  some  questions  which 
Mr.  Campbell  very  early  in  this  year  addressed  to  Mr.  David  Ker, 
one  of  the  deacons  in  Newman  Street,  and  a  member  of  a  well- 
known  family  in  Greenock,  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of 
which  the  "gifts"  had  first  displayed  themselves.  This  letter, 
which  I  quote,  shows  that  Irving's  own  faith  had  needed  very  ab- 
solute props  to  support  it,  and  that  he  had  not  proceeded  so  far 
upon  his  martyr-path  without  such  trial  of  doubts  and  misgivings 
as  could  only  be  quenched  by  a  confidence  in  his  own  sincerity 
and  utter  trust  in  God's  promise  possible  to  very  few  men  under 
any  circumstances.  Once  more  he  reiterated  with  sorrowful  con- 
stancy his  certain  conviction  that  to  His  children,  when  they  ask- 
ed for  bread,  God  would  not  give  a  stone. 

"  14  Newman  Street,  Febraary  22,  1833. 
"  My  dear  Brother, — When  our  dear  David  Ker  asked  me  coun- 
sel concerning  the  answering  of  the  questions  in  your  letter  touching 
the  ground  of  faith  in  spiritual  utterance,  I  deemed  it  best  to  take 
the  matter  in  hand  for  him  altogether,  and  do  now  hope  to  deliver 
the  mind  of  God  to  you  in  this  matter.  The  view  of  the  dear  breth- 
ren in  Port-Glasgow,*  to  wit,  the  answer  of  the  spirit  in  the  hearer, 
is  the  ground  of  belief  in  any  word  spoken  by  any  man  or  by  any 
spirit ;  but  it  is  only  the  basis  or  ground  thereof,  and  by  no  means  re- 
solves the  question  in  hand.  There  is  a  confidence  in  God  which 
goes  far  beyond  the  answer  of  the  spirit,  and  enables  us  to  walk  in 
the  darkness  as  well  as  in  the  light ;  for  His  footsteps  are  not  known. 
This  confidence  pertaineth  to  him  that  is  of  a  pure  heart  and  single 
eye,  and  conscious  of  integrity,  and  clearness  in  His  sight.  I  believe 
that  this  sustained  our  Lord  in  the  crooked  paths  wherein  God  led 
him,  and  that  it  was,  and  is,  and  ever  will  be,  the  main,  yea,  the  only 

*  Where  the  "manifestations"  first  took  place :  see  ante,  p.  381. 


THE  FOUNTAIN  OF  SWEET  WATERS.  513 

evidence  by  which  the  prophet,  having  the  word  of  God  coming  to 
him,  shall  know  it  is  the  word  of  God,  and  as  such  speak  it ;  by  which 
also  the  hearer  shall  know  it  is  the  word  of  God,  and  as  such  hear  it. 
It  is  true  that  God  leadeth  men  into  temptation,  as  He  did  Abraham, 
and  then  it  is  their  part  to  obey  implicitly  the  word  of  the  Lord,  and 
the  Lord  will  bring  them  out  of  the  temptation  to  His  own  glory 
and  to  their  own  good.  I  declare,  for  myself  and  for  my  Church, 
that  this  is  almost  our  entire  safety,  to  wit,  confidence  that  our  God 
will  take  care  of  us ;  for  we  are  not  a  reasoning  people,  but  we  seek 
to  be,  and  I  believe  ai-e,  the  servants  of  God.  Moreover,  we  have 
great  faith  in  the  stability  of  an  ordinance.  We  look  up  to  the  dea- 
cons, and  the  elders,  and  the  angel  of  the  Church,  as  standing  in  the 
Lord  Jesus,  and  we  expect  and  desire  to  see  and  hear  Him  in  their 
ministry,  and  we  believe  that  it  will  be  to  us  according  to  our  faith, 
and  we  have  found  it  to  be  so  in  times  past.  But  forasmuch  as  the 
voice  of  the  Comforter  is  the  highest  of  all  ordinances  in  the  Church, 
we  steadily  believe  that  the  Lord  for  His  own  name,  as  well  as  for 
His  own  end's  sake,  will  not  suffer,  without  a  very  great  cause,  any 
breaking  in  or  breaking  out  therein ;  and  so,  when  He  openeth  the 
mouth  of  a  brother  in  power,  Ave  expect  to  hear  His  voice,  and  we 
are  not  disappointed,  and  so  our  experience  increaseth  our  expecta- 
tion, and  in  this  way  we  proceed  and  prosper.  In  respect  of  signs, 
we  rather  desire  them  not  than  desire  them  at  present,  until  the  word 
of  our  God  shall  have  delivered  us  from  our  carnal-mindedness,  and 
from  following  sight  instead  of  faith.  When  the  Lord  permitted  the 
enemy  to  tempt  us,  seeing  our  simplicity,  He  himself  delivered  us 
from  the  temptation,  and  we  learned  the  more  to  trust  Him  and  to 
distrust  ourselves.  And,  oh  brother,  the  fountain  which  is  opened 
having  yielded  us  nothing  but  sweet  waters,  it  would  be  so  ungrate- 
ful for  us  to  do  any  thing  but  rejoice  at  it,  that  I  feel  even  this  letter 
to  be  a  liberty  with  my  God,  which,  save  for  a  brother's  satisfaction, 
I  would  not  have  ventured  to  take.  There  are  many  things  now  that 
I  could  say,  but  I  refrain  lest  I  should  encourage  a  temptation  in  you 
to  speculate  about  holy  things,  and  so  lead  you  into  a  snare.  I  pray 
God  to  keep  you  in  the  faith  of  Him,  in  darkness  as  in  light,  and  no 
less  when  in  light  than  in  darkness.     Farewell. 

"  Your  faithful  brother,  Edwakd  Irving." 

Another  letter  of  a  similar  character  was  addressed  a  few  months 
later  to  Alan  Ker,  of  Greenock,  a  man  who,  long  confined  to  a 
sick-room,  and  at  all  times  in  the  most  precarious  health,  seems  to 
have  secured  always  the  love,  and  often  the  reverential  regard  of 
those  who  knew  him. 

"  London,  April  30,  1833. 
"  My  dear  Brother, — Your  brother  gave  me,  after  our  worship 
on  the  Lord's  day,  a  letter  of  yours  to  read,  which  I  returned  to  him 
on  Monday  morning  after  our  public  prayers,  with  little  or  no  com- 
ment, and  with  no  purpose  of  writing  to  you  myself,  nor  does  he 
know  that  I  am  now  about  to  write ;  but,  having  a  great  love  to  you 
and  to  your  father's  house,  and  admiring  the  brotherly  love  which 

Kk 


514  ^r         LETTER  TO  ALAN  KER. 

reigneth  among  you,  and  being  well  acquainted  with  the  ground 
whereon  you  and  others  are  stumbling,  and  not  going  forward  with 
us  into  the  glorious  city,  I  take  heart  of  loving-kindness  to  write  to 
you,  my  brother,  and  do  what  I  can  to  help  you  forward. 

"  The  word  of  the  Lord,  my  Scottish  brethren,  since  Adam  fell, 
hath  never  been  a  copy  of  itself,  but  always  a  new  growth  and  form 
of  the  same  good  purpose  which  the  Father  purposed  in  Himself  be- 
fore the  world  was,  and  revealeth  in  His  dear  Son  through  the  Church, 
which  is  the  fullness  of  Him  who  fiUeth  all  in  all.  .  .  .  And,  thou,  0 
Alan,  who  lookest  from  thy  sick-chamber  with  pious  delight  upon  the 
works  of  thy  Creator,  dost  not  expect  the  green  blade  which  now 
pierces  the  ground  to  continue  m  its  beautiful  verdure,  but  to  shoot 
out  into  the  stalk  and  the  ear,  and  the  full  corn  in  the  ear.  But  yoii 
will  not  permit  such  variety  of  forms  in  the  growth  of  the  works  of 
the  Lord,  but  go  to  the  apostolical  Avritings  and  say, '  It  must  be  this 
over  again,'  wherein  ye  grieve  God,  not  walking  by  faith,  but  by 
sight.  Ye  see  the  historical  notices  there  written,  and  ye  say, '  Now 
we  will  guide  our  own  steps  and  keep  our  own  way.'  Your  own 
steps  you  may  guide ;  but  God's  steps  are  not  knoAvn.  Your  own 
way  you  may  find,  but  God's  by  searching  you  can  not  find.  Think 
ye  that  Abraham  took  test  of  God  by  his  dealings  with  Noah  ?  or 
Moses  by  Abraham  ?  or  the  apostles,  at  Pentecost,  by  the  schools  of 
the  prophets  in  Bethel  or  in  Gilgal  ?  If  we  have  the  word  of  the 
Lord,  we  have  the  word  of  the.  Lord  and  nothing  else,  and  the  word 
of  the  Lord  shall  shaj^e  the  work  of  the  Lord,  and  not  thou  or  I,  nay, 
not  Paul,  nor  Peter,  nor  Moses,  but  He  of  Avhose  fullness  they  all  re- 
ceived— Jesus  the  Word  made  flesh,  who  sitteth  in  the  heavens,  and 
speaketh  in  the  midst  of  us,  and  of  you  also,  brethren  beloved  of  the 
Lord.  .  .  .  Dear  Alan,  if  there  were  any  thing  spoken  or  done  among 
us  which  is  meant  or  intended  to  abrogate  or  weaken  one  jot  or  tit- 
tle of  the  Law  or  the  Prophets,  let  it  be  anathema !  But  it  is  not  so ; 
there  is  no  word  in  Scripture  to  say  that  an  apostle  should  have  seen 
the  Lord.  Read  again,  brother.  When  thou  showest  it  me  written 
that  no  one  is  an  apostle  who  has  not  seen  the  Lord,  I  will  say  that 
John  Cardale  is  not  an  apostle,  although  the  spirit  that  speaketh  here 
and  in  all  other  parts  were  to  say  that  he  teas  ten  thousand  times. 
Neither,  brother,  is  it  said  in  Scripture  that  an  apostle  is  to  be  tried 
by  signs,  and  wonders,  and  mighty  deeds,  although  these  belong  to 
an  apostle,  and  an  evangelist,  and  an  elder,  and  to  thee  also,  if  thou 
hast  faith ;  for  these  signs  shall  follow  them  that  believe ;  and  art 
thou  not  a  believer,  oh  brother,  because  the  signs  in  thee  have  not  been 
manifested?  .  .  .  Why  stand  ye  afar  ofi'?  Come  to  the  help  of  the 
Lord  against  the  mighty,  lest  the  curse  of  Meroz  come  upon  you ; 
for,  brother,  it  is  no  question  of  logic,  but  the  losing  or  gaining  of  a 
crown. 

"Next,  ye  are  envious  of  me;  ye  think  that  I  am  usurping  it  in 
the  house  of  God,  and  ye  bi'ook  not  that  an  apostle  should  be  under 
me.  The  apostle  is  over  the  angel  of  the  Church,  and  the  angel  of 
the  Church  is  over  the  apostle .  ye  Scottish  people,  why  will  ye  at- 
tempt spiritual  things  with  carnal  reason  ?  I  give  ye  forth  another 
contradiction  to  call  heresy.    The  angel  of  the  Church  is  over  the 


GOD'S  FOOTSTEPS  ARE  NOT  KNOWN.  515 

apostle,  and  the  apostle  is  over  the  angel  of  the  Church.  '  First  apos- 
tles,' etc. ;  and  then,  'Thou  hast  proved  them  that  say  they  are  apos- 
tles, and  hast  found  them  liars.'  Now,  doth  Jesus  write  His  epistles 
to  the  apostles  of  the  Churches,  or  to  the  angels  of  the  Churches? 
But  by  whom  writeth  He  them  ?  Is  it  not  by  an  apostle  ?  So  receive 
I,  through  an  apostle,  my  instructions ;  and  having  received  them,  the 
apostle  himself  is  the  first  man  that  must  bow  to  them,  and  I  Avill  take 
good  care  that  he  doth  so,  lest  he  should  exalt  himself  to  the  seat  of 
our  common  Master,  who  alone  is  complete  within  Himself,  and  all 
His  office-bearers  are  worthless  worms,  useless,  profitless — grievous 
oifendcrs,  ever  offending,  whom  He  maketh  by  His  grace  and  power 
ever  worthy,  obedient,  and  offenseless.  Oh,  children,  I  am  broken  in 
my  heart  daily  with  your  slowness  of  faith ! 

"  Finally,  my  dear  brother,  if  you  ask  what  it  is  that  we  know  our 
Lord  by,  I  answer  by  the  mercy,  the  grace,  the  truth,  the  holiness, 
the  righteous  judgments  which  ....  in  these  times  and  in  all  times 
belong  to  Him  alone  ....  we  know  it  is  Jehovah,  and  none  but  He, 
who  through  the  mouth  of  a  weak  and  sinful  prophet,  through  the 
hand  of  a  weak  and  sinful  apostle,  hath  wrought  the  work  of  separa- 
ting a  Church  out  of  this  corner  of  Babylon.  .  .  .  But  in  respect  of 
His  way,  it  is  in  the  dark  waters,  and  of  His  footsteps,  they  are  not 
known ;  only  this  know  we,  that  we  have  committed  our  way  unto 
the  Lord,  and  that  we  are  seeking  to  depart  from  our  own  ways ; 
for  our  Avays  are  not  His  ways,  nor  our  thoughts  His  thoughts ;  there- 
fore, holy  brethren,  partakers  of  the  heavenly  calling,  cease  ye  betimes 
from  suspicion  and  from  judging,  for  otherwise  ye  shall  not  be  guilt- 
less, and  the  Lord  is  stronger  than  you;  but  abide  in  love  to  them 
that  love  you,  and  have  been  beholden  to  you  for  many  prayers  and 
much  fellowship,  and  would  now  repay  you  with  a  share  of  whatever 
grace,  understanding,  and  wisdom  the  Lord  giveth  unto  us.  .  .  .  To 
Him  who  is  the  life  and  the  head,  and  the  Lord  sovereign  and  para- 
mount, whom  we  serve  in  pureness  of  heart  and  mind,  through  the 
cleansing  of  His  blood  and  effectual  ministry  of  His  Spirit,  be  all  hon- 
or and  glory  forever.     Amen. 

"  Your  faithful  servant,  for  the  Lord's  sake, 

"Edward  Irving." 

The  singular  junction  in  these  letters  of  the  ruling  "Angel" 
of  the  Church,  retaining  all  his  natural  influence  and  sway,  who 
"  will  take  good  care"  that  the  apostle  does  bow  to  his  authority, 
with  the  simple  and  absolute  believer,  confident  that  he  is  serving 
God  in  utter  sincerity,  and  that  God  will  not  deceive  him,  nor  suf- 
fer him  to  be  deceived  in  his  unbounded  trust,  is  very  remarkable. 
In  this  lies  the  clew  which  many  of  Irving's  critics  have  sought 
in  vain,  and  which  some  have  imagined  themselves  able  to  trace 
to  motives  which  appear  in  no  other  manifestation  of  his  heroic 
and  simple  soul.  "While  one  portion  of  his  friends  are  affection- 
ately lamenting  the  blind  faith  with  which  he  delivers  over  his 
understanding  to  the  guidance  of  the  "gifted,"  and  another  are 


516  IRVING'S  MODE  OF  EXPLAINING  HIMSELF. 

impatiently  fretting  over  the  credulity  whicli  to  their  calm  sense 
is  inconceivable,  this  is  the  attitude  in  which  the  object  of  so 
niany  animadversions  stands.  Yulgar  voices  outside  assail  him, 
the  soul  of  honor,  with  imputations  of  imposture  and  rehgious 
fraud ;  friends,  more  cruel,  suggest  sometimes  a  hectic  inclination 
toward  the  marvelous — sometimes  the  half-conscious  desire  of  at- 
tracting back  again  the  fashionable  crowds  of  early  days.  Singu- 
larly unlike  all  these  representations  he  here  presents  himself 
Years  before,  he  had  called  his  brother  with  him  from  the  Kirk- 
caldy manse-parlor  to  join  in  his  prayers  for  a  dying  man,  in  the 
sublime  confidence  that  "what  two  of  you  shall  agree  together  to 
ask,  it  shall  be  done  unto  them  of  my  Father."  Years  have  not 
changed  his  confidence  in  that  unchanging  God.  He  stands  gaz- 
ing with  eyes  abstracted  upon  the  skies  which  that  burning  gaze 
can  all  but  pierce ;  he  has  put  his  Master  to  His  word ;  and,  hav- 
ing done  so,  the  servant  of  God  can  not  descend  from  that  mount 
of  prayer  to  the  cool  criticism  of  other  men.  First  in  the  matter 
to  a  mind  at  all  times  so  exalted,  and  to  which  all  nature  was  mi- 
raculous, was  that  Lord  to  whom  he  had  appealed ;  as  he  explains 
himself  from  those  heights  of  perpetual  prayer,  a  certain  impa- 
tience, strangely  like  the  impatience  with  which  the  watchers  be- 
low contemplate  him  in  his  incomprehensible  simplicity,  breathes 
from  his  impassioned  words :  "  I  am  broken  in  my  heart  daily 
with  your  slowness  of  faith ;"  and  his  explanation  is,  if  any  thing, 
more  incomprehensible  than  his  acts  to  men  who,  lost  in  all  the 
complications  of  a  world  growing  old,  can  only  gaze  amazed  at 
that  primitive  standing-ground  on  which,  as  if  he  had  been  born 
in  the  days  of  Moses  or  Abraham,  this  man  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury has  found  footing.  How  any  man  dares  believe  that  he  him- 
self is  utterly  sincere  in  his  asking,  and  sure  of  an  answer — how 
any  man  ventures  openly  to  assume  for  himself  that  position  to 
which  the  Bible  calls  every  man — and  how,  dismissing  all  farther 
question,  he  can  lift  his  abstracted  ear,  and  give  his  rapt  soul  to 
the  infallible  reply,  is  a  mystery  which  nobody  can  penetrate. 
Such  a  position  devout  men  may  attain  to  at  the  supreme  and 
secret  moments  of  individual  life.  I  can  no  more  explain  or  com- 
prehend that  ineffable  primitive  elevation  than  could  Irving's  curi- 
ous observers,  who  saw  him  standing  forth  in  it,  a  sign  and  won- 
der to  the  world.  But  there  he  did  stand  absolute,  in  a  primitive 
heroic  faith. 

And,  granting  this  miraculous  postulate,  there  is,  in  every  thing 


HIS  REASONABLENESS.  517 

Irving  does  thereafter,  a  certain  lofty  reasonableness  which  does 
but  still  more  and  more  bewilder  the  minds  of  his  auditors.  The 
region  into  which  he  had  entered  appeared  so  entirely  one  beyond 
reason,  that  the  outside  observers  expected  to  find  nothing  that 
was  not  wild  and  irregular,  according  to  all  the  traditions  of  en- 
thusiasm and  spiritual  excitement,  there.  But  Irving,  with  his 
exalted  heart,  to  which  no  miracle  seems  too  wonderful,  keeps,  in 
the  midst  of  all  that  wild  agitation,  the  limits  of  God's  Word  and 
man's  nature  in  utter  distinction  from  such  a  rash  enthusiast  as 
the  prophet  Baxter,  whom  even  at  the  height  of  his  inspiration 
the  pastor  continually  interposes  to  calm  and  moderate.  When 
the  latter  fancies  that  he  has  been  commanded  by  God  to  abandon 
his  family  and  profession,  to  appear  before  the  king  in  "testimo- 
ny," and  to  suffer  the  pains  of  martyrdom,  Irving  comes  in  upon 
his  heated  visions  with  the  suggestion  that  "  if  a  man  provide  not 
for  those  of  his  own  house  he  is  worse  than  an  infidel,"  proving 
his  own  declaration,  that  if  in  any  thing  the  utterances  controvert- 
ed Scripture,  he  was  content  that  they  should  "  be  anathema." 
Throughout  his  pleadings  before  the  Presbytery  of  London,  and 
in  the  letters  I  have  just  quoted,  nothing  seems  to  me  so  remark- 
able as  this  reasonableness,  only  allowing  the  truth  of  the  first 
grand  assumption  that  the  "work"  was  the  work  of  God.  But 
this  reason,  governing  the  actions  of  a  man  on  such  a  sublimated 
level  of  existence,  does  only  perplex  and  confuse  the  more  those 
curious,  anxious,  interested  spectators,  who  might  have  ventured 
to  hope  it  was  a  merely  temporary  delusion  had  every  thing  about 
it  been  equally  wild  and  irregular,  but  who  were  struck  dumb  by 
this  visionary  application  to  such  a  matter  of  those  rules  of  trial 
and  experiment  common,  in  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life,  to  all  sane 
and  vigorous  minds. 

The  year  was  little  more  than  begun  when  Irving  had  again  to 
enter  into  direct  conflict  with  his  former  brethren.  The  question 
was  changed  as  well  as  the  scene.  Before  the  hasty  and  reckless 
Presbytery  of  London  he  had  defended  himself  against  the  impu- 
tation of  having  suffered  unauthorized  persons  to  speak  in  his 
church.  The  Presbytery  of  Annan,  who  had  ordained  him,  n'ow 
called  him  to  their  bar  to  answer  the  charge  of  holding  heretical 
doctrine,  viz.,  the  sinfulness  of  our  Lord's  humanity.  This  doc- 
trine, concerning  which  Irving,  at  first,  wist  not  that  there  was 
any  controversy,  had  by  this  time  created  a  little  controversial 
literature  of  its  own  in  the  excited  theological  world — a  literature 


+ 


518  FIGHTING  IN  THE  DARK. 

in  wliicli  that  holy  and  perfect  existence,  whicli  both  parties  pro- 
fessed to  adore,  was  made  the  subject'of  discussions,  always  more 
or  less  profane,  in  which  both  parties  forgot,  in  horror  at  each 
other's  statements,  the  reverence  and  awe  which  neither  statement 
had,  till  controversy  arose,  done  any  thing  to  impugn.  I  know 
nothing  more  painful,  nor,  indeed,  in  some  of  its  phases,  more  hid- 
eous and  revolting,  than  the  hot  contest,  preserved  in  many  scat- 
tered publications,  fortunately  now  almost  forgotten,  which  rose 
over  this  mysterious  and  awful  subject.  From  the  trials  in  the 
Scotch  Church  courts  where  ignorant  witnesses  delivered  their 
opinions  on  "  the  hypostatical  union,"  to  the  revolting  physical 
argument  by  which  some  writers  of  higher  pretensions  labored  to 
establish  what  proportion  of  its  substance  a  child  derived  from  its 
mother,  the  whole  discussion  is  throughout  destructive — so  far  as 
any  external  influence  can  be  so — of  that  tender,  profound,  and 
adoring  reverence  which  no  man  living  ever  felt  more  deeply 
than  he  who  was  accused  of  aiming  at  its  subversion.  I  do  not 
believe  there  was  any  real  difference  whatever  between  the  faith 
of  devout  men  on  the  opposite  sides  of  this  question.  Those  who 
held,  with  Irving,  that  our  Lord  took  the  flesh  of  man  as  He  found 
it,  and  was  our  true  brother,  disowned  with  horror  and  indigna- 
tion the  most  distant  thought  that  sin  ever  soiled  or  breathed 
upon  that  holy  flesh  ;  and  those  who  believed  Him  to  have  come 
in  a  certain  Eden-fiction  of  humanity,  not  so  much  holy  as  inno- 
cent, were,  nevertheless,  when  off  this  vexing  controversy,  as  ready 
as  any  to  claim  the  privilege  of  Christians,  that  sympathy  of  the 
fellow-sufferer — that  tenderest  compassion  which  comes  from  ex- 
periment of  all  our  sorrows  and  temptations — with  which  practi- 
cally every  Christian  soul  knows  its  Lord  invested.  The  men 
were  fighting  in  the  dark  with  deadly  weapons  of  those  words 
which  confuse  and  obscure  the  truth.  They  were  in  their  hearts 
at  one,  both  holding  a  Head  absolute  in  divine  holiness  and  puri- 
ty, perfect  in  human  fellowship  and  tenderness,  but  the  words 
were  external  and  demonstrative,  and  the  hearts  could  not  make 
themselves  audible  in  any  other  than  that  belligerent  human  lan- 
guage which  does  but  half  express  and  half  conceal  every  spirit- 
ual reality.  So  it  came  about  that  the  Church  of  Scotland,  then 
so  impatient  and  absolute,  and  resolute  for  identity  of  expression 
as  well  as  agreement  of  faith,  had  to  enact  another  scene  in  this 
strange  episode  of  history,  and  wear  with  another  sharp  struggle 
Irving's  sorrowful  and  troubled  soul. 


ANNAN  PRESBYTERY.  519 

I  am  in  doubt  whether  it  is  not  ungenerous  to  specify  the  mem- 
bers of  this  Annan  Presbytery,  for  it  is  probable  that  any  other 
Presbytery  in  the  Church  would  have  come  to  an  exactly  similar 
conclusion.  I  may  say,  however,  that  .the  names  of  these  obscure 
Presbyters  will  recall  to  all  who  have  any  local  acquaintance  with 
the  district  no  such  recollections  as  hallow  the  names  of  many  a 
humble  parish  priest,  but  will  bring  many  an  anecdote  of  eccen- 
tricity, and  some  of  that  peculiar  clerical  profaneness  which  is  to 
be  found  in  no  other  profession  to  the  memories  of  those  men  of 
Annandale  who  know  the  traditions  of  the  last  generation.  The 
one  exception  to  t"he  perfect  obscurity  and  homeliness  of  this  little 
clerical  group  was  Dr.  Duncan,  of  Ruthwell,  a  man  of  universally 
acknowledged  eminence  and  high  character.  Of  the  rest,  some 
were  homely  old  men,  half  farmers,  half  ministers — some  of  bet- 
ter standing,  half  ministers,  half  country  gentlemen,  both  on  a 
very  small  scale.  Without  a  single  special  qualification  for  decid- 
ing any  question  which  required  clear  heads  and  practiced  intel- 
ligence, from  their  moorland  manses  and  rural  cares,  they  came, 
with  such  solemnity  as  they  could  muster,  to  try  a  question  for 
which,  in  primitive  times,  a  solemn  council  of  the  whole  Church 
would  have  been  convened.  Not  very  long  before,  Irving  him- 
self, always  magnificent  and  visionary,  bent  not  upon  the  practi- 
cable, but  the  right,  had  pointed  out,  in  the  preface  to  his  edition 
of  the  Standards  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  the  necessity  for  a  grand 
Catholic  Council,  such  as  that  of  Nic£ea,  to  consider  and  settle  the 
momentous  matters  which  then  divided  the  Eeformed  Churches. 
He  had  also  appealed,  in  still  earlier  days,  with  earnest  personal 
solicitations,  to  the  large  intelligence  of  Chalmers,  as  doctor  and 
head  of  the  theological  faculty ;  but  neither  oecumenical  council 
nor  learned  judge  was  to  be  afforded  to  the  so-called  heretic. 
They  came  in  their  gigs  from  among  their  sheep-farmers,  from  the 
anxieties  of  the  glebe  and  its  tiny  crops,  those  nameless  Annan- 
dale  ministers — not  pale  theologians,  but  rosy,  rural  men ;  and  to 
their  hands,  all  irresponsible  in  their  safe  obscurity,  the  decision 
of  this  momentous  and  delicate  difference  of  doctrine  was  calmly 
committed,  nobody  so  much  as  perceiving,  at  least  nobody  re- 
marking upon,  the  total  incompetence  of  such  a  tribunal  for  any 
real  settlement  of  the  question. 

"  Edward  goes  down  to  Annan  to  meet  the  Presbytery  I  think  ' 
on  the  12th  of  March.     The  Lord  give  him  a  sound  mind !"  writes 
Dr.  Martin  to  one  of  the  affectionate  and  anxious  family,  who 


520  IRVING'S  ARRIVAL  IN  ANNAN. 

watched  all  Irving's  proceedings  with  tender  curiosity.  He  went 
by  way  of  Manchester,  from  which  place,  where  his  only  surviv- 
ing sister  still  lives,  he  wrote  to  his  wife  of  his  affectionate  meet- 
ing with  his  kindred  there—"  my  dear  and  precious  mother,  and 
my  two  sisters  and  all  their  children  here  present" — and  took 
time  to  remark  that  "two  sweeter  children  I  have  not  seen"  than 
the  little  nephew  and  niece  whom  he  mentions  by  name.  This, 
and  the  fact  that  he  had  dropped  the  bag  of  sandwiches  prepared 
for  his  refreshment  on  the  journey  "on  the  highway  for  the  ben- 
efit of  some  poor  one  or  other — I  lost  it  and  grudged  not" — is  all 
that  is  contained,  besides  his  never-failing  benediction,  in  the  rapid 
note  of  the  wayfarer.  On  the  morning  of  the  13th  of  March  he 
"arrived  at  Annan,"  according  to  the  report  of  the  trial  after- 
ward published,  "  by  the  London  mail,  and  was  met  by  Mr.  Ker, 
of  London,  one  of  his  deacons.  A  crowd  was  collected  in  the 
street,  in  expectation  of  the  reverend  gentleman's  arrival  by  the 
mail ;  and,  upon  his  alighting  at  the  house  of  his  brother-in-law, 
Mr.  Dickson,  where  the  coach  stopped  on  its  way  to  the  inn,  the 
crowd,  which  was  at  that  time  dispersed  in  groups,  ran  eagerly  to 
the  spot,  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  their  celebrated  townsman.  In  the 
course  of  the  forenoon,  hundreds  of  individuals  of  all  classes  kept 
pouring  into  Annan  from  the  neighborhood,  and  parties,  in  ve- 
hicles of  different  descriptions,  came  in  from  Dumfries,  Carlisle, 
Longtown,  and  other  neighboring  towns.  Twelve  o'clock  was 
the  hour  appointed  for  the  proceedings  to  commence  at  the  parish 
church,  and  Dy  that  time  the  place  was  literally  crammed.  It  is 
computed  that  at  least  2000  persons  were  assembled."  Irving 
was  accompanied  by  Mr.  Ker,  by  a  Mr.  Smith,  who  had  been  the 
companion  of  his  journey,  and  by  the  Eev.  David  Dow,  formerly 
of  Irongray,  a  minister  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  who  had  some 
time  before  received  the  "gift  of  tongues  and  prophecy." 

After  the  court  was  constituted,  the  libel  or  indictment  was 
read.  In  this  document,  which  was  of  great  length,  Irving  was 
accused  of  "  printing,  publishing,  and  disseminating  heresies  and 
heretical  doctrines,  particularly  the  doctrine  of  the  fallen  state  and 
sinfulness  of  our  Lord's  human  nature."  No  evidence  of  any 
kind,  except  the  admission  of  the  accused  that  he  was  the  author 
of  The  Orthodox  and  Catholic  Doctrine  of  Our  Lord^s  Human  Na- 
ture ;  The  Day  of  Pentecost ;  and  one  specified  article  in  the  Morn- 
ing Waich^  seems  to  have  been  considered  necessary.  A  discus- 
sion then  ensued  upon  the  "  relevancy  of  the  libel" — or,  rather,  no 


IRVING'S  DEFENSE,  521 

discussion,  for  all  were  agreed,  but  a  statement  by  eacli  member 
of  the  Presbytery,  individually,  of  his  opinion.  Dr.  Duncan,  the 
only  man  among  them  whose  name  was  ever  heard  out  of  Annan- 
dale,  contented  himself  with  declaring  the  libel  to  be  "  relevant." 
Two  of  the  members  of  the  Presbytery,  however,  made  speeches 
on  the  occasion.  The  first,  Mr.  Sloan,  of  Dornoch,  the  hero  of 
many  local  anecdotes,  deplored  "the  difficulties  under  which  he 
labored  in  rising  to  combat  with  one  of  so  great  a  name  as  the 
Reverend  Edward  Irving — one  with  whom  he  was  in  many  re- 
spects so  unequally  yoked — though,  notwithstanding  that,  as  the 
stripling  David  slew  the  giant  Goliath  with  a  stone  from  the 
brook,  having  gone  forth  in  the  strength  of  the  Lord,  so  he  hoped 
to  succeed  in  proving  the  heresy  of  even  so  great  a  giant  as  that 
reverend  gentleman."  After  a  considerable  time  spent  in  these 
preliminaries,  Irving  was  permitted  to  speak  in  defense.  His 
speech  is  throughout  a  noble  and  indignant  protest  against  that 
disingenuous  statement  of  the  point  at  issue,  which  infallibly  pre- 
judged the  question,  and  which  no  amount  of  denial  or  protest 
could  ever  induce  his  opponents  to  alter.  With  a  warmth  and 
earnestness  t)ecoming  the  importance  of  the  cause,  he  thus  plead- 
ed for  a  true  understanding  of  his  own  faith : 

"As  to  ray  maintaining  that  Christ  is  other  than  most  holy,  I  do  pro- 
test that  it  is  not  true.  It  is  not  true — before  the  living  God  I  do 
declare  it  is  false.  And,  though  all  men  should  say  it  is  true,  I  say 
it  is  false,  and  that  it  proceeds  from  the  fatlier  of  lies.  It  has  been 
held  up  in  every  pulpit  within  this  land  that  I  have  preached  and 
disseminated  docti-ines  inconsistent  with  the  unity  of  God.  Albeit  I 
deny  it — I  deny  it.  It  is  a  lie.  It  has  not  a  shadow  of  foundation  in 
truth.  I  would  give  ray  life,  and,  if  I  had  ten  thousand  lives,  I  would 
give  them  all  to  maintain  the  contrary.  It  is  an  unjust  slander.  I 
never  wrote,  I  never  preached,  such  damnable  doctrine ;  and  that  all 
honest  men  can  say.  I  stand  in  this  place,  and  say  that  I  am  ready 
to  die  for  it.  ...  I  stand  here,  a  witness  for  the  Lord  Jesus,  to  tell 
men  what  He  did  for  them ;  and  what  He  did  was  this :  He  took 
your  flesh  and  made  it  holy,  thereby  to  make  you  holy ;  and  there- 
fore He  Avill  make  every  one  holy  Avho  believes  in  Him.  He  came 
into  your  battle  and  trampled  under  foot  Satan,  the  world,  the  flesh, 
yea,  all  enemies  of  living  racn,  and  He  saith  to  every  one,  '  Be  ye 
holy,  for  I  am  holy.'  Do  you  say  that  that  man  was  unacquainted 
with  grief — that  He  was  unacquainted  with  the  warrings  of  the  flesh? 
I  dare  ye  to  say  that  the  Lord  your  Savior  had  an  easier  passage 
through  life  than  you  had.  I  dare  ye  to  say  that  His  work  was  a 
holiday  work.  Is  this  your  gratitude  to  the  Captain  of  your  salva- 
tion ?  Can  you  follow  in  His  footsteps  if  He  did  not  do  the  work  ? 
.  .  .  (The  reverend  gentleman  then  turned  to  the  40th  Psalm,  which 


522  THE  CAPTAIN  OF  OUK  SALVATION. 

he  proceeded  to  read  and  comment  upon.)  '  I  waited  patiently  for 
the  Lord ;  he  inclined  his  ear,  and  heard  my  cry,'  etc.  But  ye  say 
He  was  never  in  the  pit  nor  the  clay.  Bnt  I  say  He  was  in  both  ; 
and,  moreover,  that  all  the  water-floods  of  the  Divine  Avrath  passed 
over  Him,  and  that  the  Father  left  him  to  mourn  Avith  a  great  mourn- 
ing. .  .  .  The  Apostles  taught  out  of  the  Psalms,  and  not  from  Con- 
fessions of  Faith  and  traditionary  documents.  But  show  me  the 
Psalm  Avhere  it  is  Avritten  that  He  does  not  call  our  sins  His  own. 
But  was  He  sinful  ?  No ;  but  look  ye,  the  very  reverse  of  sin  in- 
hered in  His  soul.  He  suflered  because  He  loved  you ;  and  now  you 
dare  to  say  that  He  loved  you  not.  Be  ashamed  to  this  day,  ye  peo- 
ple !  that  ye  knoAV  not  more  of  Him  who  suffered  so  inuch  for  you. 
He  bore  your  sin.  This  broke  His  heart.  .  .  ,  Now,  men  and  breth- 
ren, I  am  here  this  day  to  tell  you  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus." 

I)r.  Duncan  rose  and  said  that  it  was  evident  Mr.  Irving  was 
speaking  to  the  people  of  his  own  doctrines,  not  to  the  Presbytery  in 
his  defense. 

Mr.  Irving.  "  Oh  no,  no.  Don't  prevent  me  saying  what  I  wish 
in  my  defense." 

The  Moderator  said  it  seemed  to  him  as  if  Mr.  Irving  imagined  he 
was  in  London,  preaching  to  his  people  there. 

Mr.  Irving.  "  Oh,  no,  no,  it  is  not  so.  I  know  well  where  I  now 
stand.  I  stand  in  the  place  where  I  was  born,  in  the  church  wherein 
I  was  first  baptized  and  then  ordained.  .  .  .  Ye  ministers,  elders,  and 
Presbytery,  this  is  no  question  of  scholastic  theology.  *  I  speak  for 
the  sanctification  of  men.  I  wish  my  flock  to  be  holy ;  and,  unless 
the  Lord  Jesus  has  contended  with  sin,  as  they  are  commanded  to 
do,  how  can  they  be  holy  when  they  follow  Him  ?  Can  I  ask  the 
people  to  do  or  suffer  more  than  He  did  ?  He  is  the  Captain  of  their 
salvation,  and  I  wish  them  to  folloAV  Him !  Can  a  soldier  Avho  is 
sick,  wounded,  or  dead,  be  expected  to  follow  a  leader  who  is  filled 
with  the  omnipotence  of  God  ?  Nay.  But  if  his  captain  be  sick, 
wounded,  and  dead  too,  may  he  not  ask  the  soldier  to  do  the  like  ? 
Now  Jesus  was  sick  for  us,  contended  with  sinful  flesh  for  us,  and 
hence  it  is  that  He  can  call  on  us  to  follow  Him  in  our  contendings 
with  sin,  our  sicknesses,  and  deaths.  Yea,  and  he  does  call  on  us. 
.  .  .  Ah !  was  He  not  holy  ?  Did  He  not  gain  for  us  a  victory  ? 
Holy  in  His  mother's  womb ;  holy  in  His  childhood ;  holy  in  His  ad- 
vancing years;  holy  in  His  nativity;  holy  in  His  resurrection,  and 
not  more  holy  in  one  than  in  another?  And  He  calls  upon  you  to  be 
holy ;  and  this  is  what  He  says, '  Be  ye  holy,  for  I  am  holy.'  This  is 
my  doctrine.  .  .  .  Mock  me  not  by  speaking  of  popularity.  The  re- 
proaches of  a  brother  are  hard  to  bear.  Ye  know  not  what  I  have 
suffered;  you  know  not  what  it  is  to  be  severed  from  a  flock  you 
love ;  to  be  banished  from  your  house ;  to  be  driven  from  a  place  of 
worship  in  which  ye  have  been  honored,  as  God's  servants,  by  the 
tokens  of  His  approbation.  Yet,  though  thus  scorned  and  trampled 
on,  truth  is  prevailing.  You  shall  not  go  one  half  mile  in  London 
but  you  shall  see  some  of  our  Scottish  youth,  yea,  and  of  our  English 
youth  also,  standing  up  to  preach  that  truth  for  which  I  now  appear 
at  this  bar.     At  Charing  Cx'oss,  at  London  Bridge,  at  the  Tower,  and 


DECISION  OF  THE  PRESBYTERY.  523 

in  all  the  higli  places  of  the  city,  yo.u  shall  find  them  preaching  to  a 
perishing  people,  and  though  often  hooted  and  pelted,  yet  patient 
withal.  And  I  am  sure  the  day  is  not  far  distant  when  the  evangel- 
ist shall  go  forth  and  be  listened  to  throughout  the  land. 

"Ministers  and  elders  of  the  Presbytery  of  Annan,  I  stand  at  your 
bar  by  no  constraint  of  man.  You  could  not — no  person  on  earth 
could — have  brought  me  hither.  I  am  a  free  man  on  a  free  soil,  and 
living  beyond  your  bounds.  Neither  General  Assembly  nor  Pope  has 
a  right  to  meddle  with  mc.  Yea,  I  know  ye  have  sinned  against  the 
Head  of  the  Church  in  stretching  thus  beyond  your  measure,  and 
this  sin  ye  must  repent  of.  .  .  .  Is  it  nothing,  think  ye,  that  ye  have 
brought  me  from  my  flock  of  nine  hundred  souls,  besides  children, 
looking  up  to  me  for  spiritual  food  ?  Is  it  nothing  that  ye  have  taken 
me  away  from  ruling  among  my  apostles  and  elders,  and  brought  me 
three  hundred  miles  to  stand  before  you  at  this  bar  ?....!  stand 
here  not  by  constraint,  but  willingly.  Do  what  you  like.  I  ask  not 
judgment  of  you;  my  judgment  is  with  my  God." 

I  will  not  attempt  to  enter  into  the  decision  of  the  Presbytery 
of  Annan  as  contained  in  the  speeches,  delivered  one  by  one,  of 
its  clerical  members.  The  only  one  reported  at  any  length  is  that 
of  Dr.  Duncan,  who  repeats  for  the  hundredth  time  those  passages 
which  Irving  was  as  ready  to  quote  and  adopt  as  any  man,  in 
which  the  Virgin's  child  is  spoken  of  as  that  holy  thing,  and  which 
describe  our  Lord  as  "  holy,  harmless,  undefiled,  and  separate  from 
sinners,"  and  "  tempted  like  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin."  Calml}'- 
ignoring  the  fact  that  the  accused  maintains  that  perfect  and  spot- 
less sinlessness  with  an  earnestness  which  is  almost  passion,  it  is 
on  these  quotations  that  this  honest  and  able  Presbyter  grounds 
his  sentence.  The  other  men,  whose  arguments  are  not  recorded, 
agree  one  by  one.  The  accused  is  pronounced  to  be  "  guilty  as 
libeled."  The  Moderator  then  asks  him  if  he  has  any  objection 
to  state  why  sentence  of  deposition  should  not  be  passed  against 
him.  "  Objection  !  all  objection,"  exclaims  the  defendant  at  that 
strange  bar ;  "  I  object,  not  for  my  own  sake,  but  for  the  sake  of 
Christ  my  Lord,  whom  I  serve  and  honor.  I  object  for  your 
sakes  ....  I  object  for  the  Church's  sake."  "The  reverend 
gentleman,"  continues  the  report  from  which  I  quote,  "  again  sol- 
emnly declared  that  he  did  not  hold  the  sinfulness  of  the  human 
nature  of  Christ  ....  and  concluded  by  most  earnestly  beseech- 
ing the  Presbytery,  as  they  valued  the  salvation  of  their  souls,  not 
to  pass  sentence  upon  him."  Upon  which  ensued  the  following 
singular  and  exciting  scene : 

"The  Moderator  was  then  about  to  proceed  to  the  solemn  duty 
which  had  devolved  upon  him,  and,  as  a  preliminary,  requested  Mr. 


524  IRVING  LEAVES  THE  CHURCH. 

Sloan,  the  senior  member  of  the.  Presbytery,  to  offer  up  a  prayer  to 
Almighty  God,  when  a  voice  was  heard  from  the  pew  in  which  Mr. 
Irving  was  seated,  and  which  was  immediately  found  to  be  that  of  Mr. 
Dow,  late  minister  of  Irongray,  exclaiming, '  Arise,  depart !  Arise, 
depart !  flee  ye  out,  flee  ye  out  of  her !  Ye  can  not  pray !  How  can 
ye  pray  ?  How  can  ye  pray  to  Christ  whom  ye  deny  ?  Ye  can  not 
pray.  Depart,  depart !  flee,  flee !'  The  scene  at  this  moment  was 
singular,  and  the  commotion  in  the  gallery  not  a  little  astounding. 
As  there  was  only  one  candle  in  the  church,  no  one,  at  first,  knew 
whence  or  from  whom  the  voice  proceeded ;  and  it  was  not  till  one 
of  the  clergymen  had  lifted  the  candle  and  looked  peeringly  about 
that  he  discovered  the  interjectional  words  spoken  were  emitted  by 
Mr.  Dow.  .  .  .  The  assembly,  which  was  very  numerous,  and  had 
acted  in  the  most  becoming  manner,  now  became  confused,  and  Mr. 
Dow  rose  to  leave  the  house.  Mr.  Irving,  who  was  proceeding  to 
follow  his  friend,  then  exclaimed,  also  with  great  vehemence,  and  ap- 
parently to  the  crowd,  that  somewhat  obstructed  his  passage, '  Stand 
forth!  stand  forth!  What!  will  ye  not  obey  the  voice  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  ?  As  many  as  M'ill  obey  the  voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost  let  them 
depart.' " 

Thus,  in  the  twilight  of  the  March  night,  through  crowds  of 
confused  and  wondering  spectators,  who  heard  that  unlooked-for 
outcry  without  being  able  to  see  whence  it  proceeded,  Irving  went 
forth  from  the  church  where  he  had  been  baptized  and  ordained 
— from  the  Church  of  Scotland,  the  sanctuary  of  his  fathers — 
never  more  to  enter  within  walls  dedicated  to  her  worship  till  be 
entered  in  silent  pomp  to  wait  the  resurrection  and  advent  of  his 
Lord.  There  are,  perhaps,  few  more  striking  scenes  in  his  life 
than  this  in  his  native  church,  filled  with  all  those  throngs  of  na- 
tive friends — old  people,  who  had  helped  to  form  his  mind — con- 
temporaries of  his  own,  who  had  watched  his  wonderful  progress 
with  a  thrill  of  pride  and  amaze ;  men  to  whom  he  had  been  a 
brother ;  wistful  women,  scarcely  able,  for  awe  and  pity,  to  keep 
the  tears  within  their  eyes.  From  that  May-day  in  which  he 
knelt  there  before  his  Master  and  took  his  ordination  vows, 
swearing  a  true  faith  which  he  had  never  broken,  a  loyal  allegi- 
ance and  service  to  which  he  had  been  true,  with  the  fidelity  of 
a  spotless  knight,  to  this  bleak  afternoon  of  March,  slowly  shad- 
owing, minute  by  minute,  upon  those  clouds  of  eager  faces,  grow- 
ing pale  in  the  darkness,  what  a  brilliant  interval,  what  a  wonder- 
ful difference!  Clouds  and  coming  night  were  now  upon  the 
path  to  which  he  went  forth,  commanded  by  the  Holy  Ghost: 
no  longer  triumph  and  victory,  no  second  spring  of  hope ;  only 
the  reproach  that  broke  his  heart — the  desertion — the  sin,  as  he 


LETTER  TO  HIS  PEOPLE.  525 

held  it,  of  Jns  bretbren,  for  whom  he  would  have  given  his  life. 
But  it  wa^  comfort  to  his  forlorn  heart  to  be  sent  forth  by  that 
voice  which  he  believed  to  be  the  voice  of  God.  The  anguish  of 
hearing  the  sentence  of  deposition  was  spared  him,  and  with  a  pa- 
thetic joy  he  rejoiced  over  this  when  he  gave  his  own  account  of 
the  eventful  day.  * 

Left  behind  in  the  dark  church,  with  their  two  thousand  trem- 
ulous, amazed  spectators,  and  their  solitary  candle,  the  Presbytery 
deposed  him  from  the  ministry — took  away  from  him,  as  far  as 
they  could  do  it,  his  clerical  character,  and  pronounced  him  no 
longer  a  minister  or  member  of  the  Church  of  Scotland ;  then, 
after  seven  hours'  sitting,  went  after  him  into  the  darkness,  and 
disappeared  henceforth  out  of  all  mortal  ken — except  in  Annan- 
dale,  to  be  seen  no  more. 

Irving's  own  report  of  the  proceedings  was  sent  next  day  to 
London,  addressed  as  follows : 

"  To  the  Church  of  Christ  under  my  pastoral  care,  and  to  the  saints 
in  London,  with  the  elders  and  deacons — grace,  mercy,  and  peace 
from  the  Fathei*,  and  from  the  Lord  Jesus  CRrist,  our  Glory : 

"  Dearly-beloved  IN  THE  Lord,  ....  Yesterday  I  arrived  here 
with  my  dear  brother,  Robert  Smith  ....  and  immediately  after 
us  ai'rived  David  Dow,  and  Mr.  Nivan,  and  another  brother,  by  whose 
coming  I  was  much  encouraged.  After  we  had  prayed  together,  we 
met  the  Presbytery  at  noon  in  the  parish  church,  which  was  filled 
with  people,  and  strai<?htway  the  ministers  began  to  accuse  me  of 
heresy  because  I  preached  and  published  the  glorious  name  and  work 
of  God  as  the  Word  made  flesh.  They  put  several  questions  to  mo 
concerning  their  manner  of  proceeding  against  me,  to  which  I  would 
not  answer  a  word,  telling  them  to  do  their  own  work  in  their  own 
way,  for  that  I  would  not  in  anywise  make  myself  a  sharer  in  their 
guilt ;  nevertheless,  I  took  this  early  opportunity  of  disabusing  the 
people,  and  solemnly  protesting  before  the  living  God  that  I  was 
guiltless  of  the  thought,  word,  or  wish  of  making  our  Blessed  and 
Holy  One  a  sinner.  They  then  proposed  to  have  a  private  conference 
with  me  in  the  Sessions-house,  apart  from  all  the  people,  when  God 
gave  me  grace  to  refuse  to  every  one  of  them  the  right  hand  of  fel- 
lowship, yea,  and  not  to  eat  bread  with  them,  and  drink  wine  with 
them ;  and  to  tell  them  that  they  had  lifted  up  the  standard  of  rebel- 
lion against  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  I  would  hold  no  confer- 
ence of  friendship  w^ith  them,  but  be  at  open  and  avowed  enmity  un- 
til they  had  ceased  from  persecuting  His  faithful  members.  So  I  sat 
in  the  midst  of  them  in  silence  and  sorrow,  very  much  burdened  and 
afilicted  in  soul  that  I  should  be  thus  called  upon  to  separate  myself 
from  them,  of  whom  many  were  members  of  the  Church  before  me, 
and  some  of  them  had  laid  their  hands  on  me.  We  then  returned  to 
the  church  and  the  great  congregation,  when,  having  received  libertv 


526  DELIVERANCE. 

to  speak  for  myself,  I  was  strengthened  by  your  prayers  t£  speak  with 
great  boldness  for  the  name  of  Jesus,  and  to  justify  His^uth,  and  to 
vindicate  myself  as  a  member  of  Christ ;  also  to  reprove  and  rebuke 
them  all,  both  elders  and  people,  of  their  sins,  and  to  proclaim  in  their 
hearing  the  coming  of  the  Blessed  One,  and  the  mercy  and  truth 
which  are  now  going  before  Him  to  prepare  His  way  and  set  us  in 
His  steps.  lOh,  it  was  a  gracious  and  a  sweet  opportunity  which  He 
gave  me  of  certifying  to  His  great  name,  and  His  perfect  work  of 
mercy  and  judgment.  They  then  proceeded,  one  after  another,  to 
pronounce  me  worthy  of  being  deposed  from  the  lioly  ministry ;  and 
having  asked  me  if  I  had  any  objection  to  their  doing  so,  I  had  an- 
other opportunity  of  pointing  out  to  them  the  awful  sin  of  which 
they  were  about  to  be  guilty,  and  of  protesting,  before  God  and  all 
the  people,  that  I  was  innocent  of  all  the  things  laid  to  my  charge. 
Then  they  were  proceeding  to  the  fearful  act ;  and  as  it  is  required 
that  they  shall  first  pray  before  the  sentence  of  deposition  is  pro- 
nounced, they  had  asked  the  oldest  member  to  pray ;  but  the  Lord 
had  mercy  in  store  for  His  servant,  and  would  not  suffer  them  to  lay 
their  hands  upon  me,  whom  the  Holy  Ghost  had  set  as  an  angel  in 
His  Church,  and  as  they  rose  to  prayer,  the  Holy  Ghost  opened  the 
mouth  of  David  Dow,  who  sat  at  my  right  hand,  and  with  awful 
I^ower  and  solemnity  commanded  us  who  Avould  bear  the  vessel  of 
the  Lord  to  depart^and  touch  not  the  unclean  thing;  and  added 
unto  them  one  word  of  bitter  rebuke — '  How  can  ye  pray  to  God  in 
any  other  name  than  in  that  which  ye  have  rejected !'  Wherefore 
we  arose  at  the  voice  of  the  Lord  and  came  forth,  and  I  sang  in  my 
heart,  '  Blessed  be  the  Lord,  Avho  hath  not  not  given  us  as  a  prey 
to  their  teeth ;  our  soul  is  escaped  as  a  bird  out  of  the  snare  of  the 
fowler.  The  snare  is  broken,  and  we  are  escaped.  Our  help  is  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord,  who  made  heaven  and  earth.'  Now  give 
thanks,  my  dearly-beloved,  for  the  Lord  himself  hath  broken  my 
bonds.  For  six  hours  did  He  try  me  in  that  furnace ;  and  when  He 
saw  that  I  did  bear  it  for  His  name's  sake,  and  would  not  be  divert- 
ed by  their  questions,  nor  enticed  by  their  flatteries,  from  a  faithful 
testimony  to  His  name,  and  that  I  would  not  shake  hands,  nor  eat 
bread,  nor  confess  a  friendship  with  those  who  were  His  enemies, 
He  sent  me  that  wonderful  word  and  set  me  free.  I  had  already  re- 
solved, and  was  thereunto  instructed  by  the  word  of  the  Lord,  while 
yet  in  the  midst  of  you,  neither  to  seek  judgment  at  the  hand  of  the 
Synod  nor  at  the  General  Assembly,  and  had  declared  this  in  the 
hearing  of  them  all,  so  that  I  did  not  wait  in  silence  in  order  to  ex- 
press my  thanksgivings  unto  the  Lord  for  my  redemption  out  of  all 
my  bonds.  But,  behold.  He  M'ould  not  suffer  His  servant  to  be  dis- 
honored of  them,  and  He  snatched  me  away  by  this  one  word.  Med- 
itate on  His  goodness  and  give  Him  thanks.  I  then  sent  to  the 
house  of  my  sister,  which  joineth  hard  to  the  church,  these  two 
brothers,  Robert  Smith  and  David  Ker,  to  publish  to  the  people  that 
I  would  preach  to  them  to-morrow,  that  is,  this  day,  at  eleven  o'clock, 
in  the  open  field.  And  now,  dearly-beloved,  when  I  saw  the  gross 
darkness  of  these  poor  ministers,  and  the  errors  with  which  they 
have  filled  the  breasts  and  minds  of  the  people  in  all  these  parts,  I 


NITHSDALE  AND  ANNANDALE.  527 

was  much  and  powerfully  convinced  that  it  is  my  duty  to  tarry  here 
some  days,  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  benighted  people  around, 
for  I  do  not  see  tliat  there  is  any  of  the  brethren  upon  whose  hearts 
the  Lord  hath  laid  this  as  He  hath  upon  mine  ....  and  I  do  pur- 
pose, by  the  grace  of  God,  to  tarry  in  these  parts  certain  days,  and  to 
publish  in  the  towns  of  the  coast  the  great  Name  of  the  Lord.  I 
do  therefore  commend  you  to  the  Lord,  and  encourage  the  elders  to 
strengthen!  themselves  in  their  God,  Avho  will  abundantly  supply  all 
your  wants,  through  faith,  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus.  And  now,  well- 
beloved,  I  commend  you  to  the  Lord  and  to  the  riches  of  His  grace, 
which  is  able  to  build  you  up,  and  to  give  you  an  inheritance  among 
them  that  are  sanctified.  Your  faithful  and  loving  pastor,  and  angel 
over  Christ's  flock  in  London,  Edwd.  Ikving. 

"Annan,  March  14,  1833." 

A  note  appended  to  this  general  letter  informed  his  wife  that 
he  intended  to  preach  at  Kirkcudbright,  Dumfries,  and  at  some 
of  the  villages  in  Annandale.  Except  this  brief  notice,  I  know 
few  details  of  his  after  proceedings.  Wherever  he  did  preach  it 
was  out  of  doors,  and  to  thousands  of  excited  and  sympathetic 
listeners.  At  Cummertrees — on  the  Sands  of  Dumfries — and  on 
a  hill-side  in  Terregles,  the  fair  Terra  Ecclesia^  through  which  Nith 
flows  to  the  sea,  his  countryfolk  gathered  to  hear  him  whose  voice 
they  were  never  more  to  hear  again.  It  was  a  solemn  leave-taking 
of  his  native  hills  and  mosses.  With  an  indignation  vehement  as 
only  grief  could  make  it,  he  denounced  the  Church  which  had 
cast  him  out — which  had  disowned  not  him,  but  his  Lord,  who 
"  came  in  the  flesh,"  and  preached  with  an  eloquence  more  intense 
and  inthralling  than  ever  Christ's  fellowship  and  love,  Christ's 
coming  and  glory.  Then  he  took  farewell  of  his  kinsfolk  and  re- 
turned to  London,  where  what  I  can  not  but  believe  must  have  been 
another  and  an  equally  hard  trial  awaited  hira.  Deposed  by  his 
mother  Church,  he  returned  to  Newman  Street,  to  the  little  com- 
munity which,  according  to  ordinary  ideas,  he  himself  had  origin- 
ated and  brought  together,  and  of  which  he  was  supposed  to  be 
the  ruling  influence ;  and  when  he  arrived  there,  with  his  wound- 
ed heart,  he  was  received,  not  with  extraordinary  honors  as  a  mar- 
tyr, but  with  an  immediate  interdict,  in  "the  power"  forbidding 
him  to  exercise  any  priestly  function,  to  administer  sacraments,  or 
to  assume  any  thing  out  of  the  province  of  a  deacon,  the  lowest 
office  in  the  newly-formed  Church.  One  of  his  relations  writes 
with  affectionate  indignation  that  he  was  not  permitted  even  to 
preach  except  in  those  less  sacred  assemblies  in  which  the  outer 
world  of  unbelievers  were  admitted  to  meet  the  Church ;  but  in 


528  REORDINATION. 

the  cliurch  itself  sat  silent,  deprived  of  his  office,  no  longer  the 
angel  to  whom  the  apostle  himself  had  to  bow,  but  a  simple  serv- 
ant— doorkeeper  in  the  house  of  the  Lord.  Such  an  inconceiv- 
able indignity,  according  to  all  human  rules,  did  the  spiritual  au- 
thorities, whom  his  constant  and  steadfast  faith  had  made  masters 
of  his  flock,  put  upon  their  former  leader.  No  expectation  of  any 
such  setting  aside  seems  to  have  been  in  Irving's  mind  when  he 
subscribed  himself  their  "faithful  pastor  and  angel  over  Christ's 
flock."  This,  however,  was  the  welcome  he  received  when,  sad 
and  weary,  he  returned  from  Annan.  As  effectually  as  if  the  de- 
cree of  the  Scotch  Church  Court  had  bound  that  recalcitrant  con- 
gregation, the  deposed  minister  was  silenced  among  them.  I  have 
no  right  to  affirm  that  this  was  one  among  the  many  wounds  that 
went  to  his  heart,  for  not  a  syllable  of  complaint  upon  the  subject 
ever  came  from  Irving's  lips ;  but  he  seems  to  have  had  no  ex- 
pectation of  so  extraordinary  a  proceeding,  and  it  is  something 
entirely  unprecedented  in  the  records  of  religious  organizations. 
Other  men  have  founded  sects  to  rule  them ;  Irving,  no  founder 
of  a  sect,  came  forth,  through  repeated  anguish  and  conflict,  at  the 
head  of  his  community,  only  to  serve  and  to  obey. 

Accordingly,  those  lingering  March  days  glided  on  through  all 
the  oft  devotions  of  the  Church :  the  prophets  spoke  and  elders 
ruled ;  but  in  the  midst  of  them  Irving  sat  silent,  listening  wistful- 
ly if  perhaps  the  voice  from  heaven  might  come  to  restore  him  to 
that  office  which  was  the  vocation  of  his  life.  Few  of  God's  serv- 
ants have  been  so  profoundly  tested ;  and  small  would  have  been 
the  wonder  had  his  much-afflicted  soul  given  way  under  this  last 
imkindness,  with  which  Heaven  itself  seemed  brought  in  to  give 
a  climax  to  man's  ingratitude.  At  last,  while  he  sat  in  the  low- 
est place,  and  waited  with  a  humbleness  to  which  I  know  no  par- 
allel— strangest  and  most  touching  proof  of  that  sincerity  to  which, 
in  the  sight  of  God,  he  might  well  appeal — the  "utterance"  once 
more  called  the  forlorn  but  dauntless  warrior  to  take  up  his  arms. 
By  "  the  concurrent  action  in  manifested  supernatural  power,  both 
of  prophet  and  apostle,  he  was  called  and  ordained  angel  or  chief 
pastor  of  the  flock  assembled  in  Newman  Street,"  says  the  author- 
ized "  Chronicle"  of  that  Church.  The  sacred  office,  in  which  he 
had  labored  for  so  many  wonderful  years,  and  won  such  usury  of 
his  Master's  grand  deposit — that  office  in  which,  for  so  many  sor- 
rowful days,  his  surprised  soul  had  been  stopped  short  and  put 
aside — was  restored  to  him  by  the  apostolic  hands  of  Mr.  Cardale, 


"  OUR  DEAR  FATHER'S  LETTER."  529 

at  the  command  of  one  of  the  ecstatic  speakers.  And  Irving  ac- 
cepted that  reordination :  he,  upon  whose  devoted  head  no  gifts 
of  inspiration  descended,  and  for  whose  deliverance  no  miracles 
were  wrought — standing  alone  in  the  eminence  of  nature,  among 
men,  none  of  whom  on  any  but  this  supernatural  ground  could 
ever  have  reached  his  side — stooped  to  the  touch  of  the  new  apos- 
tle, and  took  back  the  ministry  which,  through  many  a  long  year, 
God  Himself  had  sealed  in  the  saving  of  souls.  Not  Ezekiel, 
when  that  prophet  stood  tearless,  forbidden  to  weep,  and  saw  the 
desire  of  his  eyes  buried  out  of  his  sight,  was  a  more  perfect  sign 
to  his  generation  than  this  loyal,  humble,  uncompensated  soul. 

In  this  moment  of  trouble  and  humiliation,  heightened  as  it  was 
with  domestic  anxiety  occasioned  by  the  illness  of  his  children,  Ir- 
ving's  heart  was  still  alive  to  all  the  solicitude  of  a  Christian 
priest — that  character  bestowed  by  God,  which  neither  Presby- 
tery could  take  away  nor  apostolic  touch  confer.  Just  then,  when, 
so  far  as  the  intervention  of  the  "  gifted"  could  obscure  it,  and  the 
very  countenance  of  his  Master  seemed  withdrawn  from  him,  a 
letter  came  from  Kirkcaldy  to  the  sorrowful  pair  in  Newman 
Street,  in  which  it  appears — with  that  singular  inhumanity  which 
only  importunate  affection  can  carry  to  its  full  height — that  the 
father-minister,  in  his  manse,  had  taken  the  opportunity  to  open 
once  more  a  full  battery  of  arguments  on  the  "  Humanity"  against 
Irving's  wearied  spirit.  Forwarding  this  letter  to  his  sister  Eliza- 
beth, the  heart  of  the  pastor  stirred  in  his  troubled  bosom.  She 
and  her  husband  had  not  followed  him,  could  not  believe  as  he 
did;  with  grief  on  both  sides  they  had  so  far  parted;  but  his 
thoughts  were  roused  from  his  own  troubles  when  he  saw  a  far- 
ther attack  made  upon  their  faith : 

"London,  March  27,  1833. 
"  My  dear  Elizabeth, — At  Isabella's  request,  I  inclose  this  letter 
from  her  father,  that  you  may  see  how  they  all  do.  The  Lord's  hand 
is  heavily  upon  us  and  our  dear  children.  Martin  and  Ebenezer  are 
both  very  ill,  and  ray  wife  and  I  have  been  together  up  the  great  part 
of  last  night.  She  has  lain  down  to  get  some  rest.  Dear  Elizabeth 
and  dear  William,  be  not  shaken  from  the  true  faith  in  which  I  found- 
ed you  of  our  Lord's  oneness  with  us,  in  all  the  infirmities  and  tempt- 
ations, properties  and  accidents  of  the  flesh,  otherwise  you  will  be 
subverted  from  the  way  of  godliness  altogether,  and  fall  into  Phari- 
saical pride  and  hypocritical  formality.  If  you  can  not  go  along  and 
suffer  with  me  in  all  things,  stand  upon  the  rock,  or  you  sink  mto  the 
waves.  For,  if  the  holiness  of  Jesus  made  Him  avoid  our  flesh,  must 
we  not,  as  we  grow  holy,  avoid  sinners,  instead  of  embracing  them 
with  our  love,  to  draw  them  near,  and  so  become  Pharisees  instead 

Ll 


530  ANOTHER  DEATH.— INFANT  FAITH. 

of  Christians  ?  And  oh  !  my  children,  if  the  Son  of  God  with  our 
flesh  could  not  be  holy,  how  shall  you  and  I  in  the  flesh  be  holy — 
how  should  Ave  be  commanded  to  be  holy  ?  Oh,  give  not  way,  there, 
either  to  father  or  mother,  or  any  mortal,  else  you  go  altogether. 
These  Avords  I  Avrite  to  you,  because  I  know  you  can  bear  them,  and 
lest  our  dear  father's  letter  should  prejudice  your  minds  against  the 
truth. 

"  Your  faithful  and  loving  brother,  Edwd.  Irving." 

Meanwhile  the  youngest  of  the  children  continued  very  ill. 
"  His  mother  said  that  the  Lord  had  punished  their  child  for  their 
sin,"  writes  Mrs.  Hamilton  in  April,  "  which  sin,  I  think,  they  con- 
ceive specially  to  be  Edward's  having  remained  in  Scotland  after 
meeting  with  the  Presbytery,"  an  error  for  which,  she  proceeds  to 
say,  he  was  sharply  rebuked  in  the  Church  after  he  returned. 
But,  whether  or  not  the  ailing  infant  bore  this  burden,  it  is  cer- 
tain that  its  life  was  waning ;  and  another  bereavement  fell  imme- 
diately, as  intimated  in  the  following  letter  to  Dr.  Martin,  upon 
the  much-suffering  house : 

14  Newman  Street,  April  23,  1833. 
"My  dear  Father, — The  Lord,  in  His  severity  and  His  good- 
ness, hath  been  pleased  to  chastise  us  for  our  sin  and  the  sins  of  the 
flock  by  removing  from  us  our  darling  Ebenezer,  who  seemed,  like 
Edward,  a  child  of  God  from  his  mother's  Avomb  ;  for,  surely,  during 
the  months  of  his  life,  he  never  shoAved  any  thing  Avhich  might  not 
become  a  child  of  God ;  and  Avhen,  in  faith,  I  addressed  Avords  of 
godliness  to  nourish  the  seed  of  faith  Avhich  Avas  in  him,  his  patient 
heed  was  Avonderful.  We  are  much  comforted  of  our  heavenly 
Father  and  of  our  dear  flock  under  all  our  trials.  Peace  be  Avith 
you.     FarcAvell ! 

"  Your  loving  and  dutiful  son,  Edwd.  iRAaNG." 

I  can  not  undertake  to  account  for  the  sublime  unreason  of  this 
man,  who  in  faith  addresses  words  of  godliness  to  the  dying  infant. 
Perhaps  it  may  want  small  apology  to  those  who,  like  myself, 
have  seen  that  solemnity  of  death  shadowing  over  a  baby -face,  of 
which  this  "  patient  heed"  gives  but  too  pathetic  and  affecting  a 
picture.  But  he  had  long  believed  in  the  possibility  of  infant 
faith — a  point  to  which  Coleridge  refers,  in  the  Aids  to  Reflection^ 
as  one  which  he  will  not  reply  to  "  honored  Irving"  upon  without 
careful  consideration  of  the  whole  question.  This  article  of  faith, 
which  may  look  fantastic  enough  to  cool  spectators,  the  father  of 
those  dead  children  has  bequeathed  to  his  Church,  which,  I  be- 
lieve, gives  children  a  share  in  some  of  its  most  solemn  services. 
Limits  of  human  possibility  were  never  in  Irving's  heart;  he 
could  not  understand  the  existence  of  any  soul  debarred  from 


AN  AMERICAN  SPECTATOR.  531 

communication  with  that  Lord  of  life  in  whom  lie  had  his  being ; 
it  was  easier  far  to  believe  that  the  little  intelligence  which  yet 
had  not  dawned  into  human  expression  was,  in  an  intercourse 
even  more  close  than  his  own,  hidden  with  Christ  in  God. 

It  is  strange  to  turn  from  this  passion  and  agony  of  human  life, 
so  heavily  overcast  by  the  sorrows  sent  of  God  and  the  vexations 
imposed  by  man,  to  glance  at  what  the  outer  world  was  saying, 
and  what  miraculous  uncomprehension  existed  in  the  minds  of 
many  who  came  to  gaze  at  the  wonders  in  Newman  Street.  I  do 
not  know  who  the  American,  Dr.  Addison  Alexander,  may  have! 
been,  but  I  am  told  he  was  a  man  of  some  note  in  his  own  coun- 
try. He  was  in  Irving's  church  on  the  10th  May,  1833,  and  sentj 
an  account  of  what  he  saw  there  to  the  New  York  papers.  With ' 
American  detail,  he  described  the  man,  the  church,  and  the  serv- 
ices, which  he  thought  "extremely  well  contrived  for  scenic  ef- 
fect ;"  then  added  his  impression  of  the  demeanor  of  the  preacher. 
"  Dr.  Cox  and  I,"  said  the  self-important  trans- Atlantic  spectator, 
"  flatter  ourselves  that  he  observed  and  preached  at  us.  I  saw 
him  peeping  through  his  fingers  several  times,  and  I  suppose  he 
was  not  gratified  to  see  us  gazing  steadfastly  at  him  all  the  time, 
for  he  took  occasion  to  tell  the  people  that  it  would  profit  them 
nothing  without  the  circumcision  of  the  ear."  This  was  the  tone 
assumed,  not  by  traveling  Americans  alone,  but  by  all  the  gener- 
al public,  which  imagined  itself  too  enlightened  to  be  deceived  by 
any  spiritual  manifestations.  It  was  a  juggle  which  was  supposed 
to  be  going  on  before  those  keen  observers ;  and  the  heroic  suf- 
ferer, who  stood  upon  that  platform  before  them  with  the  heart 
breaking  in  his  generous  and  tender  breast,  was  the  chief  trickster 
of  the  company,  and  was  supposed  to  cast  jealous  eyes  upon  any 
curious  stranger  who  might  "gaze"  too  "steadfastly,"  and,  per- 
haps, find  out  the  secret  of  the  imposture.  In  sight  of  such  amaz- 
ing misconception,  miracles  themselves  lose  their  wonder ;  noth- 
ing is  so  wonderful  as  the  blindness  of  those  human  eyes,  which, 
"gazing  steadfastly,"  do  but  demonstrate  their  own  total  inca- 
pacity to  see. 

During  this  summer  considerable  accessions  were  made  to  the 
separated  community.  An  independent  congregation  in  the  city, 
presided  over  by  Mr.  Miller,  having  gone  through  the  same  pro- 
cess which  had  taken  place  in  Eegent  Square,  attached  itself  to 
the  new  Church,  its  minister  being  also  reordained  angel  over  it ; 
and  the  ecstatic  voices  began  to  be  heard  in  the  Church  of  Eng- 


532  THE  "MORNING  WATCH." 

land,  from  which  they  also  ended  by  detaching  at  least  one  cler- 
gyman in  London.  The  most  singular  proof,  however,  of  the  ad- 
vance and  development  of  the  community  is  to  be  found  in  the 
winding  up  of  the  Morning  Waich^  and  the  very  remarkable  rea- 
sons assigned  for  the  ending  of  that  strange  periodical,  the  history 
of  which  breaks  in  like  an  episode  of  pure  romance  into  the  dull- 
er records  of  ordinary  literature.  Commenced  at  first  to  afford  a 
medium  by  which  the  consultations  and  conclusions  of  the  Al- 
bury  School  of  Prophets  might  be  brought  before  the  public,  it 
had  faithfully  followed  all  the  gradual  expansions  of  the  new 
Spiritualism.  Vague  but  grand  expectations  had  been  in  the 
heart  of  its  originators.  They  believed  the  Lord  to  be  at  hand — 
the  world's  history  to  be  all  but  concluded.  The  night  was  over, 
the  day  breaking,  when  Henry  Drummond  and  his  brother  seers 
set  their  Morning  Watch  upon  the  battlements,  that  the  sentinels 
might  communicate  to  each  other  how  the  shadows  dispersed,  and 
the  gleams  of  coming  sunshine  trembled  from  the  east.  Now  a 
strange  fruition  was  coming  to  those  hopes.  Not  the  Lord,  in- 
deed— for  the  gates  of  heaven  still  closed  serenely  in  azure  calm 
upon  the  far  celestial  glory — but  a  Church,  with  all  its  orders  of 
ministers  called  by  direct  inspiration,  a  spiritual  tabernacle,  con- 
stituted by  Grod  himself,  had  been  revealed  to  their  faith;  and  all 
that  close  band  of  true  believers  stood  breathless  with  expectation, 
each  man  listening  whether,  perhaps,  his  name  might  not  be  the 
next  upon  the  projDhetic  roll.  One  by  one,  the  sentinels  thus 
summoned  dropped  into  other  offices ;  and  at  last  it  became  nec- 
essary for  their  leader  to  make  the  following  announcement — such 
an  intimation  as,  I  presume,  no  editor  of  a  periodical  ever  made 
before  since  literature  was : 

"  The  followers  of  Christ  and  the  followers  of  anti-Christ  are  now 
gathering ;  each  is  now  requiring,  not  merely  the  nominal,  but  the 
personal  services  of  their  respective  adherents ;  Christ  is  gathering 
His  children  into  the  true  Church,  to  do  Him  service  there,  and,  in 
so  doing,  to  be  prepared  for  His  coming ;  Satan  is  gathering  his  hosts 
under  the  standard  of  Liberalism  to  become  the  pioneers  of  that 
'Wicked  One,  that  Man  of  Sin,  the  Son  of  Perdition,'  the  personal 
anti-Christ. 

"  Li  the  progress  of  this  work,  of  gathering  and  preparing  his  fol- 
lowers, Christ,  for  some  months  past,  hath  been  calHng  for  the  per- 
sonal services  of  nearly  all  the  regular  correspondents  of  this  journal, 
one  after  another;  and  He  hath  at  length  called  the  editor  to  take 
the  place  of  an  elder  in  His  Church,  and  hath  claimed  all  his  time  and 
services  for  the  special  duties  of  feeding  and  overseeing  a  sixth  part 


CONCLUSION  OF  THAT  PERIODICAL.  533 

of  the  flock  of  Christ  in  London.  To  this  higher  calling  the  editoi- 
now  resolves  to  devote  himself  wholly,  and  at  the  same  time  brings 
the  Morning  Watch  to  a  close,  as  he  will  not  transfer  to  any  other 
person  such  a  solemn  responsibility." 

This  singular  periodical,  a  phenomenon  in  literature,  came  to  a  \ 
conclusion  in  June,  1833.  The  March  number  contained  several 
papers  of  Irving's,  and,  in  particular,  a  most  striking  reply  to  Bax- 
ter's narrative— as  eloquent  an  address  as  one  man  ever  made  to  \ 
anothei*  for  it  is  almost  entirely  a  personal  appeal.  When  the 
Morning  Watch  ceased  to  afford  him  a  means  of  communicating 
his  thoughts  to  the  public,  Irving  wrote  no  more.  The  only  pro- 
ductions of  his  pen  thereafter,  except  the  sermons  which  he  still 
continued  to  dictate  wherever  be  found  an  amanuensis,  were  now 
and  then  a  pastoral  letter.  His  intercourse  with  the  world,  so  far 
as  literature  was  concerned,  had  now  terminated.  In  every  way, 
that  intercourse  grew  less  and  less.  He  no  longer  went  abroad 
to  preach  those  open-air  sermons,  to  which,  in  the  previous  year, 
thousands  listened.  Events  drew  closer  the  circle  of  fate ;  more 
and  more  he  became  isolated  in  that  little  world  guided  by  the 
ecstatic  utterances,  where  daily  development  was  taking  place. 
Darkly  it  appears,  through  the  formal  records  of  the  official  Chron- 
icle^ that  revolutions  were  being  accomplished  there,  in  which  his 
devoted  soul  acquiesced  painfully  and  with  difficulty.  He  had 
to  be  instructed  even  in  that  new  office  of  Angel,  which  at  first, 
I  read  in  the  Chronicle,  he  did  not  understand  to  be  "any  thing 
more  than  a  Presbyterian  minister."  He  had  to  reconcile  him- 
self to  the  newly -bestowed  spiritual  functions — much  more  wide 
than  those  which  belonged  to  the  same  offices  in  the  Church  of 
Scotland — of  the  elders  and  deacons,  which,  as  the  same  authority 
informs  us,  he  "  had  not  the  least  conception  of,"  and  at  first  en- 
tertained "  the  utmost  repugnance  to."  He  had  to  learn,  besides, 
that,  "  after  the  apostolic  office  had  been  brought  out,"  it  was  no 
longer  his  part  to  draw  conclusions  from  the  prophecies,  or  to  fol- 
low their  guidance  upon  his  own  authority ;  "  and  so  contrary," 
we  are  informed,  "  was  it  to  his  views  and  practice"  to  await  the 
apostle's  decision  upon  these  matters,  "  that  he  still  continued  .to 
judge  and  act  upon  words  spoken  in  his  flock,  whereby  great 
trouble  and  perplexity  were  occasioned  both  to  himself  and  his 
people."  It  is  added,  however,  that  "he  at  length  perceived  his 
error"  in  all  these  particulars ;  yet,  through  the  haze  which  envel- 
ops the  early  growth  of  so  exclusive  a  body,  and  through  all  the 


53-1  AN  EMBARRASSING  RESTRAINT. 

personal  affection  which  surrounds  Irving  himself,  it  is  plain  to 
see,  bj  glimpses,  that  this  great,  real,  natural  soul  was  again  sad- 
ly in  the  way  of  those  rapidly-growing  new  conventionalities  to 
which  only  the  conviction  that  they  were  ordained  by  God  could 
make  him  bow  his  head,  and  was  once  more  an  embarrassing 
presence  to  the  lesser  men  around,  who  knew  not  how  to  adapt 
their  vestments  to  the  limbs  of  a  giant.  From  that  dim  world 
no  more  letters  come  forth  to  tell  us  how  it  is  with  him  in  his  own 
sincere  and  unconcealable  spirit ;  but  when,  now  and  then,  for  a 
moment,  some  other  hand  puts  back  the  curtain,  the  picture  is  sad 
and  full  of  trouble.  His  reason  and  his  heart  struggle  against 
those  bonds;  but  still  he  submits — always  submits,  bowing  his 
lofty  sorrowful  head,  on  which  anguish  and  conflict  have  scat- 
tered premature  snows,  under  the  yoke.  Throughout  the  Chron- 
icle and  other  publications  put  forth  by  the  community,  this  great 
figure  looms,  always  with  formal  acknowledgments  made  of  its 
greatness,  often  with  natural  outbursts  of  affection  celebrating  its 
nobility,  but,  nevertheless,  with  a  certain  unexpressed  disapproba- 
tion visibly  mingling  with  all  praise.  Even  the  apostles  and 
prophets  are  puzzled  how  to  manage  a  soul  so  heroically  simple, 
a  heart  so  warm.  They  are  tender  of  his  repugnances  and  re- 
luctances, but  can  not  understand  how  it  is  that  their  restraints' irk 
him.  And  so  it  is  that  his  days,  which  are  numbered,  glide  on 
out  of  sight  of  the  world.  Outside,  people  imagine  him  the  lead- 
er, who  has  brought  and  keeps  this  congregation  together,  and  by 
right  of  whose  permission  prophets  speak  and  elders  teach ;  but 
in  reality,  when  one  looks  within,  the  scene  is  very  different.  The 
apostles  and  prophets  have  patience  with  him  when  the  light 
breaks  slowly,  painfully  upon  his  troubled  soul ;  and,  mastering 
all  the  prejudices  of  his  life,  all  the  impulses  of  his  will,  this  mar- 
tyr, into  whose  lingering  agony  nobody  enters,  still  bends  his  head 
and  obeys, 

A  single  example  of  this,  contained  in  a  letter  from  his  brother- 
in-law,  the  Eev,  J.  Brodie,  of  Monimail,  I  may  instance.  The 
Communion  was  being  celebrated  in  the  Newman  Street  Church 
one  Sunday  in  June,  and  Mr.  Brodie,  then  in  London  on  a  visit, 
was  present : 

"  After  praise  and  prayer,  he  (Irving)  proceeded  to  dispense  the 
ordinance  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  pointed  out  the  character  of 
those  who  were  invited  to  approach,  and  of  those  who  were  unwor- 
thy.    While  he  was  doing  this,  one  of  the  apostles  exclaimed,  'And 


MANY  TRIALS.  535 

if  there  be  any  one  wlio  does  not  acknowedge  that  the  Spirit  of  God 
is  among  us,  if  there  be  any  one  that  doubts  the  work  of  the  Lord, 
let  him  abstain ;  let  tlie  unbeliever  depart.'  .  .  .  Next  forenoon  Mr. 
Irving  came  to  call  for  me.  I  very  readily  expressed  my  belief  that 
not  afew  of  those  who  belonged  to  his  congregation  were  true  be- 
lievers in  the  Savior,  when  he  asked  me,  '  Why,  then,  did  you  not 
come  and  join  with  us  at  our  communion  ?'  1  replied,  '  Even  if  I 
had  desired  to  do  so,  how  could  I,  after  having  heard  it  so  plainly 
stated  that  all  who  doubted  as  to  the  nature  of  those  manifestations 
were  commanded  to  abstain  ?'  He  paused  a  moment,  and  then  said, 
'Ah!  yes;  the  Spirit  hath  so  enjoined  us.'  I  saw  that  it  was  not 
without  a  struggle  that  he  gave  up  the  liberal  and  truly  catholic  feel- 
ing by  which  he  had  formerly  been  led  to  regard  all  true  believers  as 
brethren," 

How  many  of  such  groans  burst  out  of  Irving's  laboring  heart 
is  known  only  to  the  Divine  Confidant  of  all  his  sorrows.  The 
grieved  and  anxious  brother  who  records  this  incident  plied  him 
inevitably  once  more  with  argument  and  appeal,  representing  that 
"  these  manifestations  were  the  effects  of  excited  imagination." 
In  the  midst  of  the  harder  sacrifices  by  which  he  had  now  to  prove 
his  devotion,  the  sufferer's  constancy  and  patience  had  again  and 
yet  again  to  go  through  this  trial.  He  was  still  remonstrated  with 
about  that  belief  which  was  bringing  upon  him  internal  struggles 
more  severe  than  any  man  knew  of,  and  still  he  held  to  that  only 
ground  on  which  he  could  sustain  himself,  in  forlorn  but  sublime 
confidence — the  conviction  that  he  had  asked  sincerely,  and  that 
God  had  answered.  But  God's  ways  were  dark  to  His  all-trusting 
servant — "  His  footsteps  are  not  known." 

Notwithstanding  these  difficulties,  however,  a  profound  expec- 
tation still  moved  the  community  in  Newman  Street,  and  kept 
hope  and  strength  in  the  breast  of  Irving.  The  details  of  the 
living  tabernacle  were  not  all  that  he  looked  for  from  heaven. 
The  baptism  by  fire  was  yet  to  come,  and  apostolic  gifts,  more 
marked  and  distinctive  than  the  supernatural  impulses  which 
moved  Mr.  Cardale  to  confer  ordination,  were  promised  to  the  faith 
of  the  Church.  This  state  of  expectation  is  very  apparent  in  the 
following  letter  addressed  to  a  pious  household  in  South  America, 
one  of  the  members  of  which,  when  in  England,  had  been  a  par- 
taker in  the  gift  of  prophecy  : 

"London,  1-t  Newman  Street,  July  29,  1833. 
"  I\[y  dear  Friends   and  Brethren, —  ...  In  respect  of  the 
matters  concerning  which  you  ask  my  counsel,  I  think  that  you,  my 
dear  jMrs.  K ,  ought  both  to  desire  and  earnestly  pray  to  be  made 


536  EXPECTING  "POWER  FROM  ON  HIGH." 

the  vessel  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  seeing  that  once  He  hath  honored  you 
in  so  wonderful  a  manner.  But  I  believe  that  this  will  not  be  until 
those  of  the  brethren  who  are  set  with  you  to  seek  the  Lord  do  sep- 
arate themselves  to  prayer  and  supplication,  and  waiting  upon  the 
Lord  to  join  them  into  a  Church,  and  endow  them  with  His  gifts  and 
ministries  from  heaven.  .  .  .  But  do  nothing  Avithout  His  voice ;  ad- 
minister no  ordinance,  take  upon  you  no  rule ;  only  wait  upon  Him, 
and,  until  He  appear  for  you,  use  the  ordinances  as  they  are  found 
among  you  in  the  Protestant  Church,  from  which  I  would  not  have 
you  to  separate  or  secede,  but  be  along  with  them  in  the  bondage 
and  barrenness,  in  every  thing  but  in  sin,  crying  for  them  and  for  all 
the  people  bitterly  unto  the  Lord,  who  Avill  separate  you  when  and 
how  He  knoweth  best. 

"  In  respect  of  an  evangelist  being  sent  to  you  from  my  Church,  I 
know  they  shall  be  sent  out  unto  all  the  world  from  this  land,  and 
especially  from  this  Church,  if  we  abide  faithful  and  patient  in  the 
Lord ;  but  not  until  we  receive  power  from  on  high,  the  outpouring 
of  the  latter  rain,  the  sealing  of  the  servants  of  God  upon  their  fore- 
heads, Avhicli  even  now  God  longeth  to  give,  for  which  we  Avait  and 
pray  daily,  yea,  many  times  a  day.  Therefore  be  patient  Avith  us, 
and  labor  together  Avith  us  in  the  Lord  for  the  accomplishing  of  this 
very  thing.  He  is  j^reparing  builders  here ;  He  is  gathering  stones 
every  Avhere.  Pray  that  the  laborers  may  be  sent  forth  unto  the 
harvest,  for  the  fields  are  already  ripe  unto  the  harvest.  We  are 
heavy  and  fruitless  in  the  Lord's  hand,  yet  doth  He  glorify  His 
abundant  grace  and  goodness  in  the  midst  of  us,  for  He  hath  by  no 
means  forsaken  us,  but  doth  daily  both  rebuke  and  comfort  us.  Truly 
my  heart  Aveepeth  Avhile  I  Avrite  over  the  let  and  hinderance  Ave  have 
presented  to  His  Avork,  whereby  it  hath  come  to  be  evil-spoken  of 
over  all  the  world.  .  ,  .  Oh,  my  brother,  restrain  thy  imagination 
from  the  handling  of  things  divine,  but  in  faith  and  prayer  be  thou 
built  up  and  established  in  all  truth.  .  .  .  My  love  to  all  the  breth- 
ren who  love  the  Lord  Jesus ! 

"  Your  loving  friend  and  servant,  for  the  Lord's  sake, 

"  Edavd.  Irving." 

The  remainder  of  the  year  was  spent  in  this  expectant  yet  sad 
suspense,  waiting  for  "power  from  on  high,"  and,  when  it  did  not 
come,  groaning  in  heart  over  that  want  of  faith  which  presented 
"  a  let  and  hinderance  to  God's  work"  within  the  isolated  circle  of 
the  Church  in  Newman  Street.  Of  that  silent  conflict  which  Ir- 
ving had  now  to  wage  with  himself,  last  and  perhaps  sorest  of  his 
trials,  there  remains  no  record  except  the  scanty  intimations  in 
the  Chronicle  of  the  reluctance  with  which  he  received  various 
particulars  of  the  new  order  of  things.  But  "  light  broke  in  upon 
his  mind"  always  at  last;  he  "confessed  his  error;"  and  so  strug- 
gled onward  on  his  sorrowful  path,  more  and  more  wistfully  con- 
scious that  God's  footsteps  are  not  known. 


A  PAUSE  IN  IRVING'S  LABORS.  537 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

1834 — THE   END. 

Sent  to  Edinburgh. — Is  no  longer  his  own  Master. — Exhaustion. — Tender  Courtesy. 
— Reappearance  out  of  the  Shadows. — Projects  his  .Journey. — Leaves  London. — 
The  Hand  of  the  Lord  upon  him. — Bridgenorth. — His  ancient  Counselor. — Let- 
ter to  his  Children. — The  Royal  Oak. — Beauty  and  Blessedness  of  the  Land. — 
Young  Clergymen.  —  Healing  both  to  Body  and  Soul. —  Satisfied  in  beholding 
God's  works. —  Birthday  Letter. —  Well-sunned,  well-aired  Mountains. —  Cader 
Idris. — Care  not  to  take  his  Wife  "out  of  her  Place." — Bedd-Gelert. — Beginning 
of  the  End. — Legend  "for  Maggie." — Renewed  Illness. — Yearns  for  his  Wife. — 
Well  with  the  just  Man  at  the  Last. — Alarm  of  his  Relations. — Voyage  to  Green- 
ock.— Enters  Glasgow. — His  last  Letter. — Flesh  and  Heart  faint  and  fail. — His 
Certainty  of  Recovery. — At  the  Gates  of  Heaven. — Amen! — He  died  and  Avas 
buried. — A  Saint  and  Martyr. 

The  last  year  of  Irving's  life  opened  dimly  in  the  same  se- 
cluded, separated  world  within  which  Providence  had  abstracted 
him  after  his  re-ordination.  He  had  not  failed  in  any  of  the  gen- 
erous and  liberal  sympathies  of  his  nature ;  his  heart  was  still 
open  to  his  old  friends,  and  responded  warmly  to  all  appeals  of 
affection ;  but  the  life  of  a  man  who  prayed  and  waited  daily, 
"yea,  many  times  a  day,"  for  the  descent  of  that  "power  from  on 
high"  which  was  to  vindicate  his  faith  and  confirm  his  heart,  was 
naturally  a  separated  life,  incapable  of  common  communion  with 
the  unbelieving  world.  And  he  had  paused  in  those  "  unexam- 
pled labors"  which,  up  to  the  settlement  of  his  Church  in  New- 
man Street,  kept  the  healthful  daylight  and  open  air  about  him. 
At  the  end  of  the  year  1832  he  and  his  evangelists  had  ceased 
their  missionary  labors ;  henceforward  nothing  but  the  platform 
in  Newman  Street,  and  the  care  of  a  flock  to  which  he  was  no 
longer  the  exclusive  ministrant,  occupied  the  intelligence  which 
had  hitherto  rejoiced  in  almost  unlimited  labor.  "Whether  there 
was  any  new  compensation  of  work  in  the  new  office  of  the  An- 
gel I  can  not  tell,  but  nothing  of  the  kind  is  apparent.  He  was 
not  ill,  as  far  as  appears,  during  the  early  part  of  this  silent  and 
sad  winter,  but  he  was  deprived  of  the  toil  which  had  hitherto 
kept  his  mind  in  balance,  and  of  that  communication  with  the 
world  which  was  breath  to  his  brotherly  and  liberal  soul.  No 
man  in  the  world  could  be  less  fitted  for  the  life  of  a  recluse  than 


538  IRVING  SENT  TO  EDINBURGH. 

be ;  yet  such  a  life  he  seems  to  have  now  led,  his  span  of  labor 
daily  circumscribed  as  the  different  "  orders  of  ministries"  in  the 
new  Church  developed,  and  no  missionary  exertion,  or  new  work 
of  any  kind,  coming  in  to  make  up  to  the  mighty  activity,  always 
heretofore  so  hungry  of  work,  for  this  sudden  pause  in  the  cur- 
rent of  his  life. 

In  January,  however,  he  was  sent  on  a  mission  to  Edinburgh, 
where  a  Church  had  been  established  under  the  ministry  of  Mr. 
Tait,  formerly  of  the  College  Church.  This  little  community  had 
been  troubled  by  the  "  entrance  of  an  evil  spirit,  from  which,  in 
all  its  deadening  effects,  his  experience  in  dealing  with  spiritual 
persons  would,  it  was  hoped,  be  efficacious,  by  the  blessing  of 
God,  in  delivering  them."  There  is  no  information,  so  far  as  I 
can  discover,  how  Irving  discharged  this  difficult  mission ;  but  I 
am  indebted  to  the  kindness  of  Professor  Macdougall,  of  Edin- 
burgh, for  a  momentary  note  of  his  aspect  there.  "  His  charac- 
teristic fire,"  says  that  gentleman,  who  had  been  one  of  his  hear- 
ers in  earlier  and  brighter  days,  "had  then,  in  a  great  measure, 
given  place  to  a  strangely  plaintive  pathos,  which  was  as  exquis- 
itely touching  and  tender  as  his  exhibitions  of  intellectual  power 
had  been  majestic."  He  seems  to  have  remained  but  a  very  short 
time,  and  to  have  occupied  himself  exclusively  with  his  mission. 
Though  the  Edinburgh  public,  in  much  greater  numbers  than 
could  gain  admittance,  crowded  to  the  place  of  meeting  where  Mr. 
Tait  and  his  congregation  had  found  shelter,  the  great  preacher 
no  longer  called  them  forth  at  dawn  to  dispense  his  liberal  rich- 
es, nor  rushed  into  the  chivalrous,  disinterested  labor  of  his  former 
missions  to  Edinburgh.  Wonderful  change  had  come  upon  that 
ever-free  messenger  of  truth.  He  came  now,  not  on  his  own  gen- 
erous impulse,  but  with  his  instructions  in  his  hand.  Always  a 
servant  of  God,  seeking  to  know  His  supreme  will  and  to  do  it,  he 
was  now  a  servant  of  the  Church,  bound  to  minute  obedience. 
Some  time  after,  Mrs.  Irving  wrote  to  her  mother  that  "Edward 
was  truly  grieved  that  it  was  not  in  his  power  to  go  to  see  you, 
but  his  time  is  truly  not  his  own,  neither  is  he  his  own  master." 
From  this  mission  he  returned  very  ill,  with  threatenings  of  dis- 
ease in  his  chest ;  and,  though  he  rallied  and  partially  recovered, 
it  soon  became  apparent  that  his  wearied  frame  and  broken  heart 
were  unable  to  strive  longer  with  the  griefs  and  disappointments 
which  encompassed  him,  and  that  the  chill  of  this  \tintry  journey 
had  brought  about  a  beginning  of  the  end. 


EXHAUSTION.— TENDER  COURTESY,  539 

A  month  after  living's  visit  to  Edinburgh,  the  apostles,  of 
whom  there  were  now  two,  Mr.  Cardale  and  Mr.  Drummond,  pro- 
ceeded there  to  ordain  the  angel  over  that  Church,  and  from  Ed- 
inburgh, visiting  several  other  towns  in  Scotland,  were  some  time 
absent  from  the  central  Church.  During  that  interval,  a  com- 
mand was  given  "  in  the  power"  in  Newman  Street,  to  which  Ir- 
ving gave  immediate  obedience.  It  concerned,  I  think,  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  certain  number  of  evangelists.  After  this  step 
had  been  taken,  the  absent  apostles  heard  of  it,  and  wrote,  declar- 
ing the  new  arrangement  to  be  a  delusion,  and  rebuking  both 
prophet  and  angel.  The  rebuked  prophet  withdrew  for  a  time  in 
anger;  the  angel  bowed  his  loftier  head,  read  the  letter  to  the 
Church,  and  confessed  his  error.  Thus,  amid  confusions,  disap- 
pointments, long  lingering  of  the  promised  power  from  on  high, 
sad  substitution  of  morsels  of  ceremonial  and  church  arrangement 
for  the  greater  gifts  for  which  his  soul  thirsted,  the  last  spring 
that  he  was  ever  to  see  on  earth  dawned  upon  Irving.  As  it  ad- 
vanced, his  friends  began  to  write  to  each  other  again  with  grow- 
ing anxiety  and  dread ;  his  sister-in-law,  Elizabeth,  describing  with 
alarm  "the  lassitude  he  exhibits  at  all  times,"  and  bitterly  com- 
plaining that  he  had  neither  time  nor  possibility  of  resting,  sur- 
rounded as  he  was  by  the  close  pressure  of  that  exclusive  com- 
munity, "  the  members  of  his  flock  visiting  him  every  forenoon 
from  11  to  1  o'clock,"  and  the  anxieties  of  all  the  Church  upon 
his  head.  Kind  people  belonging  to  the  Church  itself  interposed 
to  carry  him  away,  in  his  exhaustion,  on  the  Monday  mornings, 
to  rest  in  houses  which  could  be  barricaded  against  the  world — a 
thing  which,  in  Edward  Irving's  house,  in  the  mystic  precincts  of 
that  Church  in  Newman  Street,  was  simply  impossible ;  and,  when 
he  had  been  thus  abstracted  by  friendly  importunity,  describe  him 
as  stretched  on  a  sofa,  in  the  languor  of  his  fatigued  and  failing- 
strength,  looking  out  upon  the  budding  trees,  but  still  in  that  leis- 
ure and  lassitude  turning  his  mind  to  the  work  for  which  his 
frame  was  no  longer  capable,  dictating  to  some  ready  daughter  or 
sister  of  the  house.  As  he  thus  composed,  it  was  his  wont  to 
pause  whenever  any  expression  or  thought  had  come  from  him 
which  his  amanuensis  could  have  any  difficulty  about,  to  explain 
and  illustrate  his  meaning  to  her  favored  ear,  neither  weakness, 
nor  sorrow,  nor  the  hard  usage  of  men  being  able  to  warp  him 
out  of  that  tender  courtesy  which  belonged  to  his  nature. 

In  this  calm  of  exhaustion  the  early  part  of  the  year  passed 


540  REAPPEARANCE  OUT  OF  THE  SHADOWS. 

slowly.  He  still  preached  as  usual,  and  was  at  tlie  command  of 
all  his  people,  but  appeared  nowhere  out  of  their  close  ranks.  In 
July  he  wrote  a  letter,  characteristically  minute  in  all  its  details, 
to  Dr.  Martin,  bidding  him  "give  thanks  with  me  unto  the  Lord 
for  the  preservation  of  your  daughter  and  my  dear  wife  from  an 
attack  of  the  cholera,"  and  relating  the  means  which  had  been  ef- 
fectual in  her  recovery.  "  All  that  night  I  was  greatly  afflicted," 
he  writes;  "I  felt  the  hand  of  the  Lord  to  cast  me  down  to  the 
greatest  depths.  It  was  on  my  heart  on  Friday  night,  and  it  was 
on  hers  also,  to  bring  out  the  elders  of  the  Church,  which  I  did 
on  Saturday  morning,  when,  having  confessed  before  them  unto 
the  Lord  all  my  sin,  and  all  her  sin,  and  all  the  sin  of  my  house, 
without  any  reserve,  according  to  the  commandment  of  the  Lord 
(James,  v.,  16),  I  brought  them  up  to  her  room,  when,  having  min- 
istered to  her  a  word  to  strengthen  her  faith,  they  prayed  to  the 
Lord  one  after  another,  and  then  strengthened  her  with  a  word 
of  assurance,  and  blessed  her  in  the  name  of  the  Lord.  They 
had  not  been  gone  above  five  minutes  when  she  asked  me  for 
something  to  eat.  .  .  .  While  I  give  the  glory  to  God,  I  look  upon 
Dr.  Darling  as  having  been  a  blessed  instrument  in  His  hand,  and 
am  able  to  see  the  hand  of  the  Lord  in  the  means,  as  clearly  as 
in  my  own  case,  where  there  was  neither  means,  nor  medicine, 
nor  the  appointed  ordinance  of  the  Church." 

In  this  letter  Irving  affectionately  anticipates  a  visit  from  his 
wife's  father  and  mother,  and  writes  as  if  time  had  softened  the 
warmth  of  their  opposition  and  restored  much  of  the  old  frank- 
ness of  their  intercourse.  This  is  the  only  glimpse  which  I  can 
find  of  him  till  he  reappears  finally  in  September,  in  all  his  old, 
individual  distinctness,  softened  by  his  weak  bodily  condition, 
with  a  grave  gentleness  and  dignity,  and  the  peace  of  exhaustion 
breathing  in  every  thing  he  does  and  says.  He  had  been  by  "  the 
power"  commissioned  as  a  prophet  to  Scotland,  to  do  a  great  work 
in  his  native  land  some  time  before.  Either  the  time  had  now 
arrived  for  that  great  work,  and  he  was  authoritatively  command- 
ed to  go  forth  and  do  it,  which  is  the  explanation  given  by  his 
alarmed  and  disapproving  relatives  of  his  journey,  or  else  the 
Church  at  Newman  Street,  anxious  for  the  restoration  of  his 
health,  gladly  pronounced  an  authoritative  sanction  to  his  own 
wish  to  wander  slowly  over  the  country,  wending  his  way  by  de- 
grees to  Scotland,  with  the  hope  of  gaining  strength,  as  well  as  do- 
ing the  Lord's  work  by  the  way.     He  had  been  warned  by  his 


PROJECTED  JOURNEY  TO  THE  NORTH.  541 

doctor  that  the  only  safe  thing  for  him,  in  the  condition  of  health 
he  was  in,  was  to  spend  the  winter  in  a  milder  climate ;  and  when, 
notwithstanding  this  advice,  his  anxious  friends  saw  him  turn  his 
face,  in  the  waning  autumnal  days,  toward  the  wintry  north  in- 
stead, it  is  not  wonderful  that  they  should  add  the  blame  of  this 
to  all  the  other  wrongs  against  his  honor  and  happiness  of  which 
they  held  the  prophets  of  Newman  Street  guilty.  However  that 
may  be,  it  is  apparent  that  the  spiritual  authorities  of  his  own 
Church,  perhaps  aware  that  no  inducement  would  lead  him  to 
seek  health,  for  its  own  sole  sake,  in  any  kind  of  relaxation,  gave 
their  full  countenance  to  the  journey,  upon  which  he  now  set  out 
in  confidence  and  hope. 

It  is  singular,  however,  to  note  how,  as  soon  as  he  emerges  from 
his  seclusion  in  Newman  Street,  he  regains  his  natural  rank  in  a 
world  which  always  had  recognized  the  simple  grandeur  of  his 
character.  Away  from  that  Church,  where  he  rules,  indeed,  but 
must  not  judge,  nor  act  upon  even  the  utterances  from  heaven  ex- 
cept on  another  man's  authority — where  he  is  censured  sometimes 
and  rebuked,  and  where  his  presence  is  already  an  unacknowl- 
edged embarrassment,  preventing  or  at  least  hindering  the  devel- 
opment of  all  its  new  institutions — the  free  air  of  heaven  once 
more  expands  his  forlorn  bosom.  In  the  rural  places  where  he 
goes  there  is  no  man  "  worthy"  who  does  not  throw  open  his  doors 
to  that  honored  guest,  whose  greatness,  all  subdued  and  chastened 
by  his  weakness,  returns  to  him  as  he  travels.  Once  more  his 
fame  encircles  him  as  he  rides  alone  through  the  unknown  coun- 
try. It  is  Edward  Irving,  of  tender  catholic  heart,  a  brother  to 
all  Christians,  whose  thoughts,  as  he  has  poured  them  forth  for 
ten  eventful  years,  have  quickened  other  thoughts  over  all  the 
nation,  and  brought  him  many  a  disciple  and  many  a  friend  in 
the  unknown  depths  of  England,  and  not  merely  the  angel  of  the 
new  Church,  who  goes  softly  in  his  languor  and  feebleness  to  the 
banks  of  the  Severn  and  the  Wye.  I  can  not  but  think  that  the 
leaders  of  the  community  must  have  felt — to  judge  by  the  senti- 
ment which  is  apparent  in  their  publications — a  certain  relief,  per- 
haps unconscious  to  themselves,  when  he  left  them — he  whom  it 
was  impossible  not  to  be  tender  of,  but  whose  enlightenment  was 
slower  and  more  difficult  than  they  could  have  desired ;  and  for 
himself  I  can  not  doubt  that  the  relief  was  even  greater.  He  had 
escaped  away  to  the  society  of  his  Lord — to  the  silent  rural  ways, 
where  no  excitement  disturbed  the  musings  of  his  soul ;  to  the 


542  IRVING  LEAVES  LONDON. 

company  of  good  men,  who  were  not  disposed  to  contend  witli 
him  whom,  unconsciously,  he  had  helped  and  enlightened  in  the 
liberal  and  princely  years  that  were  past.  So  he  left  London  and 
the  battle-field,  never  more  to  enter  those  painful  lists,  nor  be  lost 
amid  the  smoke  of  that  conflict,  and  went  forth,  in  simple  dignity, 
to  a  work  less  hard  than  he  dreamed  of,  unwitting  to  himself, 
leaving  his  passion  and  anguish  behind  him,  and  turning  his  fated 
steps  toward  the  hills  with  no  harder  thing  on  hand  than  to  die. 
He  left  London  without  any  apparent  presentiment  that  this 
parting  was  the  last,  and  gave  his  final  benediction  to  the  chil- 
dren whom  in  this  world  he  was  to  see  no  more.  They  were 
three  whom  he  thus  left  fatherless ;  one  only,  the  Maggie  of  his 
letters,  old  enough  to  understand  or  remember  her  father;  the 
youngest  an  infant  a  few  months  old.  The  first  point  in  his  jour- 
ney was  Birmingham,  from  whence  he  begins  his  letters  to  his 
anxious  wife : 

"Edgbaston,  Birmingham,  3d  September,  1834. 
"My  dear  Wife, — I  have  just  time  to  write  a  line  to  say  that  I 
have  got  here  in  good  health  and  spirits,  Avithout  feeling  any  weari- 
ness at  all,  yet  conscious  of  bearing  about  the  hand  of  the  Lord  upon 
me,  at  Avhich  I  must  neither  murmur  nor  rebel.  .  .  .  Oh,  that  I  might 
leave  a  blessing  in  this  hospitable  and  peaceful  house ! 

"  Your  faithful  husband,  Edwd.  Irving." 

The  next  letter  is  from  Blymhill,  by  Shiflfnel,  where  he  de- 
scribes himself  to  have  arrived,  "  bearing  the  hand  of  the  Lord 
upon  me,  yet  careful  enough  and  contented  enough,"  and  where 
his  friends  find  him  a  horse  on  which  to  pursue  his  way.  On  the 
Gth  of  September,  still  lingering  at  this  place,  "visiting  the  breth- 
ren," which  he  speaks  of  as  "  strengthening  and  fitting  me  for  the 
journey,"  he  tells  his  Isabella  that  "  the  Lord  deals  very  tenderly 
with  me,  and  I  think  I  grow  in  health  and  strength.  What  I 
could  not  get  in  London  or  Birmingham,"  he  adds,  with  quaint 
homeliness,  "  I  found  lying  for  me  here — the  gift  of  Mr.  Cowper, 
of  Bridgenorth,  a  sort  of  iroicosie  of  silk  oilcloth,  which  will  take 
in  both  hat,  and  shoulders,  and  cheeks,  and  neck,  and  breast.  I 
saw  the  hand  of  Providence  in  this."  Here  he  is  troubled  by  his 
own  inadvertence  in  having  dated  a  check,  which  he  gave  in  pay- 
ment for  his  horse,  "London,  little  thinking  that  this  was  a  trick 
to  save  a  stamp.  I  am  very  sorry  for  this,  but  I  did  it  in  pure 
ignorance."  Next  day  he  is  at  Bridgenorth,  in  trouble  about  his 
little  boy,  who  is  ailing,  and  on  whose  behalf  he  directs  his  wife 
to  appeal  to  the  elders  for  such  a  visitation  as  had  been,  according 


BRIDGENORTH.  543 

to  his  belief,  so  effectual  in  her  own  case.  "  Ask  them  to  come 
in  after  the  evening  service,  when  I  shall  separate  myself  to  the 
Lord  with  them,"  says  the  absent  father,  whose  heart  is  with  his 
children,  and  who,  after  many  anxious  counsels  about  the  little 
four-year-old  boy,  sends  a  message  to  tell  him  that  "  the  horse  is 
brown,  with  black  legs."  Next  day  he  resumes :  I  did  separate 
myself  according  to  my  promise,  and  was  much  distressed  by  the 
heavy  and  incessant  judgments  of  the  Lord,  and  afterward  I  had 
faith  to  plead  the  promise  that  the  prayer  of  faith  should  heal  the 
sick."  "  This  Bridgenorth  is  one  of  the  most  beautifully  situated 
towns  I  ever  saw,"  he  continues,  and  proceeds  to  describe  the 
route  which  he  meant  to  adopt  to  his  wife.  After  recording  the 
expenses  to  which  his  horse  and  saddle  had  put  him,  he  adds: 
"But  no  matter;  I  feel  that  I  am  serving  the  Lord  daily,  and  I 
think  He  daily  giveth  me  more  strength  to  serve  Him."  On  the 
10th  of  September  he  is  again  at  Blymhill,  where  he  lingers  to 
receive  the  visits  of  some  brethren  in  the  neighborhood,  and  to 
prove  his  horse,  "  which  goes  well."  The  friends  who  detain  him 
in  this  quarter  seem  to  be  the  clergymen  of  the  place.  "  I  am 
greatly  pleased  and  comforted,"  he  says,  "by  all  that  I  [hear] 
about  Henry  Dalton's  two  flocks,  and  have  no  doubt  that  the 
pleasure  of  the  Lord  is  prospering  in  his  hands ;  nor  am  I  less 
pleased  here  with  Mr.  Brydgeman,  whose  labors  for  the  Lord  are 
very  abundant."  From  Blymhill  he  also  writes  to  Mr.  Hamilton, 
committing  into  his  hands  the  management  of  his  business  affairs 
with  his  former  publishers,  a  commission  which  he  introduces  by 
the  following  affecting  preface : 

"  My  dear  Brother  Hamilton, — Although  we  have  parted  com- 
pany in  the  way  for  a  season,  being  well  assm*ed  of  the  sincerity  and 
honesty  of  your  mind,  and  praying  always  that  you  may  be  kept  from 
the  formality  of  the  world  in  divine  things,  I  do  fondly  hope  that  we 
shall  meet  together  in  the  end,  and  go  hand  in  hand,  as  we  have 
done  in  the  service  of  God.  And  this  not  for  you  only,  but  for  your 
excellent  Avife,  whose  debtor  I  am  in  many  ways.  On  this  account 
I  have  always  continued  to  take  your  counsel  and  help  in  all  my 
worldly  matters,  as  in  former  times,  though  God,  in  His  goodness, 
hath  gi\en  me  so  many  deacons  and  under-deacons  worthy  of  all  con- 
fidence. But  I  can  not  forget,  and  never  will,  the  assiduous  kindness 
with  which  you  have,  ever  since  I  knew  you,  helped  me  with  your 
sound  judgment  and  discretion  in  all  temporal  things,  and  sure  am  I 
that  I  should  be  glad  as  ever  to  give  you  my  help  in  spiritual  things 
as  heretofore.  I  could  not,  without  these  expressions  of  my  hearty, 
faithful  attachment  to  you,  and  of  my  grateful  obligations  for  all  your 


544  IRVING' S  LETTER  TO  HIS  CHILDREN. 

past  kindness,  introduce  the  business  upon  which  I  am  now  to  seek 
your  help." 

All  the  literary  business  in  which  Irving  was  now  concerned 
seems  to  have  been  the  settlement  of  his  accounts  with  his  pub- 
lishers. Some  balances  appear  to  have  been  owing  him.  But  I 
have  been  told,  I  can  not  say  with  what  truth,  that  he  derived  lit- 
tle pecuniary  advantage  at  any  time  even  from  his  most  popular 
publications. 

A  few  days  later  he  writes  the  following  descriptive  letter  to 
his  children : 

"  Ivonbridge,  Shropshire,  16th  September,  1834. 

"  My  dear  Children,  Margaret  and  Martin, — This  place  from 
which  I  write  you  is  named  Ironbridge,  because  there  is  a  great 
bridge  of  iron,  which,  with  one  arch,  spans  across  the  River  Severn, 
and  there  is  another,  about  two  miles  farther  up  the  river,  where 
there  are  the  ruins  of  an  ancient  abbey,  in  which  men  and  women 
that  feared  God  used  in  old  times  to  live  and  worship  Him.  The 
walls  of  the  ruin  are  all  grown  over  Avith  ivy.  Your  father  stopped 
his  horse  to  look  at  them ;  and  six  miles  farther  back  there  was  an 
old  gray  ruined  wall  in  a  field,  Avhich  a  smith  by  the  road  side  told 
me  was  the  ruins  of  an  ancient  Roman  city,  named  Uniconium,  which 
once  stood  there.  .  .  .  Your  father  has  ridden  from  Shrewsbury  this 
morning,  where  he  parted  with  his  dear  friend,  the  Honorable  and 
Reverend  Henry  Brydgeman,  who  is  a  very  godly  man,  and  has  been 
wonderfully  kind  to  your  father.  He  has  six  sons  and  only  one 
daughter,  all  little  children,  the  eldest  not  so  big  as  Margaret ;  and  I 
am  writing  to  Bridgenortli  to  another  dear  friend,  the  Rev.  Henry 
Dalton,  who  has  no  children  yet.  You  must  pray  for  both  these  min- 
isters, and  thank  God  for  putting  it  into  their  head  to  be  so  good  to 
your  father. 

"  Now  concerning  the  house  and  the  oak-tree  in  which  the  king 
was  hidden  and  saved.  There  have  been  eight  kings  since  his  time 
and  one  queen — Queen  Anne,  whose  statue  is  before  St.  Paul's  Church 
in  London.  This  king's  name  was  Charles,  and  his  father's  name  was 
Charles,  and  therefore  they  called  him  Charles  the  Second.  The  peo- 
ple rose  up  against  his  father,  and  warred  against  him  till  they  took 
him,  and  then  they  cut  off  his  head  at  Whitehall,  in  London  ;  and  his 
poor  son  they  pursued,  to  take  him  and  kill  him  also,  and  he  was 
forced  to  flee  away  and  hide  himself,  as  King  David  did  hide  himself. 
The  house  is  only  three  miles  from  Mr.  Brydgeman's,  so  we  mounted 
our  horses  and  away  we  rode — Mr.  Brydgeman  in  the  middle — till 
we  came  to  a  gate  which  led  us  into  a  park,  and  soon  we  came  to  an- 
other gate,  which  opened  and  let  us  into  the  stable-yard,  and  there 
we  dismounted  from  our  horses.  .  .  .  The  master  of  the  house  and 
his  family  were  gone,  and  there  Avere  none  but  a  nice,  tidy,  kind  wom- 
an, Avho  took  us  through  the  kitchen  into  an  ancient  parlor  all  done 
round  the  walls  with  carved  oak,  just  as  it  was  Avhen  the  king  hid 
himself  in  the  house.  And  there  Avas  a  picture  of  the  king.  Then 
Ave  Avcnt  up  stairs  into  an  ancient  bedroom,  Avhose  floor  Avas  sore 


THE  ROYAL  OAK.  545 

worn  with  age,  and  by  the  side  of  this  bedroom  was  a  door  leading 
into  a  Httle,  little  room,  and  the  floor  of  that  room  lifted  up  in  the 
middle,  and  underneath  was  a  narrow,  dark  dungeon  or  hiding-place, 
in  which  the  king  of  all  this  island  was  glad  to  hide  himself,  in  order 
to  escape  from  his  persecutors ;  this  narrow  place  opened  below  by- 
narrow  stairs  into  the  garden,  where  is  a  door  in  the  wall  hidden  be- 
hind ivy.  Then  we  went  up  another  stair  to  the  garret,  and  at  the 
top  of  it  there  was  another  board  in  the  floor  that  lifted  up,  and  went 
down  by  a  small  ladder  into  another  hiding-place.  But  all  these 
hiding-places  were  not  enough  to  hide  the  king  from  his  persecutors 
— armed  soldiers  on  horseback,  who  entered  the  house  to  search  it. 
Then  the  king  fled  out  by  the  door  behind  the  ivy  in  the  garden,  and 
leaped  over  the  gai'den  wall  into  a  field,  and  climbed  up  an  oak-tree, 
and  hid  himself  among  its  thick  branches.  Papa  saw  this  tree.  It 
is  done  round  with  a  rail,  to  distinguish  it  from  the  rest  and  to  keep 
it  sacred.  .  .  .  Then  the  soldiers,  not  finding  him  in  the  house,  gal- 
loped about  into  the  wood,  and  passed  under  the  very  tree ;  but  God 
saved  the  king,  and  they  found  him  not.  .  .  .  There  are  many  lessons 
to  be  learned  from  this,  which  your  dear  mother  will  teach  you,  for 
I  am  tired,  and  my  horse  is  getting  ready.  So  God  bless  you,  and 
your  little  sister,  and  your  dear  mother,  and  all  the  house.  Fare- 
well !  Your  loving  father,  Edwd.  Irving." 

After  this,  his  correspondence  is  exclusively  addressed  to  his 
wife,  and  continues,  from  point  to  point  along  bis  journey,  an  al- 
most daily  chronicle : 

"Shobdon  (halfway  between  Ludlow  and  Kington,)) 
Thursday,  18th  September,  1834.  > 

"  My  dearest  "Wife, — In  this  beautiful  village,  embowered  with 
trees,  and  clothed  with  ivy  and  roses,  in  the  little  inn — where  are  as- 
sembled the  last  remains  of  a  wake  which  has  holden  since  Sunday — 
from  a  little  bar-room  or  parlor  within  the  ample  kitchen,  where  they 
are  playing  their  drunken  tricks  with  one  anothei*,  I  sit  down  to  write 
you.  I  know  not  wherefore  I  went  to  Shrewsbury,*  but  wherefore 
I  returned  to  Bridgenorth  I  discern  was  for  seeing  Mejanel,  and 
opening  to  him  the  whole  state  of  his  soul  in  the  presence  of  Mr.  Dal- 
ton,  and  with  his  confirmation ;  and  I  do  hope  it  will  lead  to  that  re- 
pentance and  cleansing  of  heart  which  may  prepare  him  for  the  ordi- 
nation of  the  Lord,  which  I  trust  will  not  be  delayed,  in  the  great 
mercy  and  goodness  of  our  Lord.  I  charged  himf  at  no  rate  to  go 
to  France  without  ordination,  and  I  think  I  prevailed  with  him.  .  .  . 

"  But  oh !  how  shall  I  describe  the  beauty  and  the  blessedness  of 
the  land  through  which  I  have  traveled  these  three  days.  Whether 
it  be  that  the  riding  on  horseback  gives  time  for  the  objects  to  enter 

*  He  had,  however,  in  a  former  letter,  described  to  his  wife  the  impulse  he  felt  to 
seek  out  a  young  surgeon,  whom  he  believed  to  be  in  Shrewsbury,  who  was  in  dan- 
ger of  falling  from  the  faith,  but  who,  he  found  on  going  there,  had  left  the  place. 

t  The  person  here  referred  to  was  a  French  preacher,  who  had  been  a  very  prom- 
inent figure  in  the  excitement  which  attended  the  origin  of  the  "gifts"  in  Scotland. 
— See  Memoir  of  Mr.  Story,  of  liosneath. 

M  M 


546  BOSS.— CHEPSTOW.^EAGLAN. 

and  produce  these  impressions,  I  know  not,  but  it  seems  to  me  as  if  I 
I  had  never  seen  the  beauty  and  the  fatness  of  the  land  till  now.  I  am 
/  ~  filled  with  the  admiration  of  it.  My  way  to  Ludlow  lay  over  the 
ridge  which  joins  the  two  Clay  (or  Clee)  mountains,  and,  as  they  rose 
before  me,  in  their  blue  and  naked  majesty,  out  of  the  ripe  vegeta- 
tion and  abundant  wood  of  the  country  around,  I  Avas  filled  with  de- 
light. My  road,  both  yesterday  and  to-day,  though  a  turnpike  road, 
is  out  of  the  great  lines,  and  I  was  as  solitary  and  sequestered  as  I 
could  have  wished,  leaving  me  much  opportunity  of  communion  with 
God.  ...  I  keep  this  letter  open  till  I  come  to  Kington.  My  din- 
ner, ham  and  egg,  a  cold  fowl,  an  apple-tart  and  cheese,  a  tumbler  of 
cider,  a  glass  of  Sicilian  Tokay,  of  which  Mr.  Brydgeman  put  two 
bottles  in  my  saddle  [bags].  ...  I  am  safe  in  Mr.  Whalley's,  and 
have  passed  a  good  night.  Tell  your  dear  mother  I  had  such  a  me- 
mento of  Kirkcaldy  Manse — ginger  w^ine  in  a  long-necked  decanter. 
.  .  .  Love  and  blessing  to  the  children,  and  to  all  the  house. 

"  Your  faithful  and  loving  husband,  Edwd.  Irving." 

"  Ross,  23d  September. 
"I  have  but  ten  minutes  to  the  post,  being  just  arrived  at  Ross. 
A  Mr.  Davies  came  to  Kington,  and  invited  me  to  Hereford,  and 
gathered  an  inquiring  people,  whom  I  instructed,  under  Mr.  Davies' 
authority,  as  his  chaplain.  He  has  ridden  thus  far  Avith  me,  and  goes 
on  to  Monmouth,  where  I  expect  to  be  at  tea.  I  am  getting  daily 
better.     The  Lord  bless  you  all !" 

"  Chepstow,  26th  September. 
"I  was  greatly  comforted  by  your  letter  last  night,  having  been  in 
great  distress  of  soul  for  dear  Martin ;  and  I  give  thanks  to  the  Lord, 

who  hath  preserved  him.  .  .  .  Say  to  Mr.  T that  I  spent  a  most 

agreeable  night  and  forenoon  at  his  brother's,  and  that  I  feel  my  go- 
ing to  Monmouth  was  very  much  for  his  sake  and  his  wife's,  both  of 
whom,  I  think,  are  not  far  from  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  I  also  saw 
and  conversed  much  with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Davies,  of  whom  I  thought 
very  highly.  .  .  .  Here,  at  Chepstow,  the  seed  has  indeed  been  sown 
by  Mr.  Stui-geon,  and  I  am  watering  it  with  words  of  counsel  and 
instruction,  teaching  them  the  way  of  worshiping  God,  and  encour- 
aging them  to  gather  together  and  call  upon  His  name.  I  think  there 
is  the  foundation  of  a  Church  laid  in  this  place.  Now,  my  dear  Avife, 
I  am  surely  better  in  my  health,  for  my  appetite  is  good,  and  my 
pulse  is  come  to  be  under  100.  The  Lord's  hand  I  feel  to  be  with 
me,  and  I  believe  that  I  am  doing  Him  service.  Farewell !  the  Lord 
be  your  stay." 

"Eaglan  (half  way  to  Crickhowel),  Saturday,  27th  September. 
"The  inn  here,  at  which  I  have  just  arrived  to  breakfast,  is  also 
the  post-office,  and  I  have  about  three  quarters  of  an  hour  to  Avrite 
you.  My  visit  to  Chepstow,  I  feel,  hath  been  very  well  bestowed. 
I  had  the  people  two  nights  to  Mrs.  Sturgeon's,  and  they  came  in 
great  numbers,  and  I  had  great  presence  and  power  of  the  Lord  in 
ministering  to  them  the  two  chapters  which  we  oflTered  in  the  family 
worship,  Luke,  xi.,  and  Matthew,  xxv.,  and  great,  I  am  persuaded, 
will  the  fruits  of  Mr.  Sturgeon's  ministry  here  be.     But  the  thing 


HEALING  BOTH  TO  BODY  AND  SOUL.  547 

wherein  the  hand  of  the  Lord  is  most  seen  is  His  bringing  me  into 
contact  and  conference  with  all  the  yomig  clergymen  round  about. 
At  Tintern,  which  is  two  thirds  of  the  way  from  Monmouth  to  Chep- 
stow, I  rested  my  horse  while  I  went  to  see  the  famous  ruins  of  the 
abbey.  I  had  not  been  within  the  abbey  walls  five  minutes  when 
there  was  a  ring  for  admittance,  and  two  young  men  of  a  scholar- 
like appearance  came  in.  One  immediately  came  forward  and  sa- 
luted me  with  information  that  his  father,  a  barrister  in  Dublin,  had 
once  been  entertained  in  our  house,  and  the  young  man  with  him 
was  also  a  clergyman ;  with  both  of  them  I  have  had  much  close  con- 
versation, and  with  two  at  Chepstow.  .  .  .  My  time  is  exhausted ;  I 
Avill,  therefore,  speak  of  myself.  I  think  I  may  say  I  am  indeed  very 
much  better,  and  hardly  conscious  of  an  invalid's  feelings.  ...  I  con- 
tinue to  use  Dr.  Darling's  prescriptions,  and  find  the  good  of  them. 
Now,  as  concerneth  speaking,  I  am  fully  persuaded,  by  experience, 
that  it  is  the  proper  exercise  of  the  lungs,  and,  being  taken  in  meas- 
ure, it  is  always  good  for  me.  But  nothing  has  done  me  so  much 
good  as  to  hear  of  dear  Martin's  recovery.  That  Avas  indeed  healing 
both  to  body  and  soul." 

"  Crickhowel,  28th  September. 
"  I  arrived  here  safe  and  in  good  order,  horse  and  man,  last  night ; 
and,  because  they  could  not  get  a  messenger  over  to  Mr.  Waddy, 
who  lives  about  two  miles  oif,  I  made  my  arrival  known  by  a  note 
to  the  Rev.  T.  Price,  Mr.  Tudor's  friend,  who  came  to  the  inn  very 
■  speedily,  and  took  me  up  to  his  house  to  spend  the  evening.  I  find 
him  much  instructed  in  the  truth,  but  holding  it  rather  by  the  light 
of  the  understanding  than  by  the  faith  of  the  Spirit ;  still  he  is,  as  I 
judge,  one  by  whom  the  Lord  will  greatly  bless  this  principality, 
through  the  continual  prayer  of  the  Church,  Oh!  tell  Mr.  Tudor  to 
keep  Wales  upon  his  heart,  and  Price  and  Scale.  Scale  is  the  young 
man  at  Merthyr  Tydvil  who  breakfasted  Avith  us  once.  He  is  a  pre- 
cious man — one  set  of  the  Lord  for  a  great  blessing,  I  am  convinced, 
though  the  time  be  not  yet  fully  come.  He  rode  over  to-day,  and 
poor  Waddy  had  ridden  early  all  the  way  to  Abergavenny,  six  miles 
back  on  the  road,  thinking  to  find  me  there,  and  ride  in  Avith  me ; 
but  I  had  resolved  that  the  Christian  Sabbath  should  not  fall  beneath 
the  JcAvish  in  being  a  day  of  entire  rest  for  man  and  horse.  Mr. 
Price  is  a  great  Welsh  scholar,  a  literary  and  patriotic  man,  full  of 
taste  and  knoAvledge ;  young — that  is,  Avithin  my  age — a  bachelor, 
Avhose  Avife,  I  fear,  is  more  his  books  than  the  Church  as  yet.  Yet  I 
love  him  much,  and  owe  him  much  love.  I  breakfasted  with  him 
this  morning,  and  afterward  Avent  to  the  church  in  this  place,  where 
an  aged  man,  Mr.  Vaughan,  Avho  fears  God  much,  is  the  minister ;  for 
Mr.  Price  Avent  to  serve  a  church  in  Welsh  some  three  miles  off.  .  .  . 
We  did  not  meet  till  the  interval,  Avhen  we  all  went  over  to  Mr. 
Price's  other  cure,  a  church  over  the  water,  close  by.  He  preached 
on  the  coming  of  the  Lord,  a  short  but  true  sermon.  Then  afterAvard 
he  asked  me,  at  the  request  of  the  family,  to  go  with  him  to  a  sick 
lady  Avho  had  been  prayed  for,  and  gave  the  Avhole  household  minis- 
try into  my  OAvn  hand.  The  rest  of  the  evening  I  have  spent  Avith 
the  three   brethren,  Price,  Scale,  and  Waddy,  and  having  supped 


548  BEAUTY  AND  MAJESTY  OF  GOD'S  WORKS. 

upon  a  piece  of  bread  and  a  tumbler  of  precious  beer,  home-brewed, 
I  sit  down  to  write  to  you  before  I  offer  up  my  worship  and  go  to 
rest.  Now,  my  dear,  I  think  it  rather  of  the  Lord  that  we  should 
remain  apart  till  I  be  brought  home  in  the  good  time  of  the  Lord. 
...  It  is  a  trial  to  me  to  be  separated  from  you  in  many  ways,  and 
chiefly  in  this,  that  I  may  testify  to  you  the  new  love  with  which 
God  iiath  filled  my  bosom  toward  you;  that  I  may  bear  you  ever 
upon  my  arm,  as  I  do  now  bear  you  upon  my  heart." 

"Builth  (border  of  Radnor  and  Brecon),  29th  September. 
"I  am  again  returned  to  the  banks  of  the  Wye,  and  shall  ascend  it 
to  near  its  summit  in  '  huge  Plinlimmon.'  Of  all  rivers  that  I  have 
seen,  the  grace  of  its  majesty  surpassetb.  I  first  came  in  sight  of  its 
scenery  as  we  rode  to  Hereford,  a  few  miles  from  Kington,  and,  as 
far  as  the  eye  could  stretch  up  to  the  mountains  from  which  it  issued, 
it  seemed  a  very  wilderness  of  beauty  and  fruitfulness.  My  eye  was 
never  satisfied  with  beholding  it.  But  how  impossible  it  is  to  give 
you  an  idea  of  the  vast  bosom  of  Herefordshire  as  I  saw  it  from  the 
high  lands  we  cross  on  the  way  to  Ross !  .  .  .  My  soul  was  altogether 
satisfied  in  beholding  the  works  of  my  God.  .  .  .  But  the  valley  of 
the  Usk,  where  Crickhowel  is,  hath  a  beauty  of  its  own,  so  soft,  with 
such  a  feathery  wood  scattered  over  it,  gracing  with  modesty,  but 
not  hiding,  the  well-cultivated  sides  of  the  mountains,  whose  tops  are 
resigned  to  nature's  wildness.  .  .  .  Now,  my  dearest,  of  myself:  I 
think  I  grow  daily  better  by  daily  care  and  the  blessing  of  God  upon 
it.  I  ride  thirty  miles  without  any  fatigue,  walking  down  the  hills 
to  relieve  my  horse.  ...  I  have  you  and  the  children  in  continual 
remembrance  before  God,  and  them  also  that  are  departed,  express- 
ing my  continual  contentedness  that  they  are  with  Him.  Now  fare- 
well !  say  to  Martin  that  I  am  going  to  write  him  a  letter  about  an- 
other king,  St.  Ethelred." 

This  promised  letter  to  his  little  son  was  never  written,  but 
there  breaks  in  here  a  birthday  epistle  to  the  little  Maggie  of  his 
heart : 

"Aberystwyth,  Oct.  2d,  1834. 
"  My  dear  Daughter  Margaret, — This  is  your  birthday,  and  I 
must  write  you  a  letter  to  express  a  father's  joy  and  thanksgiving 
over  so  dear  a  child.  Your  mother  writes  me  from  Brighton  that 
Miss  Rook  has  written  to  her  such  an  account  of  your  diligence  and 
obedience.  It  made  me  so  glad  that  you  were  beginning  to  show 
that  you  are  not  only  my  child,  but  the  child  of  God,  regenerate  in 
baptism.  Bring  thou  forth,  my  sweet  child,  the  fruits  of  godliness 
daily,  more  and  more  abundantly.  I  am  now  got  to  Aberystwyth, 
and  dwell  upon  the  shore  of  the  sea,  in  the  same  house  with  Mr. 
Carre,  who  goes  out  and  preaches  every  evening  at  five  o'clock,  and 
I  go  out  and  stand  beside  him.  You  will  delight  to  hear  that  I  am 
much  better,  through  the  goodness  of  God,  and  that  I  hope  to  be 
quite  well  before  I  reach  Scotland.  ...  I  beseech  you,  my  beloved 
child,  to  have  your  soul  always  ready  for  the  hand  of  the  Lord,  who 
is  your  true  Father.  I  am  but  His  poor  representative.  Now  bless- 
ings be  upon  thee,  and  dear  Martin,  and  dear  Isabella !     I  pray  God 


WELL-SUNNED,  WELL-AIKED  MOUNTAINS.  549 

to  keep  you  many  years  iu  health,  and  afterward  to  receive  thee  to 
His  glory.  .  .  .  Remember  me  Avith  aflection  to  all  the  house,  and 
be  assured  that  I  am  your  loving  father,  Edwd.  Irving." 

He  then  resumes  the  chronicle  of  his  journey : 

"Aberystwyth,  October  3d. 
"  I  wrote  to  Maggie  yesterday,  which,  with  a  letter  to  Mr.  Whally, 
I  found  occupation  enough.  .  .  .  The  letter  I  wrote  you  from  Builth 
was  too  late  for  the  post.  That  day  was  the  sweetest  of  all  my  jour- 
ney, for  it  was  among  the  well-sunned,  well-aired  mountains,  where 
every  breeze  seemed  to  breathe  health  upon  me.  My  road  during 
the  morning  was  up  rough,  and,  in  many  places,  wooded  glens ;  but 
after  passing  Rhyadhon,  where  I  breakfasted,  I  cleared  the  region  of 
cultivation,  taking  the  hill-road  to  what  they  call  the  Devil's  Bridge, 
or  Havod  Arms,  an  inn  within  twelve  miles  of  Aberystwyth.  Among 
the  sheep  and  the  sheepfolds  I  found  that  air  which  I  wanted ;  hun- 
ger came  hours  before  its  time,  and  I  seemed  to  feel  the  strength  of 
my  youth.  I  do  not  find  it  so  by  the  shore  of  the  sea,  though  this 
be  assuredly  a  sweet  and  healthy  place,  at  the  opening  of  a  short  val- 
ley, which  in  five  or  six  miles  carries  you  into  the  bleak  air  of  the 
mountains.  It  will  give  you  some  idea  of  my  returning  strength 
when  I  tell  you  that  next  morning  I  arose  at  seven,  and,  with  the 
Boots  of  the  inn  for  my  guide,  descended  to  the  bottom  of  that  fear- 
ful ravine  of  roaring  cataracts,  320  feet  below  the  level  of  the  road, 
and  ascended  again,  and  surveyed  them  one  by  one  with  great  de- 
light. .  .  .  This  Aberystwyth  is  against  letter  writing.  I  was  inter- 
rupted yesterday ;  and  so  I  will  interrupt  my  description,  and  leave 
it  for  a  letter  to  dear  Maggie.  The  house  of  Mrs.  Brown  was  open 
to  me,  and  a  bed  prepared  for  me.  Mr.  Carre  also  abides  under  her 
roof  since  her  son  came  home.  .  .  .  Mr.  Brown  has  the  felicity  of 
seeing  his  family  joined  together  in  one  mind.  .  .  .  No  doubt  they 
have  all  to  be  tried,  and  their  faith  is  yet  but  in  its  infancy ;  but  it  is 
most  heart-cheering  to  see  the  house  of  one  mind.  Since  my  coming, 
Mr.  Brown  has  opened  his  house  at  morning  and  evening  worship  to 
'  those  who  are  godly  disposed,'  where  I  have  had  an  opi^ortunity  of 
instructing  and  counseling  many  of  the  Lord's  people.  Dear  Carre 
preaches  in  the  open  air  at  the  head  of  the  Marine  Parade,  where  the 
main  street  of  the  ancient  town  descends  into  the  noble  crescent 
which  hath  been  builded  of  late  years  for  the  accommodation  of  the 
company  Avho  chiefly  resort  from  the  West  of  England  hither  for  the 
sea-bathing  and  sea-air ;  and  he  was  wont  to  open  the  Scriptures  far- 
ther, within  doors,  at  seven,  to  those  w' ho  came  to  Mr.  Brown's ;  but, 
now  that  he  has  seen  the  better  way  of  combining  domestic  worship 
with  that  household  ministration,  I  think  he  will  adopt  it,  and  con- 
tinue what  I  have  begun.  Mr.  Brown  departs  for  his  cure  at  Mad- 
dington  on  Wednesday  next  week, 

"Harlech,  Merionethshire,  7th  October. 

"I  write  you  from  the  inn  which  overlooks  one  of  the  three  strong 

castles  with  Avhich  EdAvard  III.  did  bridle  all  this  region  of  North 

Wales.    It  stands  froAvning,  like  the  memory  of  its  master,  over  land 

and  over  sea.     Out  of  the  AvindoAv,  where  I  have  dined,  I  have  seen 


550  CADER-IDRIS. 

the  most  beautiful  sunset,  full  of  crimson  glory,  with  here  and  there 
a  streak  of  the  brightest  green.  It  was  at  the  time  that  I  was  with 
you  all  in  spirit  in  Newman  Street,  and  I  took  it  as  a  figure  of  the 
latter-day  glory.  Yesterday  I  set  out  from  Aberystwyth,  from  that 
dear  family,  who  were  all  up  to  see  'me  oif  at  seven  o'clock ;  and, 
being  mindful  of  Dr.  Darling's  words,  rode  enveloped  in  India-rubber 
to  Machynlleth  (which  being  pronounced  is  Machuntleth).  This  was 
a  stage  of  eighteen  miles  before  breakfast,  nowise  particularly  inter- 
esting. .  .  .  But  from  Machynlleth  to  Dolgelley  is  by  the  foot  of 
Cader-Idris,  a  mountain  surpassed  by  none,  if  equaled  by  any,  for  its 
rugged  majesty  and  beauty.  I  had  much  communion  with  God 
in  the  first  part  of  this  stage,  for  the  Church,  for  Mr.  Cardale,  but, 
above  all,  for  you  and  for  all  who  have  received  from  us  life.  When 
I  descended  upon  the  base  of  Cader-Idris,  on  my  left  hand  there  shot 
out  a  vista  toward  the  sea,  Avhich  terminated  in  a  clear  and  bright 
sky.  I  can  not  describe  the  pleasure  which  I  had  in  looking  away 
from  the  terrible  grandeur  of  Cader-Idris  down  that  sweet  glade 
opening  into  the  beautiful  skies.  But  it  was  the  instant  duty  of  ray- 
self  and  horse  to  cross  up  a  shoulder  of  the  mountain  and  get  on  our 
way.  .  .  .  About  six  I  arrived  at  my  inn,  and  was  much  refreshed 
by  my  dinner  and  bed.  This  morning  I  sent  my  horse  early  down 
to  Barmouth,  proposing  myself  to  come  by  a  boat,  which  I  was  told 
sailed  at  half  past  nine,  and  got  down  in  forty  minutes — all  to  see  the 
scenery,  which  is  very,  very  beautiful  upon  the  estuary  or  loch  ;  but 
when  I  came  to  the  boat-house,  about  two  miles'  walking,  I  found 
the  boat  would  not  be  there  for  more  than  an  hour,  would  tarry  some 
time,  and  then  had  a  rough  sea  and  rough  head-Avind  to  sail  with. 
My  purpose  was  to  be  here  before  the  meeting  of  the  church,  and 
this  is  ten  miles  from  Bai'mouth.  There  was  nothing  for  it  but  to 
ferry  over  the  Avater,  and  walk  the  remaining  eight  miles,  along  with 
three  skinners  going  thither  on  their  business,  men  in  whom  was  the 
fear  of  God.  I  gave  them  my  great-coat  to  carry,  and  Avalked  by  the 
rough  side  of  the  loch  Avitli  a  strong  wind  ahead,  and  was  no  worse, 
but  I  thought  rather  the  better  for  it.  Then  I  rode  hither,  and  be- 
ing all  alone,  have  been  more  Avitli  you  than  with  myself.  Truly  the 
Lord  hath  laid  Mr.  Cardale  upon  my  heart,  and  the  Avhole  Church, 
and  all  those  to  be  presented,  and  I  have  prayed  for  them  every  one, 
according  to  my  discernment.  Show  this  sentence  to  Mr.  Cardale, 
or  transcribe  it,  for  I  am  not  able  to  write  to-night,  ....  and  this 
to  Mr.  Woodhouse — (two  sentences  in  Latin  are  here  inserted  in  the 
manuscript).  It  is  not  because  I  may  or  can  not  trust  you,  most 
trustworthy  wife,  that  I  write  these  answers  in  Latin,  but  because  I 
would  not  take  you  out  of  your  place.  .  .  .  Now  the  peace  and  bless- 
ing of  the  Lord  be  with  you  and  all  the  house." 

"Bangor,  9th  October. 
"My  deakest  Wife, — For  I  have  heart  and  strength  to  write 
only  to  you ;  indeed,  it  is  in  my  heart  to  write  many  letters ;  but  a 
due  sense  of  my  duty  of  resting  when  the  labors  of  the  day  are  over 
holds  my  hand,  and  I  have  committed  my  flock  into  the  Shepherd's 
hand.  I  rode  from  Harlech,  before  breakfast,  along  the  sea-shore, 
until  we  found  an  inlet  to  follow  up,  at  the  head  of  which  sits  Taw-y- 


BEDD-GELERT.  551 

bwlch,  in  such  stillness  and  beauty,  among  the  most  sublime  and 
beautiful  mountain  scenery.  Oh!  it  is  a  place  of  peace  and  repose. 
Thence  I  crossed  rugged  and  barren  mountains,  with  occasional  views 
of  the  ocean,  until  the  road  swept  up  a  mountain  pass  of  great  sub- 
limity, and  opened  at  the  head  of  it  upon  Bedd-Gelert,  a  place  of  the 
like  character  Avith  Taw-y-bwlcli,  but  not  so  sequestered.  (This  is 
for  Maggie,  but  it  is  profitable  to  us  all.)  Bedd-Gelert  means  'the 
grave  of  Gelert.'  Gelert  was  a  hound  of  matchless  excellences.  .  .  . 
The  hovmd  fell  at  his  master's  feet  and  breathed  out  his  life  in  piteous 
moanings.  lie  Avas  hardly  dead  when  the  babe  awoke  from  some 
place  of  greater  security  whither  the  dog  had  carried  it,  and  when 
they  looked  beneath  the  bed  they  found  a  mighty  and  ferocious  wolf, 
whose  mangled  body  showed  what  a  desperate  conflict  poor  Gelert 
liad  waged  that  day  for  his  master's  infant.  Ah  me !  what  faithful- 
ness God  hath  put  into  the  hearts  of  his  creatures !  what  pure  love 
must  be  in  His  own!  The  name  Bedd-Gelert  commemorates  that 
event.  Here  I  had  a  harper  to  play  to  me  the  choicest  of  the  old 
"Welsh  airs.  Of  a  noble  race  vxis  /Shoikin,  The  3Iarch  of  the  3Ien  of 
Harlech,  etc.  The  old  blind  man  was  very  thankful  for  a  sixpence, 
and  I  taught  him  how  to  use  his  harp  as  ])avid  had  done,  in  the 
praise  of  his  God.  From  thence  I  set  myself  to  begird  the  roots  of 
Snowdon,  for  he  covered  his  head  from  the  sight  of  man.  I  had  seen 
his  majestic  head  lifted  above  the  mountains  from  Aberystwyth,  and 
it  is  the  only  sight  I  have  had  of  him.  He  is  the  monarch  of  many. 
The  mountains  stand  around  him  as  they  shall  stand  around  Zion. 
When  I  was  seeking  to  disentangle  the  perfect  form  of  one  of  them 
from  the  mist,  which  I  thought  must  surely  be  he,  a  countryman  told 
me  my  mistake.  That  beautiful  sunset  which  I  saw  at  liarlech  yield- 
ed only  wind ;  and  as  I  rode  up  these  defiles  the  wind  was  terrible. 
It  made  the  silken  shroud  over  my  shoulders  rattle  in  my  horse's  ears 
until  he  could  hardly  abide  it ;  and,  in  truth,  I  had  to  take  it  off,  for 
the  bellowing  of  the  wind  itself  was  enough  for  the  nerves  of  man  or 
horse.  I  never  endured  such  a  battery  of  wind.  I  arrived  at  my  inn 
a  little  after  the  setting  of  the  sun — Dolbaddon,  an  inn  like  a  jDalace. 
Thence  I  rode  this  morning  to  Caernarvon,  secluded  on  the  outgoing 
of  the  Menai  Straits  ;  and  I  turned  off  my  road  to  look  at  the  bridge 
— that  wonder  of  man's  hand.  And  now  here  I  am  in  the  very  house 
of  the  Shunamite  Avoman ;  for,  though  it  is  an  inn  like  a  castle,  the 
Penrhyn  Arms,  mine  hostess  is  a  very  mother.  Mr.  Pope  is  resident 
here,  having  married  a  wife  of  the  daughters  of  the  land.  To  him  I 
wrote  a  letter  of  brotherly  love  ;  but  it  hath  been  in  vain,  I  fear. 
The  Lord's  will  be  done.  Now  I  doubt  that  this  is  too  late  for  the 
post ;  but,  come  Avhen  it  will,  let  it  come  with  the  blessing  of  God 
upon  you  and  upon  all  the  house.  I  begin  to  feel  a  strong  desire 
that  you  Avere  Avith  me.  I  do  not  knoAV,  but  it  may  be  Avell  to  com- 
mit that  thing  to  the  Lord  against  the  time  I  reach  GlasgoAV." 

"Flint,  Saturday  night,  11th  October. 

"  I  am  still  able  to  praise  the  Lord  for  His  merciful  and  gracious 

dealings,  though  these  tAVO  last  days,  or  rather  the  tAVO  before  this, 

have  been  days  of  trial  to  me.     When  vieAving  the  Menai  Bridge,  I 

got  Avet  by  a  sudden  gust  driven  through  the  Straits  by  the  Avind, 


552  LEGEND  FOR  MAGGIE. 

and  though  I  put  on  my  cloak,  and  changed  all  at  that  motherly  inn, 
I  had  a  very  fevered  night,  and  was  in  a  very  fevered  state  next  day. 
StUl,  I  felt  my  horse's  back  and  the  beautiful  day  to  be  my  medicine, 
and  rode  to  Conway  very  slowly,  having  a  good  deal  of  headache. 
There  I  found  myself  little  better,  and  the  inn  being  kept  by  a  sur- 
geon, I  was  greatly  tempted  to  take  his  advice.  My  spirits  sank  for 
one  half  hour,  and  I  had  formed  the  serious  resolution  of  turning  into 
the  sick-room.  But  I  remembered  the  words  of  the  Lord  upon  my 
journey,  and  ordered  my  horse,  and  having  now  not  more  than  two 
hours  of  good  daylight,  I  rode  with  great  speed,  and,  as  it  were,  vio- 
lently. This  I  soon  discovered  to  be  my  remedy ;  for  while  the  cool 
air  fanned  the  heat  of  my  lungs  and  carried  it  ofi",  the  violent  riding 
brought  out  a  gentle  perspiration,  until  I  came  to  the  hotel  at  Aber- 
gele, where  I  gave  myself  with  all  my  heart  to  cry  to  the  Lord.  I 
drank  copiously  of  tea,  and  had  gruel,  and  bathed  my  feet,  which  God 
so  blessed  that,  when  I  awoke  this  morning,  the  feeling  of  all  within 
my  breast  was  such  that  I  exclaimed, '  Can  it  be  that  I  am  entirely 
healed!'  But  I  soon  found  that  the  Lord's  hand  is  still  upon  me. 
Yet  am  I  sure  that  I  received  a  very  great  deliverance  that  night. 
To-day  my  headache  has  returned,  with  sickness.  .  .  . 

"  This  is  for  Maggie.  At  the  mouth  of  the  Conway  was  a  weir 
for  catching  fish,  which  belonged  in  very  ancient  times  to  the  broth- 
er of  the  lord  of  these  parts  about  Great  Ormeshead.  He  had  a  son 
named  Elfin,  whe  had  wasted  all  his  substance,  and  wearied  out  his 
father's  goodness,  and  was  brought  to  great  straits.  He  begged,  as 
a  last  boon  from  his  father,  the  weir  for  one  night,  thinking  to  catch 
many  fish.  But  in  the  morning  there  was  not  one,  only  there  was  a 
basket,  and  a  baby  in  it.  He  took  the  infant  boy,  and  was  careful  of 
his  upbringing.  This  boy  grew  to  be  Taliesin,  the  prince  of  all  the 
British  bards,  who  afterward  lived  to  reconcile  his  j^atron  with  his 
father.  .  .  .  God  keep  you  all,  my  dear  children,  and  make  you  more 
and  more  abound  to  His  glory." 

"Flint,  12th  October. 
"The  service  is  in  Welsh  this  forenoon,  and  so  I  am  at  my  inn, 
where  indeed  they  have  most  tenderly  treated  me.  It  is  English  in 
the  evening,  and,  God  willing,  I  will  go  up  to  His  house.  Now,  my 
dear,  I  write  you  again  this  day,  though  it  will  be  the  companion  of 
my  last  night's  letter,  to  express  my  decided  judgment  that  you 
should  not  any  longer  be  separated  from  me.  My  God  is  sufficient 
for  me,  I  know,  and  Ho  hath  been  my  sufficiency  during  these  three 
days  and  nights  of  the  sharpest  fiery  trial,  both  of  flesh  and  heart, 
which  I  have  ever  proved.  I  believe  that  upon  my  saddle,  and  by 
the  strength  of  faith,  I  have  fought  against  the  most  severe  bilious 
fever.  How  in  the  night  seasons  the  Psalms  have  been  my  consola- 
tions against  the  faintings  of  flesh  and  heart !  And  I  believe  God 
hath  guided  me  to  do  things  which  were  the  very  means  of  dispelling 
those  fears  and  troubles.  Last  night  I  slept  well  from  half  past  nine 
till  two,  then  I  counted  the  hours  as  they  chimed  out  from  the  clock 
on  the  staircase ;  and  so  I  lay,  parched  with  thirst  and  inward  heat, 
and  yet  chilly,  my  head  full  of  pain,  my  heart  of  fainting,  but  my  faith 
steadfast.     I  felt  that  there  was  much  of  nervousness  in  it,  and  that 


RENEWED  ILLNESS.  553 

by  some  strong  act  I  must  dissolve  it.  The  foot-pan,  with  the  water 
that  had  been  "hot,  but  now  was  wintry  cold  (for  last  night  was  very 
chill),  stood  by  the  bedside,  and  a  little  jug  which  had  contained  boil- 
ing water  to  keep  up  the  temperature  was  standing  by  its  side.  It 
was  the  breaking  of  the  morning.  I  threw  oft' flannels  and  stockings, 
and  stood  with  my  feet  in  the  cold  water,  and  poured  with  the  jug 
the  cold  water  from  my  shoulders  downward  ....  and  all  at  once 
was  a  changed  man,  and  had  some  winks  of  sleep. 

"  And  again,  when  I  had  desired  the  maid  to  bring  my  breakfast 
to  me  in  bed,  purposing  to  keep  my  bed  all  day,  or  some  considera- 
ble part  of  it,  it  occurred  to  me  that  this  also  was  yielding  to  the  dis- 
ease, and  I  instantly  arose,  dressed  myself,  ate  my  breakfast — a  mut- 
ton-chop, stale  bread,  and  tea,  and  went  out  and  walked  for  half  an 
hour  by  the  sea-shore,  breathing  such  health  and  sweetness  from  the 
air  of  heaven. 

"  (Monday  night,  Liverpool,  Mr.  Tarbet's).  The  Lord  hath  made 
vain  the  remedies  of  man.  The  last  three  days  have  been  the  days 
and  nights  of  sorest  trial  I  ever  had.  .  .  .  The  fevered  heat  of  my 
hands  and  head  in  the  night  season,  and  the  sleepless  hours  appoint- 
ed to  me,  are  indeed  a  new  thing  in  the  history  of  my  trouble.  Yet 
I  am  strong;  witness  my  riding  this  day  twenty-four  miles.  Nor 
have  I  any  fears  of  myself;  but  I  am  strangely,  strangely  held,  deep- 
ly afilicted.  I  felt  myself  shut  up  to  the  necessity  of  going  direct 
from  Liverpool  to  Greenock  by  the  steam-boat.  I  have  written  my 
mother,  and  proposed  going  that  way,  but  have  put  it  ofil  God  may 
give  me  liberty  as  I  return,  Now  I  feel  unable  to  take  care  of  my- 
self, and  my  calm  judgment  is  that  you  should  be  my  nurse  and  com- 
panion. I  write  not  these  things  to  trouble  you,  but  to  put  you  in 
possession  of  the  truth.  I  will  any  way  abide  your  answer  here. 
...  I  now  think  Maggie  should  not  come.  In  great  haste  not  to 
lose  the  post,  your  faithful  and  loving  husband,       Edwd.  Irving. 

"  Oh,  how  I  have  longed  after  you  in  heart  and  spirit." 

"Liverpool,  13th  October. 

"  My  dearest  Isabella, —  ....  Last  night  I  had  comparatively 
good  rest,  and  was  able  to  keep  down  the  fever  and  prevent  the  per- 
spiration by  timeous  sponging  with  vinegar  and  water.  What  it  in- 
dicates I  know  not,  but  I  have  had  to-day  and  last  night  a  good  deal 
of  those  cold  creepings  upon  the  skin  which  Dr.  Darling  used  to  in- 
quire about.  I  think,  before  you  leave  London,  you  should  let  him 
know  these  things.     There  is  nothing  I  have  kept  back  from  you. 

"  Now,  my  dear,  I  have  sought  to  serve  God,  and  I  do  put  my 
trust  in  Him ;  therefore  I  am  not  afraid.  He  hath  sore  chastised  me, 
but  not  given  me  over  to  death.  I  shall  yet  live  and  discover  His 
wonderful  works.  I  have  oft  felt  as  if  one  of  the  ends  of  the  Lord 
in  His  visitation  were  to  constrain  me  to  send  for  you  at  this  point 
of  my  progress,  and  that  another  was  to  preclude  me  from  farther 
journeying  on  horseback  into  these  parts  of  England  and  into  Scot- 
land. At  the  same  time,  in  your  coming,  if  you  see  it  your  duty  to 
come,  proceed  tenderly  and  carefully  in  respect  to  yourself,  coming 
by  such  stages  as  you  can  bear.  I  hope  you  Avill  find  me  greatly  bet- 
ter under  this  quiet  and  hospitable  roof 


55i  IRVING  JOINED  BY  HIS  WIFE  IN  LIVERPOOL. 

"  Be  of  good  courage,  my  dear  wife,  and  bear  thy  trials,  as  thou 
hast  ever  done,  Avith  yet  more  and  more  patience  and  fortitude.  It 
will  be  well  with  the  just  man  at  the  last.  .  ,  .  Now  farewell.  The 
blessing  of  God  be  upon  you  all. 

"  Your  faithful  and  loving  husband,  Edavd.  Irving." 

Thus  ended  forever  the  correspondence  between  the  husband 
and  wife.  The  history  of  that  lingering  journey,  with  its  breezes 
of  health,  its  hopes  of  recovery,  its  pauses  of  refreshment  among 
the  sweet  Welsh  valleys,  where  the  parish  priests  of  a  national 
church,  more  powerful  but  less  absolute  than  his  own,  opened 
wide  their  doors  and  their  hearts  to  his  presence  and  his  coun- 
sels ;  the  bits  of  legend  picked  up  for  his  little  Maggie ;  the  silent 
progress  along  mountain  paths,  all  sanctified  with  prayer,  where 
"the  Lord  laid"  such  a  one  "on  his  heart;"  the  forlorn  temerity 
with  which,  fainting  and  fevered,  he  pushes  on,  no  longer  aware 
of  the  landscape  or  of  the  people  round  him,  brought  down  to 
bare  existence,  hard  enough  ado  to  keep  his  frame  erect  on  the 
saddle,  and  to  retain  light  enough  to  guide  his  way  in  those  dim- 
med eyes ;  the  yearning  that  seizes  upon  him  at  last  for  the  com- 
panion of  his  life,  bursting  out  pathetically  in  that  exclamation 
which  he  puts  down  after  his  letter  is  finished,  at  the  end,  in  an 
irrepressible  outcry — "  Oh,  how  I  have  longed  after  you  in  heart 
and  spirit!" — all  is  clearer  written  in  these  letters  than  in  any- 
thing that  could  be  added  to  them.  His  wife  obeyed  his  call  at 
once,  and  joined  him  in  Liverpool.  Again  her  sisters  write  to 
each  other,  wringing  their  hands  with  a  grief  and  impatience 
which  can  scarcely  express  itself  in  words.  "  Isabella  set  off  for 
Liverpool  on  Thursday,"  says  Mrs.  Hamilton ;  "  in  her  letter  she 
says  she  found  Edward  looking  much  worse  than  when  he  left 
home,  his  strength  considerably  reduced,  and  his  pulse  100.  Not- 
withstanding this,  they  were,  she  said,  to  sail  for  Glasgow  on  Mon- 
day, and  so  proceed  to  the  ultimate  object  which  was  in  view  in 
Mr.  Irving's  leaving  home — his  going  to  Glasgow  to  organize  a 
Church  there.  Oh  me !  it  is  sad,  sad  to  think  of  his  deliberately 
sacrificing  himself!  Dr.  Darling  has  decidedly  said  that  he  can 
not,  humanly  speaking,  live  over  the  winter,  unless  he  retire  to  a 
milder  climate  and  be  entirely  at  rest.  Yet  at  this  inclement  sea- 
son they  proceed  northward,  and  take  that  cold  and  boisterous 
passage  too,  by  way  of  making  bad  worse."  No  wonder  those  af- 
fectionate spectators  were  touched  with  the  anger  of  grief  in  their 
powerless  anguish,  finding  it  impossible  to  turn  him  for  a  moment 


THEY  SAIL  FOR  GLASGOW.  555 

from  the  path  to  which  he  believed  himself  ordained,  and  com- 
pelled to  look  on  and  see  him  consummate  all  his  sacrifices  with 
this  offering  of  his  life. 

The  weather  was  boisterous  and  stormy,  but  the  dying  apostle 
— who  was  not  an  apostle,  nor,  amid  all  the  gifts  that  surrounded 
him,  anyway  gifted,  except  as  God  in  nature  and  grace  had  en- 
dowed His  faithful  servant — did  not  depart  from  his  purpose.  He 
went  to  Greenock,  accompanied  by  his  wife,  whose  heart  was  de- 
livered from  all  wifely  and  womanish  terrors  by  undoubting  con- 
fidence in  that  "  word  of  the  Lord"  which  had  promised  him  a 
great  and  successful  mission  in  Scotland.  At  Greenock  they 
seem  to  have  encountered  Mrs.  Stewart  Ker,  a  lady  of  singular 
piety,  whom  Irving  valued  highly,  and  whose  remarkable  letters, 
though  not  published,  are  known  and  prized  by  many  good  peo- 
ple. In  one  of  these  letters,  dated  October  25th,  1834,  she  thus 
describes  his  changed  appearance,  and  the  manner  in  which  he  en- 
tered Glasgow : 

"To  human  appearance  he  is  sinking  under  a  deep  consumption. 
His  gigantic  frame  bears  all  the  marks  of  age  and  weakness ;  his  tre- 
mendous voice  is  now  often  faltering,  and  when  occasionally  he  breaks 
forth  with  all  his  former  feeling,  one  sees  that  his  bodily  powers  are 
exhausted.  Add  to  all  this  the  calm,  chastened  dignity  of  his  expres- 
sion—  his  patient  waiting  upon  God  for  the  fulfillment  of  His  pur- 
poses to  himself  and  his  flock  through  this  aflliction,  and  it  is  exceed- 
ingly edifying.  ...  I  was  going  to  Glasgow  with  them;  and  just 
before  we  left  the  house,  he  lifted  up  his  hands  in  blessing,  commend- 
ing them  (the  family  under  whose  roof  he  was)  to  Jesus,  and  to  the 
reward  of  His  grace,  for  their  kindness  to  him.  I  had  a  great  deal 
of  conversation  with  him  in  the  boat.  ...  In  driving  through  the 
crowded  streets  of  Glasgow,  he  laid  aside  his  hat  and  exclaimed, 
'  Blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Shepherd  of  Israel,  who  has  brought  us 
to  the  end  of  our  journey  in  the  fullness  of  the  blessing  of  the  Gospel 
of  peace!'  and  continued  for  some  time  praying." 

It  was  thus,  with  uplifted  hands,  and  words  of  thanksgiving 
and  blessing,  that  he  entered  Glasgow.  He  thought  he  had  a 
great  work  to  accomplish  in  that  centre  of  life,  and  wickedness, 
and  sorrow,  and  so  he  had ;  but  it  was  no  longer  to  labor  or  bat- 
tle that  God  called  His  servant.  He  was  not  destined  to  descend 
from  the  height  of  hope,  which  still  trembled  with  the  promised 
lustre  of  "  power  from  on  high"  to  the  chill  land  of  shadows,  and 
disappointment,  and  deferred  blessings  that  lay  below.  But  it 
was  a  surprise  which  his  Master  had  prepared  for  him — a  nearer 
road  to  the  glory  and  the  perfection  that  he  dreamed  of — not  to 
work  nor  to  fis^ht,  but  to  die. 


556  IRVING'S  LAST  LETTER. 

Here  once  more,  and  for  the  last  time,  Irving  took  the  pen  in 
his  trembling  hand,  and  revealed  himself  in  the  fast-closing  twi- 
light of  his  life.  He  wrote  two  pastoral  letters  from  Glasgow, 
containing  most  pathetic  acknowledgment  of  the  sins  by  which 
he  and  his  Church  had  "  let  and  hindered"  the  work  of  God — sins 
which,  if  they  were  any  thing  more  special  than  that  general  un- 
belief and  slowness  of  heart  with  which  every  apostle  has  had  to 
upbraid  his  fellow-Christians,  are  lost  in  the  mysterious  records 
of  the  Church,  and  unintelligible  except  to  those  who  may  be 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  all  the  details  of  its  origin.  His  last 
private  letter,  written  only  ten  days  before  his  death  to  his  "  dear 
brother'*  William  Hamilton,  lies  under  no  such  obscuring  haze, 
but  gives  with  sad  and  affecting  simplicity  a  final  glimpse  of  his 
fainting  flesh  and  trusting  soul : 

"  You  will  be  sorry  to  hear,"  he  writes  with  the  restrained  utter- 
ance of  weakness,  "  that  I  continue  very  weak.  Indeed,  the  Lord  has 
now  permitted  me  to  be  brought  very  low ;  but  my  trust  and  confi- 
dence is  in  Him  only,  and  not  in  any  other,  and  when  He  sees  fit  He 
will  renew  my  strength.  Oh,  my  brother,  cleave  you  to  Him !  He 
is  the  only  refuge.  Isabella  is  in  excellent  health,  and  sustained  un- 
der all  her  trials.  Samuel  was  with  us  yesterday.  He  is  quite  well, 
though  much  troubled  for  me,  as  I  believe  all  my  friends  are." 

These  were  the  last  words  of  private  affection  which  dropped 
from  his  feeble  pen.  Amid  the  friends  who  were  all  troubled 
for  him,  he  was  the  only  one  unmoved.  He  had  not  yet  come  to 
the  discussion  of  that  last  question,  which,  like  all  the  rest,  was  to 
be  given  against  him,  but  still  smiled  with  a  heart-breaking  con- 
fidence over  the  daily  dying  of  his  own  wasted  frame,  waiting  for 
the  wonderful  moment  when  God  should  send  back  the  vigorous 
life-current  to  his  forlorn  and  faithful  heart. 

The  last  scene  of  the  history  now  approaches  rapidly.  For  a 
few  weeks  he  is  visible  about  Glasgow,  now  appearing  against  the 
sunshine  in  a  lonely  street,  his  horse's  hoofs  echoing  slowly  along 
the  causeway,  his  gaunt  gigantic  figure  rising  feeble  against  the 
light ;  now  in  the  room  which  his  Glasgow  disciples  have  found 
to  meet  in-Vstill  preaching;  recognizing  one  of  Dr.  Chalmers's 
old  "  agency,"  who  comes  to  see  him  after  the  service,  and  recall- 
ing, with  the  courtesy  of  the  heart,  to  his  wife,  who  has  forgotten 
the  stranger,  the  familiar  Kirkcaldy  name  he  bears;  walking 
home  after  the  worship  is  over,  fain  to  lean  upon  the  arm  of  the 
elder  who  has  come  hastily  from  London  to  be  near  him,  while 
his  wistful  wife  goes  mournful  by  his  side,  carrying  the  stick 


HIS  CERTAINTY  OF  RECOVERY.  557 

which  is  now  an  insufficient  support  to  his  feebleness — sometimes 
pausing,  as  they  thread  the  streets  in  this  sad  fashion,  to  take 
breath  and  gather  strength — a  most  sorrowful,  pathetic  picture. 
The  hearers  were  few  in  the  Lyceum  room  in  comparison  with 
former  times;  but  in  the  street,  as  he  passed  along,  many  a  sad 
glance  followed  him,  and  the  people  stood  still,  with  compassion- 
ate looks,  to  point  out  to  each  other  "  the  great  Edward  Irving." 
His  friend,  Mr.  Story,  came  hurriedly  up  from  Rosneath  to  see 
him,  with  hopes  of  persuading  him  thither,  to  that  mild  climate 
and  tranquil  seclusion,  but  found  he  had  gone  down  to  Erskine, 
on  the  opposite  bank  of  the  Clyde,  to  consult  Dr.  Stewart,  the 
physician-minister,  with  whom,  in  joyful  youthful  days,  these  two 
had  spent  their  Saturday  holidays  in  the  East  Lothian  manse. 
Neither  Dr.  Stewart  nor  any  lAan  could  aid  him  now.  He  came 
back  to  the  house  of  the  kind  stranger  and  enthusiastic  disciple 
who  had  taken  him  in  in  Glasgow,  and,  nature  refusing  longer  to 
keep  up  that  unreasonable  conflict,  lay  down  upon  the  bed  from 
which  he  was  never  to  rise. 

Dr.  Rainy,  who  attended  him,  informed  me  of  various  particu- 
lars in  these  last  days ;  but,  indeed,  so  touched  with  tears,  after 
nearly  thirty  years'  interval,  was  even  the  physician's  voice,  and 
so  vivid  the  presentment  of  that  noble,  wasted  figure,  stretched  in 
utter  weakness,  but  utter  faith,  waiting  for  the  moment  when  God, 
out  of  visible  dying,  should  bring  life  and  strength,  that  I  can  not 
venture  to  record  with  any  distinctness  those  heart-breaking  de- 
tails. By  times,  when  on  the  very  verge  of  the  grave,  a  caprice  of 
sudden  strength  seized  the  patient;  he  sighed  for  "  God's  air"  and 
the  outdoor  freshness,  which  he  thought  would  restore  him.  He 
assured  the  compassionate  spectator,  whose  skilled  eyes  saw  the 
golden  chords  of  life  melting  asunder,  how  well  he  knew  that  he 
was  to  all  human  appearance  dying,  yet  how  certainly  he  was  con- 
vinced that  God  yet  meant  to  raise  him ;  and  again,  and  yet  again, 
commended  "  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost"  to  all  faith  and  rever- 
ence ;  adding,  with  pathetic  humility,  that  of  these  gifts  he  himself 
had  never  been  "  found  worthy."  Never  death-bed  appealed  with 
more  moving  power  to  the  heart.  His  mother  and  sister  came  to 
see  him,  but  I  know  nothing  of  the  intercourse  between  that 
sorrowful  mother  and  the  last  and  greatest  of  her  sons.  His  life- 
long friends  from  Kirkcaldy  were  also  there  to  watch  by  his  bed, 
to  support  the  poor  wife,  whose  faith  gave  way  at  last,  and  who 
consented,  with  such  pangs  of  natural  love  and  disappointed  faith 


558  AT  THE  GATES  OF  HEAVEN. 

as  it  would  be  hard  to  estimate,  that  the  "  word  of  the  Lord"  must 
have  had  some  other  interpretation — that  God  had  no  purpose  of 
interposing,  in  visible  power,  for  his  deliverance,  and  that  Edward 
must  die ;  and  their  home  letters  give  the  clearest  picture  of  Ir- 
ving's  last  hours.  With  fluctuations  of  despairing  hope,  Dr.  Mar- 
tin and  his  son  wrote  to  the  anxious  sisters.  Sometimes  there 
were  better  symptoms — gleams  of  appetite,  alleviation  of  pain ; 
but,  throughout  all,  a  burning  fever,  which  nothing  could  subdue, 
consumed  away  the  fainting  life.  "  Your  mother  and  I  are  at  Mr. 
Taylor's,"  writes  Dr.  Martin  on  the  4th  of  December;  "he  is  a 
most  devout  believer  in  the  reality  of  the  gifts,  of  Mr.  Irving's  di- 
vine commission,  etc.,  and  has  hardly  ever  faltered  in  his  faith  that 
Edward  is  still  to  recover  strength ;  till  this  morning  Isabella  has 
never  had  a  doubt  of  it."  This  was  on  Thursday.  As  the  week 
waned,  the  frame  which  inclosed  that  spirit,  now  almost  wholly  ab- 
stracted with  its  God,  died  hourly.  He  grew  delirious  in  those 
solemn  evenings,  and  "wandered"  in  his  mind.  Such  wander- 
ing! "So  long  as  his  articulation  continued  so  distinct  that  we 
could  make  any  thing  of  his  words,  it  was  of  spiritual  things  he 
spoke,  praying  for  himself,  his  church,  and  his  relations."  Some- 
times he  imagined  himself  back  among  his  congregation  in  Lon- 
don, and  in  the  hush  of  his  death-chamber,  amid  its  awe-stricken 
attendants,  the  faltering  voice  rose  in  broken  breathings  of  exhort- 
ation and  prayer.  "  Sometimes  he  gave  counsel  to  individuals ; 
and  Isabella,  who  knew  something  of  the  cases,  could  understand" 
what  he  meant.  Human  language  has  no  words  but  those  which 
are  common  to  all  mental  weakness  for  such  a  divine  abstraction 
of  the  soul  thus  hovering  at  the  gates  of  heaven.  Once  in  this 
wonderful  monologue  he  was  heard  murmuring  to  himself  sono- 
rous syllables  of  some  unknown  tongue.  Listening  to  those  mys- 
terious sounds,  Dr.  Martin  found  them  to  be  the  Hebrew  measures 
of  the  23d  Psalm — "  The  Lord  is  my  Shepherd,"  into  the  latter 
verses  of  which  the  dying  voice  swelled  as  the  watcher  took  up 
and  echoed  the  wonderful  strain — "Though  I  walk  through  the 
valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  I  will  fear  no  evil."  As  the  cur- 
rent of  life  grew  feebler  and  feebler,  a  last  debate  seemed  to  rise  in 
that  soul  which  was  now  hidden  with  God.  They  heard  him  mur- 
muring to  himself  in  inarticulate  argument,  confusedly  struggling 
in  his  weakness  to  account  for  this  visible  death  which  at  last  his 
human  faculties  could  no  longer  refuse  to  believe  in  —  perhaps 
touched  with  ineffable  trouble  that  his  Master  had  seemed  to  fail 


AMEN  !— HE  DIED  AND  WAS  BURIED.  559 

of  His  word  and  promise.  At  last  that  self-argument  came  to  a 
sublime  conclusion  in  a  trust  more  strong  than  life  or  death.  As 
the  gloomy  December  Sunday  sank  into  the  night  shadows,  his 
last  audible  words  on  earth  fell  from  his  pale  lips.  "  The  last 
thing  like  a  sentence  we  could  make  out  was,  *  If  I  die,  I  die  unto 
the  Lord.  Amen.' "  And  so,  at  the  wintry  midnight  hour  which 
ended  that  last  Sabbath  on  earth,  the  last  bonds  of  mortal  trouble 
dropped  asunder,  and  the  saint  and  martyr  entered  into  the  rest  of 
his  Lord. 

Amen !  He  who  had  lived  to  God  for  so  many  hard  and  bit- 
ter years,  enduring  all  the  pangs  of  mortal  trouble,  in  his  Lord  at 
last,  with  a  sigh  of  unspeakable  disappointment  and  consolation, 
contented  himself  to  die.  I  know  not  how  to  add  any  thing  more 
to  that  last  utterance,  which  rounds  into  a  perfection  beyond  the 
reach  of  art  this  sorrowful  and  splendid  life.  So  far  as  sight  or 
sound  could  be  had  of  him,  to  use  his  own  touching  words,  he 
had  "  a  good  voyage,"  though  in  the  night  and  dark.  And  again 
let  us  say.  Amen  ! 

They  buried  him  in  the  crypt  of  Glasgow  Cathedral,  like  his 
Master,  in  the  grave  of  a  stranger — the  same  man  who  had  first 
introduced  him  to  London  coming  forward  now  to  offer  a  last 
resting-place  to  all  that  remained  of  Edward  Irving.  He  was  fol- 
lowed to  that  noble  vault  by  all  that  was  good  and  pious  in  Glas- 
gow, some  of  his  close  personal  friends  and  many  of  his  immedi- 
ate followers  mingling  in  the  train  with  the  sober  members  of 
Dr.  Chalmers's  agency,  and  "  most  of  the  clergy  of  the  city,"  men 
who  disapproved  his  faith,  while  living,  but  grudged  him  not  now 
the  honor  due  to  the  holy  dead.  The  great  town  itself  thrilled 
with  an  involuntary  movement  of  sorrow.  "  Every  other  consid- 
eration," says  the  Scottish  Guardian,  a  paper  at  all  times  doubly 
orthodox,  "  was  forgotten  in  the  universal  and'profound  sympathy 
with  whicli  the  information  was  received,"  and  all  voices  uniting 
to  proclaim  over  him  that  divine  consolatory  verdict  of  the  Spirit, 
"  Blessed  are  the  dead  who  die  in  the  Lord."  There  he  lies,  in 
such  austere  magnificence  as  Scotland  has  nowhere  else  preserved 
to  enshrine  her  saints,  until  his  Lord  shall  come,  t  vindicate,  better 
than  any  human  voice  can  do,  the  spotless  name  and  honor  of  His 
most  faithful  servant  and  soldier.  So  far  as  this  volume  presents 
the  man  himself  with  his  imperfections  breaking  tenderly  into  his 
natural  grandeur,  always  indivisible,  and  moving  in  a  profound 


560  A  SAINT  AND  MARTYR. 

unity  of  nature  through  such  proof  of  all  sorrows  as  falls  to  the  lot 
of  few,  I  do  not  fear  that  his  own  words  and  ways  are  enough  to 
clear  the  holy  and  religious  memory  of  Edward  Irving  of  many 
a  cloud  of  misapprehension  and  censure  of  levity ;  and  so  far  as  I 
have  helped  this,  I  have  done  my  task. 

He  died  in  the  prime  and  bloom  of  his  days,  forty-two  years 
old,  without,  so  far  as  his  last  writings  leave  any  trace,  either  de- 
cadence of  intellect  or  lowering  of  thought ;  and  left,  so  far  as  by 
much  inquiry  I  have  been  able  to  find  out,  neither  an  enemy  nor 
a  wrong  behind  him.  No  shadow  of  unkindness  obscures  the 
sunshine  on  that  grave  which  in  old  days  would  have  been  a 
shrine  of  pilgrims.  The  pious  care  of  his  nephew  has  emblazon- 
ed the  narrow  Norman  lancet  over  him  with  a  John  Baptist,  aus- 
tere herald  of  the  Cross  and  Advent ;  but  a  tenderer  radiance  of 
human  light  than  that  which  encircled  the  solitary  out  of  his  des- 
ert lingers  about  that  resting-place.  There  lies  a  man  who  trust- 
ed God  to  extremity,  and  believed  in  all  Divine  communications 
with  truth  as  absolute  as  any  patriarch  or  prophet;  to  whom 
mean  thoughts  and  unbelieving  hearts  were  the  only  things  mi- 
raculous and  out  of  nature ;  who  desired  to  know  nothing  in 
heaven  or  earth,  neither  comfort,  nor  peace,  nor  rest,  nor  any  con- 
solation, but  the  will  and  work  of  his  Master,  whom  he  loved,  yet 
to  whose  arms  children  clung  with  instinctive  trust,  and  to  whose 
heart  no  soul  in  trouble  ever  appealed  in  vain.  He  was  laid  in 
his  grave  in  the  December  of  1834 — a  lifetime  since ;  but  scarce 
any  man  who  knew  him  can  yet  name,  without  a  softened  voice 
and  a  dimmed  eye,  the  name  of  Edward  Irving — true  friend  and 
tender  heart — martyr  and  saint. 


APPENDICES. 


APPENDIX  A.  ^ 

Case  of  Miss  Fancourt,  as  described  by  herself  in  a  Letter  to  a  Friend. 

"  My  dear  Christian  Friend, — I  received  yours  of  the  22d  on  Friday  last,  and 
take  up  my  pen  with  pleasure  to  inform  you  of  the  particulars  of  the  Lord's  gracious 
dealings  with  me ;  in  doing  which,  I  can  not  refrain  from  saying,  '  Oh,  magnify  the 
Lord  with  me,  and  let  us  exalt  His  name  together !'  I  transcribe  you  a  copy  of  facts, 
which,  by  the  wish  of  my  dearest  father,  I  have  written  out  for  the  perusal  of  our 
Christian  friends ;  it  is  a  plain  detail  of  facts,  from  the  commencement  of  my  illness. 
In  the  month  of  November,  1822,  having  for  some  months  been  in  a  bad  state  of 
health,  it  pleased  God  to  visit  me  with  a  hip  disease.  Perfect  rest  was  recommended 
by  the  late  Mr.  Pearson,  of  Golden  Square,  as  absolutely  necessary.  ,  .  .  This  was 
the  last  application ;  and  in  September,  1 828, 1  returned  home  as  unable  to  walk  as 
when  leaving ;  once  or  twice  the  attempt  was  made,  but  produced  much  pain.  From 
this  time  no  means  have  been  used  excepting  constant  confinement  to  the  couch. 
Within  these  few  weeks,  even  on  the  A'ery  day  in  which  Jesus  so  manifested  His  Al- 
mighty power,  I  had  attempted  to  walk :  scarcely  could  I  put  one  foot  before  the 
other ;  the  limbs  trembled  very  much.  Thus  it  continued  till  the  20th  of  October, 
1830,  when  a  kind  friend,  who  had  seen  me  about  two  months  before,  had  been  led 
by  God  to  pray  earnestly  for  my  recovery,  remembering  what  is  written,  'Whatso- 
ever ye  shall  ask  in  prayer,  believing,  ye  shall  receive.'  He  asked  in  faith,  and  God 
graciously  answered  his  prayer.  On  Wednesday  night,  my  friend  being  about  to 
leave  the  room,  Mr.  G.  begged  to  be  excused  a  short  time.  Sitting  near  me,  we 
talked  of  his  relatives,  and  of  the  death  of  his  brother ;  rising,  he  said,  they  will  ex- 
pect me  at  supper,  and  put  out  his  han4. 

"After  asking  some  questions  respecting  the  disease,  he  added,  'It  is  melancholy 
to  see  a  person  so  constantly  confined.'  I  answered,  '  It  is  sent  in  mercy.'  '  Do  you 
think  so?  Do  you  think  the  same  mercy  could  restore  you?'  God  gave  me  faith, 
and  I  answered,  '  Yes.'  '  Do  you  believe  Jesus  could  heal,  as  in  old  times  ?'  '  Yes.' 
'Do  you  believe  it  is  only  unbelief  that  prevents  it?'  'Yes.'  '  Do  you  believe  that 
Jesus  could  heal  you  at  this  very  time?'  'Yes.'  (Between  these  questions  he  was 
evidently  engaged  in  prayer.)  'TAch,'  he  added,  'get  up  and  walk  to  your  family.' 
He  then  had  hold  of  my  hand.  He  prayed  to  God  to  glorify  the  name  of  Jesus.  I 
rose  from  my  couch  quite  strong.  God  took  away  all  my  pains,  and  we  walked  down 
stairs.  Dear  Mr.  G.  prayed  most  fervently,  Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us  !  Christ,  have 
mercy  upon  us !  Having  been  down  a  short  time,  finding  my  handkerchief  left  on 
the  couch,  taking  the  candle,  I  fetched  it.  The  next  day  I  walked  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  mile,  and  on  Sundaf  from  the  Episcopal  Jews' Chapel,  a  distance  of  one 
mile  and  a  quarter.  Up  to  this  time  God  continues  to  strengthen  me,  and  I  am  per- 
fectly well.  To  Jesus  be  all  the  glory.  It  is  material  to  add  that  my  legs,  the  flesh 
of  which  was  loose  and  flabby,  feeling  them  in  a  short  time  after  I  walked  down, 

N'N 


562  APPENDICES. 

were  firm  as  those  of  a  person  in  full  health.  The  back,  which  was  curved,  is  now 
perfectly  straight.  My  collar-bones  have  been  pronounced  by  a  surgeon  to  be  in  quite 
a  natural  state,  whereas  one  of  them  was  before  much  enlarged.  I  must  tell  you  that 
my  mind  had  not  been  at  all  occupied  with  those  events  which  had  taken  place  in 
Scotland ;  indeed,  all  I  had  heard  concerning  them  was  that  a  young  person  had 
been  restored  in  answer  to  prayer ;  this  was  perhaps  five  or  six  months  back.  I  had 
heard  of  nothing  since,  and  can  with  truth  say,  my  mind  had  never  been  led  to  the 
contemplation  of  such  subjects.  I  had  not  the  least  idea  that  my  dear  friend  was 
offering  up  prayer  in  my  behalf,  for  he  did  not  say  so  till  after  the  mighty  work  was 
wrought ;  he  then  said,  '  This  was  my  errand ;  for  this  I  have  been  earnestly  pray- 
ing ;  and  with  all  humility  gave  the  glory  to  Jesus,  to  whom  be  all  might,  majesty, 
and  dominion.'  Elizabeth  Eancoukt." 


APPENDIX  B. 

Tlie  following  Extracts  from  Mr.  Baxter's  '■^Narrative  of  Facts"  will  throw  full  light     , 
nj)on  the  condition  of  the  Regent  Squaie  Church,  and  of  many  devout  persons  in  all 
parts  of  the  country,  in  respect  to  the  so-called  miracidous  gifts. 

"  For  the  sake  of  those  whom  I  may  have  hardened  or  betrayed  into  a  false  faith 
is  it  that  I  feel  called  upon  to  publish  my  own  shame,  and  confess  before  all  my 
transgressions.  My  God,  who  in  His  love  pardons,  has  heard,  I  trust,  in  secret,  and 
gladly  would  I  rest  in  the  obscurity  of  my  pi-ivate  station  without  challenging  public 
attention  at  all.  The  snare  in  which  I  was  taken  has,  however,  entangled  so  many 
others,  and  the  busy  tongues  of  partisans  and  tattlers  are  so  much  excusing  and  mis- 
stating the  facts  which  have  developed  its  character,  that  I  am  constrained  to  give  a 
faithful  narrative,  at  the  expense  of  my  own  feelings,  in  the  hope  that  God  may  open 
the  eyes  of  the  understanding  of  all  who  are  seeking  His  truth,  and  deliver  them  from 
the  net  of  the  fowler.  In  the  detail  I  am  about  to  enter  into,  I  may  lay  mySbifopen^i  | 
to  the  charge  of  egotism.  .  .  .  Another  charge  I  must  underlie  which  is  far  more 
painful  to  me.  The  narrative  will  necessarily  involve  the  conduct  of  many  who  have, 
like  myself,  though  more  excusably,  been  deceived.  The  regard  I  bear  thc^di  as  sin- 
cere, though  deluded  followers  after  truth  ;  the  'debt  I  owe  them,'  as  well  for  the  af- 
fectionate kindness  evinced  toward  myself,  as  also  for  the  wounds  I  have  inflicted  or 
exercised  on  them,  by  confirming  them  in  delusion ;  and,  moreover,  the  longing  I 
have  that  they  might  be  brought  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  (for,  as  the  apostle 
said  of  the  Israelites,  so  may  I  humbly  say  of  them  :  I  bear  them  7-ecord  that  they  have 
a  zeal  of  God  hut  not  according  to  knowledge) :  all  these  increase  greatly  my  desire  to 
say  nothing  which  may  in  any  way  wound  their  feelings.  It  may  be  they  may  con- 
sider much  of  this  narrative  as  disclosing  occurrences  and  opinions  which,  passing  in 
private,  in  family  worship,  and  social  intercourse,  ought  to  be  treated  as  confidential ; 
and  thus  I  may  be  charged  with  blazoning  to  the  public  eye  that  which  came  before 
me  in  the  confidence  of  friendly  intercourse,  and  with  betraying  the  confidence  of 
friends.  Of  such  a  breach  of  confidence  I  trust  I  may,  in  no  case,  be  guilty.  It  is 
simply  my  wish  to  show  forth  the  workings  of  that  spirit  which  challenges,  and  for 
which  is  claimed,  the  glorious  name  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  Jehovah.  .  .   . 

"  Some  months  before  writing  the  Layman's  Appeal,  I  had  heard  many  particulars 
of  the  extraordinary  manifestations  which  had  occurred  at  Poi-t  Glasgow,  in  Scot- 
land. .  .  .  Conceiving  as  I  did,  and  still  do,  that  there  is  no  warrant  in  Scripture 
for  limiting  the  manifestations  of  the  Spirit  to  the  apostolic  times — and  deeply  sensi- 


APPENDIX  B.  563 

ble  of  the  growth  of  infidelity  in  the  face  of  the  Church,  and  of  the  prevalence  of 
formality  and  lakewarmness  within  it — I  was  ready  to  examine  the  claims  to  inspira- 
tion, and  even  anxions  for  the  presence  of  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit,  according,  as  it 
seemed  to  me,  to  that  apostolic  command,  Covet  earnestly  the  best  gifts.  I  longed 
greatly  and  prayed  much  for  such  an  outpouring.  When  I  saw,  as  it  seemed  to  mej 
proof  that  those  who  claimed  the  gifts  were  walking  honestly,  and  that  the  power 
manifested  in  them  was  evidently  supernatural,  and,  moreover,  bore  testimony  to 
Christ  come  in  the  flesh,  I  welcomed  it  at  once  as  the  work  of  God. 

"I  should  mention  that  I  had  for  twelve  months  previously  to  this  been  in  the 
almost  daily  habit  of  reading  to  and  teaching  the  poor  in  the  parish  where  I  reside, 
and  had  found  much  strength  and  comfort  to  myself;  and  I  have  reason  to  believe  it 
was  also  accompanied  with  profit  to  those  who  heard  it.  I  had  carefully  avoided 
any  assumption  of  the  ministerial  ofiicc  ;  so  much  so  that  (though  I  do  not  now  think 
the  scruple  well-founded)  I  had  i-efrained  from  praying  with  the  people  when  gather- 
ed together,  conceiving  the  privilege  of  leading  in  public  prayer  belonged  alone  to 
the  ordained  ministers.  At  this  period  I  was,  by  professional  arrangements,  called 
up  to  London,  and  had  a  strong  desire  to  attend  at  the  prayer-meetings  which  were 
then  privately  held  by  those  who  spoke  in  the  power  and  those  who  sought  for  the 
gifts.  Having  obtained  an  introduction,  I  attended  ;  my  mind  fully  convinced  that 
the  power  was  of  God,  and  prepared,  as  such,  to  listen  to  the  utterances.    After  one 

or  two  brethren  had  read  and  prayed,  Mr.  T was  made  to  speak  two  or  three 

words  very  distinctly,  and  with  an  energy  and  depth  of  tone  which  seemed  to  me  ex- 
traordinary, and  fell  upon  me  as  a  supernatural  utterance,  which  I  ascribed  to  the 
power  of  God.  The  woi'ds  were  in  a  tongue  I  did  not  understand.  In  a  few  minutes 
Miss  E.  C.  broke  out  in  an  utterance  in  English,  which,  as  to  matter  and  manner, 
and  the  influence  it  had  upon  me,  I  at  once  bowed  to  as  the  utterance  of  the  Spirit 
of  God.  Those  who  have  heard  the  powerful  and  commanding  utterance  need  no 
description ;  but  they  who  have  not  may  conceive  what  an  unnatural  and  unaccus- 
tomed tone  of  voice,  an  intense  and  riveting  power  of  expression — with  the  declara- 
tion of  a  cutting  rebuke  to  all  who  were  present,  and  applicable  to  my  own  state  of 
mind  in  particular — would  eflTect  upon  me  and  upon  the  others  who  were  come  to- 
gether expecting  to  hear  the  voice  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  In  the  midst  of  the  feeling 
of  awe  and  reverence  which  this  produced,  I  was  myself  seized  upon  by  the  power ; 
and  in  much  struggling  against  it  was  made  to  cry  out,  and  myself  to  give  forth  a 
confession  of  my  own  sin  in  the  matter  for  which  we  were  rebuked :  and  afterward 
to  utter  a  prophecy  that  the  messengers  of  the  Lord  should  go  forth,  publishing  to 
the  end  of  the  earth,  in  the  mighty  power  of  God,  the  testimony  of  the  near  coming 
of  the  Lord  Jesus.  The  rebuke  had  been  for  not  declaring  the  near  coming  of  Je- 
sus, and  I  was  smitten  in  conscience,  having  many  times  refrained  from  speaking  of 
it  to  the  people,  under  a  fear  that  they  might  stumble  over  it  and  be  offended. 

"I  was  overwhelmed  by  this  occurrence.  The  attainment  of  the  gift  of  prophecy 
which  this  supernatural  utterance  was  deemed  to  be,  was,  with  myself  and  many 
others,  a  great  object  of  desire.  I  could  not,  therefore,  but  rejoice  at  having  been 
made  the  subject  of  it ;  but  there  were  so  many  difficulties  attaching  to  the  circum- 
stances under  which  the  power  came  upon  me,  and  I  was  so  anxious  and  distressed 
lest  I  should  mistake  the  mind  of  God  in  the  matter,  that  I  continued  for  many  weeks 
weighed  down  in  spirit  and  overwhelmed.  There  was  in  me  at  the  time  of  the  ut- 
terance very  great  excitement,  and  yet  I  was  distinctly  conscious  of  a  power  acting 
upon  me  beyond  the  mere  power  of  excitement.  So  distinct  was  this  power  from 
the  excitement,  that  in  all  my  trouble  -and  doubt  about  it  I  never  could  attribute  the 
whole  to  excitement.  ...  I  regarded  the  confession  which  was  wrung  from  me  to 


564  APPENDICES. 

be  the  same  thing  as  is  spoken  of  in  1  Cor.,  xiv.,  where  it  is  said,  'If  all  prophesy, 
and  there  come  in  one  that  believeth  not,  or  one  unlearned,  he  is  convinced  of  all,  he 
is  judged  of  all ;  and  thus  are  the  secrets  of  his  heart  made  manifest ;  and  so,  falling 
down  on  his  face,  he  will  worship  God,  and  report  that  God  is  in  you  of  a  truth,'  It 
seemed  so  with  me  ;  I  was  unlearned ;  the  secret  of  my  heart  was  made  manifest ; 
and  I  was  made,  by  a  power  unlike  any  thing  I  had  ever  known  before,  to  fall  down 
and  acknowledge  that  God  was  among  them  of  a  truth. 

' '  The  day  following  this  occurrence  I  devoted  to  fasting  and  prayer,  to  beseech 
God  to  open  to  me  His  mind  in  the  matter,  that  I  might  not  stumble  in  the  way.  In 
the  midst  of  my  prayer,  the  promise  in  Matt.,  iv.,  5 — '  Behold,  I  will  send  you  Elijah 
the  prophet  before  the  coming  of  the  great  and  dreadful  day  of  the  Lord ;  and  he 
shall  turn  the  hearts  of  the  fathers  to  the  children,  and  the  hearts  of  the  children  to 
their  fathers,  lest  I  come  and  smite  the  earth  with  a  curse' — coupled  with  the  dec- 
larations concerning  John  the  Baptist,  particularly  that  in  Luke,  i.,  17,  'He  shall 
go  before  him  in  the  spirit  and  power  of  Elias' — was  brought  before  me,  and  it  was 
written  upon  my  mind  by  a  power  wholly  new  to  me.  '  The  Lord  is  now  pouring 
out  upon  the  Church  the  spirit  and  power  of  Elias,  to  prepare  for  the  second  com- 
ing of  Jesus.'  This  view  was  altogether  new  to  me.  ...  I  staid  but  few  days  in 
town,  though  I  had  much  communication  with  those  who  attended  upon  the  utter- 
ances. No  utterance  had  then  been  allowed  in  the  public  congregation,  but  the 
meetings  were  strictly  private.  I  argued  upon  the  impropriety  of  shutting  up  the 
manifestations,  and  strongly  urged  the  oifense  which,  by  such  a  course,  was  given  to 
inquirers,  who  would  be  ready  to  infer  that  they  would  not  bear  the  light.  .  .  .  The 
word  spoken  seemed  to  be  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  and  the  effect  upon  the  hearers  a 
prostration  of  pride,  and  a  devotedness  and  apparent  patient  waiting  upon  God.  .  .  . 

"From  this  period,  for  the  space  of  five  months,  I  had  no  utterances  in  public; 
though,  when  engaged  alone  in  private  prayer,  the  power  would  come  down  upon 
me,  and  cause  me  to  pray  with  strong  crying  and  tears  for  the  state  of  the  Church. 
...  In  the  utterances  of  the  power  which  subsequently  occurred,  many  were  ac- 
companied with  the  flashing  in  of  conviction  on  the  mind,  like  lightning  rooting  it- 
self in  the  earth ;  while  other  utterances,  not  being  so  accompanied,  only  acted  in 
the  way  of  an  authoritative  communication. 

"In  January,  1832,  occasion  was  given  me,  by  a  professional  call  to  London,  to 
visit  the  brethren  there.  .  .  .  For  nine  months  previously  it  had  been  the  arrange- 
ment of  Mr.  Irving,  the  pastor  of  that  church,  to  have  prayer-meetings  every  morn- 
ing at  half  past  six,  to  pray  for  the  Church  and  for  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit.  .  .  .  No 
commentary  upon  the  Scriptures  was  given,  but  it  was  simply  read  over,  and  follow- 
ed by  prayer.  In  these  meetings  I  had,  on  one  or  two  occasions,  been  called  upon 
by  the  pastor,  and  had  read  or  prayed  before  the  congregation.  On  the  morning  fol- 
lowing the  day  of  my  arrival,  I  was  called  upon  again,  and  opening  upon  the  Proph- 
et Malachi,  I  read  the  4th  chapter ;  as  I  read,  the  power  came  upon  me,  and  I  was 
made  to  read  in  the  power — my  voice  raised  far  beyond  its  natural  pitch,  with  con- 
strained repetition  of  parts,  and  with  the  same  inward  uplifting  which,  at  the  pres- 
ence of  the  power,  I  had  always  before  experienced.  When  I  knelt  down  to  pray,  I 
was  carried  out  to  pray  in  the  power,  for  the  presence  and  blessing  of  God  in  the 
midst  of  the  Church  :  in  all  this  I  had  great  joy  and  peace,  without  any  of  the  strug- 
gling which  had  attended  my  former  utterances  in  power. 

"Having  been  asked  to  spend  the  evening  at  a  friend's  with  the  pastor,  one  of  the 
gifted  persons  (Mrs.  J.  C),  and  three  or  four  others,  I  went ;  and  while  discoursing 
on  the  state  of  the  Church,  some  matter  of  ccmtroversy  arose,  on  which  I  requested 
the  pastor  to  pray  that  we  might  be  led  into  truth.     After  prayer,  Mrs.  J.  C.  was 


APPENDIX  B.  565 

made  to  testify  that  now  was  the  time  of  the  great  struggle  and  power  of  Satan  in 
the  midst  of  us.  .  .  .  The  pastor  observed  that  this  utterance  taught  us  our  duty,  as 
standing  in  the  Church,  to  muster  against  the  enemy ;  and  while  he  was  going  on 
to  ask  more  questions,  the  power  fell  upon  me,  and  I  was  made  to  speak ;  and  for 
two  hours  or  upward  the  power  continued  upon  me ;  and  I  gave  forth  what  we  all 
regarded  as  prophecies  concerning  the  Church  and  the  nation.  .  .  .  The  power  which 
then  rested  upon  me  was  far  more  mighty  than  before,  laying  down  my  mind  and 
body  in  perfect  obedience,  and  carrying  me  on  without  confusion  or  excitement ;  ex- 
citement there  might  appear  to  a  by-stander,  but  to  myself  it  was  calmness  and  peace. 
Every  former  visitation  of  the  power  had  been  very  brief;  but  now  it  continued,  and 
seemed  to  rest  upon  me  all  the  evening.  The  things  I  was  made  to  utter  flashed  in 
upon  my  mind  without  forethought,  without  expectation,  and  without  any  plan  or 
arrangement — all  was  the  work  of  the  moment,  and  I  was  as  the  passive  instrument 
of  the  power  which  used  me. 

"In  the  beginning  of  my  utterances  that  evening,  some  observations  were,  in  the 
power,  addressed  by  me  to  the  pastor,  in  a  commanding  tone ;  and  the  manner  and 
course  of  utterance  manifested  in  me  was  so  far  differing  from  those  which  had  been 
manifested  in  the  members  of  his  own  flock,  that  he  was  much  startled,  and  in  the 
first  part  of  the  evening  doubted  whether  it  was  of  God  or  of  the  enemy.  ...  He 
came  up  to  me  and  said,  'Faith  is  very  hard.'  I  was  immediately  made  to  address 
him,  and  reason  with  him  in  the  power,  until  he  was  fuUy  convinced  the  Spirit  was 
of  God,  and  gave  thanks  for  the  manifestation  of  it.  .  .  . 

"While  the  people  were  departing,  Mr. Irving  called  me,  with  Mr. Brown,  his  mis- 
sionary, into  another  room,  and  said  he  was  in  some  trouble  as  to  what  he  should  do 
on  the  morrow,  which  was  Sunday,  whether  to  allow  me  to  speak  in  the  full  congre- 
gation ;  he  had  found  doubts  creep  over  him  during  the  evening,  though  he  scarcely 
dared  to  doubt.  Mr.  Brown's  advice,  without  any  deep  consideration  of  the  subject, 
was,  'Don't  do  it  while  you  have  a  doubt.'  To  this  Mr.  Irving  assented,  but  turned  to 
me,  and  asked  what  I  thought.  Of  course,  under  the  conviction  which  I  had,  I  said  he 
must  not  forbid  it.  Afterward  the  power  came  on  me,  rebuking  him,  and  reasoning 
with  him  until  he  sat  down,  and  said  he  was  greatly  tried,  and  did  not  know  what  to 
do.  I  then  told  him  to  consult  the  prophets  who  were  with  him  ;  and  immediately 
the  power  came  upon  Miss  H.,  who  was  wholly  a  stranger  to  me,  but  then  received 
as  a  prophetess  among  them  ;  and  she  was  made  to  bear  testimony  that  the  work  ia 
me  was  of  God,  and  he  must  not  forbid  my  speaking.  This  satisfied  him,  and  he 
yielded  at  once.  The  next  day,  after  the  morning  praj'er-meeting,  Miss  E.  C,  at  the 
pastor's  house,  was  made  to  give  forth  an  utterance,  enjoining  upon  all  deference  and 
respect  to  the  Lord's  prophets  ;  which  served,  though  she  was  not  aware  of  what  had 
passed  on  the  preceding  evening,  to  confirm  him  in  that  which  I  had  been  made  to 
say  to  him.  I  was  afterward  in  the  power,  in  the  most  fearful  terms,  made  to  enjoin 
the  most  perfect  submission  to  the  utterances.  .  .  .  This  was  so  strongly  put,  that 
Mr.  Irving,  on  a  future  occasion,  observed  to  me,  he  felt  tempted  to  doubt  whether 
the  Spirit,  bearing  testimony  in  such  a  manner  to  itself,  was  God's  method  of  teach- 
ing us  submission.  ...  At  the  public  services  of  the  Scotch  Church  on  this  day,  no 
utterance  was  given  me ;  but  in  the  intervals  of  senuce,  while  sitting  with  Mr.  Irving 
and  one  or  two  friends,  the  power  was  so  abundant  upon  me,  that  almost  every  ques- 
tion which  was  asked  was  answered  in  the  power ;  and  the  wisdom  and  instruction 
which  was  given  forth  from  my  lips  was  as  astonishing  to  Mr.  Irving  as  to  myself. 
We  all  felt  as  though  the  Lord  was  indeed  resolving  our  doubts,  and  graciously  con- 
descending, by  His  Spirit,  to  teach  us  by  open  voice.  Mr.  Irving  seemed  most  fully 
confirmed  in  the  belief,  and  I  was  myself  exceedingly  composed  and  strengthened. 


566  APPENDICES. 

"On  the  morrow  began  a  more  trying  and  bitterly  painful  occurrence.  The  re- 
bukes which  I  was  made  to  give  to  Mr.  Irving,  for  want  of  ready  and  implicit  obedi- 
ence to  the  utterance  of  the  power,  whatever  might  have  been  their  effect  upon  him, 
had  entered  deeply  into  my  own  mind.  After  breakfast,  when  sitting  with  Mr.  Ir- 
ving, Mr.  P.,  and  a  few  others,  Mr.  Irving  remarked  that  Mr.  T.,  when  in  the  Court 
of  Chancery,  had  found  the  power  mightily  upon  him,  but  never  a  distinct  impulse 
to  utterance.  While  he  was  speaking  on  it,  I  was  made  in  power  to  declare,  '  There 
go  I,  and  thence  to  the  prison-house.'  This  was  followed  by  a  prophecy  setting  forth 
the  darkness  of  the  visible  Church,  refemng  to  the  king  as  the  head  of  the  Church 
of  England,  and  to  the  chancellor  as  the  keeper  of  the  conscience  of  the  king;  that 
a  testimony  should  that  day  be  borne  before  him  which  should  make  the  nation  trem- 
ble at  what  was  coming  to  pass ;  that  I  was  to  go  and  bear  this  testimony,  and  for 
this  testimony  should  be  cast  into  prison ;  that  the  abomination  of  desolation  would 
be  set  up  in  the  land,  and  Satan  sit  in  the  high  places  of  the  Church,  showing  him- 
self to  be  God ;  that  the  world  had  now  the  possession  of  the  visible  Church,  but  for 
the  purity  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  of  England,  she,  as  the  last  portion  of  the 
visible  Church,  had  been  anointed  holy  by  the  Lord ;  but  she  had  gone  on  in  world- 
ly cares,  and  was  now  so  provoking  the  Lord,  and  by  worldly-mindedness  so  quench- 
ing the  Spirit  of  God,  that  God  had  cast  her  off;  that  it  was  necessary  a  spiritual 
minister  should  bear  testimony  before  the  conscience-keeper  of  the  head  of  this 
Church,  and  then  the  abomination  of  desolation  would  be  set  up,  and  every  man 
must  flee  to  the  mountains.  Much  was  added  of  the  judgments  of  God  in  the  midst 
of  the  land:  the  power  upon  me  was  overwhelming;  I  gave  all  present  a  solemn 
benediction,  as  though  I  was  departing  altogether  from  among  them  ;  and  forbidding 
Mr.  Irving,  who  rose  to  speak  to  me  as  I  was  going,  I  went  out  under  the  constraint 
of  the  power,  and  shaped  my  way  to  the  court  of  the  chancellor,  to  bear  the  testimo- 
ny to  which  I  was  commanded. 

"  As  I  went  on  toward  the  court,  the  sufferings  and  trials  I  underwent  were  almost 
beyond  endurance.  Might  it  not  be  a  delusion  ?  Ought  I  not  to  consider  my  own 
character  in  the  sight  of  the  world,  which  would  be  forfeited  by  such  an  act  ?  and 
tha  ruin  of  all  worldly  prospects,  which  would  ensue  from  it,  and  from  my  imprison- 
ment? These,  and  a  thousand  more  subtle  and  trying  suggestions,  were  cast  upon 
me ;  but,  confident  that  the  power  speaking  in  me  was  of  God,  it  seemed  my  duty  to 
obey  at  any  sacrifice  ;  and,  without  counting  the  cost,  I  gave  myself  up  to  God,  to  do 
with  me  and  use  me  as  He  should  see  fit.  In  this  mind  I  went  on,  expecting,  as  I 
entered  the  court  of  the  chancellor,  the  power  would  come  upon  me,  and  I  should  be 
made  to  bear  testimony  before  him.  I  knew  not  what  I  was  to  say,  but  supposed 
that,  as  on  all  other  occasions,  the  subject  and  utterance  would  be  together  given. 
When  I  entered,  no  power  came  on.  I  stood  in  the  court  before  the  chancellor  for 
three  or  four  hours,  momentarily  expecting  the  power  to  come  upon  me ;  and  as  the 
time  lengthened,  more  and  more  perplexed  at  its  absence.  I  was  tempted  to  speak 
in  my  own  strength,  without  the  power ;  but  I  judged  this  could  not  be  faithful  to 
the  word  of  John,  as  my  testimony  would  not  have  been  in  the  Spirit.  After  wait- 
ing this  time,  I  came  out  of  court,  convinced  that  there  was  nothing  for  me  to  say. 

"The  mental  conflict  was  most  painful.  I  left  the  court  under  the  conviction  I 
had  been  deluded.  If  I  was  deluded,  how  was  it  with  the  others  who  spoke  in  the 
power,  one  of  whom  had  borne  direct  testimony  to  my  utterance  being  of  God,  and 
the  others  of  whom  had  received  me,  and  heard  me,  and  spoken  in  power  with  me, 
as  one  of  them?  Here,  however,  I  failed;  I  adjudged  myself  deceived,  but  I  had 
not  sufficient  proof,  as  I  thought,  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  them.  I  thought  I  had 
stumbled,  but  I  dared  not  condemn  them.     I  went  at  once  to  Mr.  Irving,  who,  anx- 


APPENDIX  B.  567 

ious  as  to  the  issue  of  my  mission,  welcomed  me  as  delivered  from  prison.  I  said  to 
him,  'We  are  snared — we  are  deceived;  I  had  no  message  before  the  chancellor.' 
He  inquired  particulars,  but  could  give  no  solution.  He  said,  '  We  must  wait.  You 
certainly  have  received  the  gift,  and  the  gift  and  calling  of  God  are  without  repent- 
ance.' We  set  ourselves  to  search  whether  in  any  thing  I  had  mistaken  the  direc- 
tions of  the  power,  but  could  not  discover  it.  I  observed  to  him,  'If  the  work  in  me 
is  of  the  enemy,  what  will  you  say  of  the  rest,  who  have  so  joined  me,  and  borne  wit- 
ness of  me?'  'True,'  said  he;  'but  theirs  has  been  tried  in  every  way.'  .  .  . 
Deeply  was  I  troubled  and  perplexed,  and  much  was  I  humbled  before  God.  .  .  . 
In  the  morning  I  attended  the  prayer-meeting,  though  so  much  burdened  as  not  to 
be  able  to  lift  up  my  heart  among  them.  An  utterance  came  from  Miss  E.  C.  'It 
is  discernment  ye  lack — seek  ye  for  it.'  ...  I  believe  she  knew  nothing  of  the  issue 
of  the  visit  to  the  chancellor ;  but,  be  that  as  it  may,  the  message  impressed  me  as 
though  it  applied  to  my  case,  and  I  was  led  to  think  want  of  discernment  would  be 
found  to  have  occasioned  my  stumbling.  .  .  .  The  power  came  upon  me,  and  I  was 
made  to  say,  '  The  word  of  the  Lord  is  as  fire  ;  and  if  ye,  oh  vessel !  who  speak,  re- 
fuse to  speak  the  word,  ye  shall  ulterlj'  perish !  Ye  have  obeyed  the  word  of  the 
Lord — ye  went  to  the  place  of  testimony — the  Spirit  was  quenched  before  the  con- 
science of  the  king — ye,  a  spiritual  minister,  have  borne  witness  there — and  were  ye 
not  cast  into  prison?  Has  not  the  dark  dungeon  been  your  prison-house  since  ye 
came  from  the  place  of  testimony  ?  Ye  lack  discernment ;  ye  must  read  the  word 
spiritually.'  .  .  .  This  acted  like  electricity.  I  thought,  and  those  who  had  heard 
the  message  of  the  former  morning  thought  with  me,  that  read  spiritually,  in  which 
way  I  ought  to  have  read  it,  the  message  concerning  the  chancellor  had  been  fulfilled 
by  my  silent  testimony,  and  my  subsequent  darkness  and  bondage.  My  satisfaction 
was  complete.  .  .  . 

"In  the  course  of  the  same  day,  and  the  day  following,  a  prophecy  was  given  to 
me  that  God  had  cut  short  the  present  appointment  for  ordaining  ministers  by  the 
laying  on  of  hands  by  succession  from  the  apostles ;  that  God  would  not  henceforth 
recognize  such  ordinations.  .  .  .  As  I  journeyed  on  the  coach,  the  power  came  upon 
me  in  the  form  of  a  revelation,  conveying  to  me  that  God  had  set  me  apart  for  a 
special  pui-pose  toward  His  Church,  for  which  He  would  commission  and  endow  me; 
that  for  this  purpose  I  should  be  taken  away  from  my  wife  and  family,  and  become 
as  a  wanderer,  without  home  or  habitation.  .  .  .  The  conclusion  I  gathered  from  it 
was,  that  I  should  never  see  my  wife  and  children  again,  supposing  the  Lord's  will 
to  be  such  as  seemed  to  be  revealed  to  me.  .  .  .  Soon  after  this  the  power  came 
upon  me,  and  I  was  made  sensible  something  was  about  to  be  declared  concerning 
the  king.  .  .  .  When  the  utterance  burst  forth,  it  was  a  declaration  that  the  Lord 
had  given  the  king  to  the  prayer  of  the  queen  and  of  the  Church,  and  his  heart 
should  be  turned  wholly  to  the  Lord.  .  .  .  That  I  was  to  stand  before  the  queen,  to 
bear  the  Lord's  testimony  to  her,  and  she  would  bring  it  in  before  the  king.  I  then 
inquired  of  the  Lord  who  should  open  the  way  to  the  queen — whether  a  servant  who 
had  been  named  should  do  it  ?  The  answer  given  to  mc  from  the  power  was,  to  take 
heed  to  the  question,  and  to  go  forth  now  upon  this  mission  ;  to  return  to  the  brethren 
I  had  left,  and  the  Lord  would  declare  it  in  due  time.  There  was  given  also  a  mys- 
terious allusion  to  the  three  children  of  Israel  in  the  fiery  furnace  of  Nebuchadnez- 
zar ;  and  an  intimation  that,  before  the  king's  presence  was  attained,  I  should  have 
to  pass  through  the  fieiy  trial  to  the  utmost.  Family  prayer  following,  I  was  directed 
to  the  psalm.  The  king  shall  joy  in  thy  strength,  0  Lord  ;  and  as  I  read  it  I  was  made 
to  chant  it  in  the  power. 

"I  returned  the  same  day  to  town, 'and  the  next  morning  joined  the  prayer- 


568  APPENDICES. 

meeting  at  the  Scotch  Church.  .  .  .  When  we  were  separating,  Mr.  P came  to 

me  to  ask  me  to  take  up  my  abode  with  him.  I  mentioned  to  him  what  had  been 
revealed  and  confirmed  to  me  concerning  my  being  set  apart  wholly  to  the  Lord's 
work ;  and  I  added,  I  had  a  little  professional  business  in  London,  which  I  must 
break  off,  and  then  I  looked  for  the  Lord's  direction  as  to  my  future  course.  When 
I  had  said  this,  I  perceived  the  power  to  rest  upon  Miss  E.  C,  and  to  be  moving  to 
the  utterance  of  something  which  she  was  distressed  or  troubled  about.  I  turned 
round  and  said,  '  Speak.'  She  said,  in  power,  '  Will  you  hear  ?'  I  answered,  '  If  the 
Lord  give  me  grace,  I  will.'  She  went  on  in  utterance  :  'Did  ye  feel  the  touch  of 
the  enemy?  Did  ye  mark  his  deceit?  Watch,  for  the  enemy  lieth  in  wait;'  and 
continued  in  a  strain  of  warning  ;  and  passing  from  that  into  a  declaration  that  great 
revelations  should  be  given  to  me,  concluded  in  an  encouraging  tone.  I  gathered 
from  this  there  was  something  in  which  I  needed  to  be  warned,  but  I  could  not  un- 
derstand what  in  particular  it  applied  to. 

"Bearing  on  my  mind  the  prophecy  concerning  the  king  and  queen,  I  asked  Mr. 
Irving,  Mr.  P ,  and  Miss  E.  C,  to  go  apart  with  me,  detailed  to  them  the  partic- 
ulars, and  in  conclusion  sought  of  the  Lord  farther  direction.  The  power  came  on 
Miss  E.  C.  with  the  answer,  '  It  is  not  yet,  it  is  not  yet.  It  shall  be  a  plain  way. 
The  way  shall  be  very  plain.'  From  this  we  gathered  we  must  not  at  present  look 
for  the  fulfillment.  Mr.  Irving  then  asked  me  the  particulars  of  the  revelation  and 
messages  separating  me  from  my  family  and  setting  me  apart.  I  gave  all  particu- 
lars, which,  though  he  was  before  startled,  seemed  to  give  him  full  satisfaction  ;  and 
after  a  few  observations  he  came  up  to  me  and  said,  '  Well,  dear  brother,  be  not 
puffed  up  with  the  abundance  of  revelations.'  I  was  then  most  grievously  weighed 
down  in  spirit,  without  knowing  fully  the  cause.  On  his  observing  it  and  asking  the 
reason,  I  said, '  I  know  not  what  it  is ;  I  am  overwhelmed ;  I  have  yet  to  break  my 
connection  with  my  professional  engagements  here,  and  it  seems  as  though  Satan 
would  not  suffer  me.'  Immediately  the  power  in  Miss  E.  C.  cried  out,  'To  the 
word!  to  the  written  word!'  with  peculiar  emphasis  upon  'written.'  This  was  re- 
peated several  times,  to  my  great  confusion.  Mr.  Irving  then  said,  'A  passage  is 
brought  to  my  mind,  whether  the  suggestion  of  it  is  from  below  or  from  above,  as 
applying  it  to  this  case,  I  can  not  tell :  Jf  any  man  provide  not  for  his  own,  he  hath 
denied  the  faith.'  Miss  E.  C.  in  the  power  said,  'That  is  it;'  and  went  on  to  speak 
of  the  great  stumbling-blocks  which  were  cast  before  the  people,  and  of  the  woeful 
effects  of  stumbling  and  offenses.  Mr.  Irving  then  added,  '  It  seems  strange  to  me 
you  should  leave  your  wife  ;'  and  immediately  a  response  in  power  from  Miss  E.  C. 
followed :  'Ye  must  not  leave  her.'  If  a  thunderbolt  had  burst  at  my  feet  it  would 
not  have  created  half  the  pain  and  agonizing  confusion  which  these  utterances  cast 
upon  me.  The  impression  rushed  on  me  like  a  flood.  '  The  revelation  must  then 
have  been  of  Satan.'  .  .  .  This  was  the  agonizing  suggestion  of  a  moment.  I  reel- 
ed under  the  weight  of  it.  I  paused  a  little,  and  under  the  revulsion  of  feeling  which 
always  succeeds  any  violent  excitement,  I  was  ready  to  say,  'It  is  impossible.'  I 
fell  on  my  knees  and  cried  aloud  to  God — 'O  Lord,  Thou  knowest  that  in  honesty 
of  heart  Thy  servant  hath  performed  what  has  been  done ;  show  now  whether  Thou 
meanest  that  he  has  altogether  stumbled  and  been  deceived,  or  whether  it  is  that, 
though  true,  it  will  be  a  stumbling-block  to  others.'  Racked  with  the  most  fierce 
mental  conflict,  I  endeavored  to  lift  up  my  soul  in  patient  waiting  upon  God,  and  in 
a  little  time  I  seemed  to  have  light  iipon  the  subject,  which  spoke  peace  in  a  measure 
to  me.  It  was  that  the  messages  and  revelations  were  of  God,  but  that  I  had  mis- 
taken them  in  supposing  they  called  for  my  immediate  cessation  from  all  worldly 
labor ;  that  the  time  of  ray  so  ceasing  was  not  yet,  and  the  time  of  my  leaving  my 


APPENDIX  B.  569 

family  was  not  yet ;  and  that  the  reproof  had  been  sent  me  to  correct  my  haste  and 
rashness  in  rushing  upon  their  immediate  fulfillment. 

"At  breakfast  at  Mr.  Irving's,  the  closing  scene  of  my  unhappy  ministrations 
among  them  was  no  less  remarkable  than  mysterious.  Very  great  utterance  had, 
for  several  mornings,  been  given  me  at  family  prayers  there,  and  particularly  beauti- 
ful and  comforting  expositions  of  Scripture  were  given  from  the  power.  This  morn- 
ing a  clergyman  was  present.  He  was  talking  to  Mr.  Irving,  but  I  did  not  hear  his 
observations.  Presently  the  sister  of  Miss  E.  C,  who  sat  by  me,  said,  'That  gentle- 
man is  grieving  the  Spirit.'  I  looked,  and  saw  a  frown  resting  on  Miss  E.  C,  and 
presently  she  spoke  in  rebuke ;  but  I  did  not  gather  more  from  it  than  that  the  cler- 
gyman had  been  advancing  something  erroneous.  Mr.  Irving  then  began,  as  usual, 
to  read  a,  chapter,  to  which  I  had  been  made  in  power  to  direct  him ;  but  instead  of 
my  expounding,  as  before,  the  power  resting  upon  me  revealed  there  were  those  in 
the  room  who  must  depart.  Utterance  came  from  me  that  we  were  assembled  at  a 
holy  ordinance,  to  partake  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  and  it  behooved  all  to 
examine  themselves,  that  they  might  not  partake  imworthily.  None  going  out,  I  was 
made  again  and  again  still  more  peremptorily  to  warn,  until  the  clergyman  in  ques- 
tion, and  an  aged  man,  a  stranger,  had  gone  out,  when  Mr.  Irving  proceeded  in  read- 
ing the  chapter,  Za7«  the  man  that  hath  seen  affliction  hy  the  rod  of  His  wrath;  and  I 
was  made  to  expoimd,  as  usual,  with  great  setting  forth  of  God's  love  in  the  midst 
of  the  trials  of  His  people,  and  with  great  promises  of  blessing.  It  was  greatly  to 
my  own  comfort,  and  I  believe  also  to  that  of  others.  I  then  prayed  in  the  power ; 
and  when  all  was  concluded,  I  was  made  in  power  to  declare  to  Mr.  Irving  that  he 
had  seen  in  this  an  example  of  the  ministration  of  the  Supper  of  the  Lord,  as  he  had 
before  seen  the  example  of  baptism ;  that  he  must  preach  and  declare  them  to  his 
flock,  for  speedily  would  the  Lord  bring  them  forth ;  that  the  opening  of  the  Word 
was  the  bread,  and  the  indwelling  and  renewing  presence  of  the  Spirit  the  wine — the 
body  and  blood  of  our  Lord  ;  and  the  discourse  of  spirits  would  not  permit  the  unbe- 
lievers to  mingle  with  the  faithful,  but  they  would  be  driven  out,  as  he  had  seen. 
Then  in  power  I  was  made  to  warn  all  of  the  snares  of  the  enemy,  and  concluded 
with  the  remarkable  words,  '  Be  not  ye  like  Peter.  /  will  smite  the  shepherd,  and  the 
sheep  shall  he~scattered.'  .  .  .  had  not  any  previous  idea  that  on  this  morning  the 
ministrations  of  the  Lord's-  Supper>  would  be  given,  nor  had  I,  until  this  was  set  be- 
fore me,  any  conception  what  its  spiritual  ministration  woidd  be.  .  .   . 

' '  I  returned  to  the  country  deeply  depressed,  though  quite  unshaken  in  my  faith 
of  the  work.  .  .  .  Then  followed  in  the  power  a  most  emphatic  declaration,  that  on 
the  day  after  the  morrow  we  should  both  be  baptized  with  fire  ....  that  had  the 
Church  in  London  manifested  greater  love,  this  baptism  and  power  would  have  been 
given  then ;  but  now  it  should  be  given  her ;  and  on  the  day  named  we  should  re- 
ceive it,  and  thenceforward  would  the  work  proceed  in  swiftness,  and  not  again  tar- 
ry. .  .  .  We  were  overjoyed  with  these  communications,  and  in  fullness  of  hope  and 
confidence  awaited  the  day  of  fulfillment.  The  interval  was  filled  up  by  very  pow- 
erful and  frequent  utterances  in  interpretation  of  Scripture  and  in  confirmation  of  the 
work.  The  day  named  arrived,  and  in  the  evening  an  utterance  from  the  power, 
'  Kneel  down  and  receive  the  baptism  of  fire.'  We  knelt  down,  lifting  up  prayer  to 
God  continually.  Nothing,  however,  ensued.  Again  and  again  we  knelt,  and  again 
and  again  we  prayed,  but  still  no  fulfillment.  Surprising  as  it  may  seem,  my  faith 
was  not  shaken ;  but  day  by  day,  for  a  long  time,  we  continued  in  prayer  and  sup- 
plication, continually  expecting  the  baptism.  My  wife  gradually  concluded  the  whole 
must  be  delusion,  and  ceased  to  follow  it.  For  six  weeks,  however,  I  continued  un- 
shaken to  ask  after  it,  but  found  it  not.  .  .  . 


570  APPENDICES. 

"Being  anxious  to  communicate  with  Mr.  Indng,  I  traveled  on  to  London,  and 
reached  him  on  the  morning  of  his  appearance  before  the  presbyters  of  London. 
Calling  him  and  Mr.  J.  C.  apart,  I  told  them  my  conviction  that  we  had  all  been 
speaking  by  a  lying  spirit,  and  not  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord." 

The  above  quotations  are  chosen  as  throwing  light  upon  the  little  body  of  prophets 
and  gifted  persons  surrounding  Irving,  rather  than  as  tracing  the  extraordinary  ca- 
reer of  INIr.  Baxter  himself,  who,  in  the  intervals  of  these  scenes,  gives  pages  of  direct 
prophecy  and  large  expositions  of  Scripture,  all  of  which  were  revealed  to  him  in 
"the  power,"  showing  himself  to  have  been  much  the  most  active  and  urgent  of  the 
band,  always  thrusting  matters  to  extremes.  The  manner  in  which  he  came  to  him- 
self, by  discovering  error  in  Irving's  doctrine  respecting  the  person  of  our  Lord,  in 
regard  to  which  "an  utterance  in  power  broke  from  me,  'He  has  erred,  he  has 
erred,'  "  is,  like  the  prophecies,  too  lengthy  for  quotation. 


APPENDIX  C. 

Speeches  oflrvinrj  before  the  Presbytery  of  London,  March,  1832. 

On  Wednesday  morning,  at  the  meeting  of  the  court,  pursuant  to  adjournment, 
Mr.  Irving  commenced  his  defense  as  follows  : 

"The  four  evangelists,  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John,  have  one  after  another 
recorded  it  for  our  learning,  that  the  forerunner  and  messenger  whom  God  chose  and 
sealed  from  his  mother's  womb,  yea,  and  gave  tcftiis  parents  for  that  very  end,  John 
the  Baptist,  who  came  forth  from  the  wilderness  of  Judea  to  proclaim  and  herald  the 
coming  of  the  Son  of  God,  did  it  in  these  words  : 

"  'There  cometh  One  mightier  than  I  after  me,  the  latchet  of  whose  shoes  I  am 
not  worthy  to  stoop  down  and  unloose  :  I,  indeed,  have  baptized  you  with  water,  but 
he  shall  baptize  you  with  the  Holy  Ghost.'  Of  such  consequence  did  the  eternal  God, 
in  whose  presence  we  stand,  deem  it  that  the  Son  of  God  should  be  known  by  the 
name  of  Baptizer  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  He  did  send  forth  His  messenger  before 
His  face,  greater  than  any  of  the  prophets,  with  no  other  message  but  to  announce 
him  by  this  name,  '  He  it  is  who  baptizeth  with  the  Holy  Ghost.'  And  when  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  our  Redeemer,  had  arisen  from  the  dead,  and  had  appeared  among 
His  disciples,  and  had  spoken  to  them  of  the  things  concerning  the  kingdom  of  God, 
He  opened  their  understandings  that  they  should  understand  the  Scriptures,  but  told 
them  to  wait  in  Jerusalem,  and  expect  the  promise  of  the  Father,  for  that  not  many 
days  hence  they  should  be  baptized  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  He  also  considered  His  of- 
fice of  Baptizer  with  the  Holy  Ghost  to  be  so  essential  a  part  of  His  dignity  and  of 
His  name,  that  He  forbade  His  disciples  who  had  traveled  with  Him,  who  had  been 
instructed  by  Him,  whose  weakness  He  had  borne  with,  and  whose  hearts  He  had 
purified  by  His  words,  to  proceed  forth  from  Jerusalem  without  that  baptism;  and 
it  is  for  the  name  of  Christ,  as  the  Baptizer  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  I  am  this  day 
called  in  question.  It  is  for  that  name,  which  God  deemed  so  sacred  and  important 
as  to  give  it  to  the  Baptist  to  proclaim,  and  which  the  Son  of  God  deemed  so  im- 
portant that  He  would  not  suffer  His  disciples  to  go  forth  and  preach  till  they  had 
received  the  substance  of  that  baptism ;  it  is  for  that  name,  even  for  the  name  of  Je- 
sus, the  Baptizer  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  I  now  stand  here  before  you,  sir,  and  be- 
fore this  court,  and  before  all  this  people,  and  am  called  in  question  this  day.  It 
hath  pleased  Him,  of  His  great  grace,  in  answer  to  the  prayers  of  His  people,  acting 


APPENDIX  C.  571 

faith  on  the  name  of  Jesus,  crying  mightily  to  Him  day  and  night,  that  He  would 
fulfill  His  faithfulness  to  that  name— it  hath  pleased  Him  to  give  to  some  of  us,  in 
my  church,  this  baptism,  with  its  sign  of  speaking  in  unknown  tongues,  and  with  its 
substance  of  prophesying ;  and  I,  as  His  dutiful  minister,  standing  in  this  room,  re- 
sponsible (as  yc  all  are)  to  Him,  have  'not  dared  to  believe  that,  when  we  prayed  to 
God  for  bread.  He  would  give  us  a  stone;  that  when  we  asked  for  a  fish, He  would 
send  U3  a  serpent ;  but  believing  that  He  is  faithful  who  has  promised,  and  trying 
the  thing  given  by  test  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  the  testimony  of  God  in  my  own 
conscience,  and  in  that  of  His  people,  and  having  thus  been  satisfied  of  the  truth 
of  the  manifestations,  I  have  not  dared  to  put  it  to  silence,  as  being  the  thing  wit- 
nessed in  the  Holy  Scriptures ;  and  have  ordered  it,  as  I  can  show,  in  nothing  con- 
trary to  the  standards  of  the  Church.  Yet,  because  I  would  not  put  my  hand  on  it 
to  suppress  the  voice  of  the  Spirit  against  the  conscience,  both  of  myself  and  also  of 
most  of  my  people,  against  my  sense  of  duty,  against  the  Word  of  God,  against  the. 
name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ — because  I  would  not  suppress  this  at  once  with  a 
high  hand — for  these  reasons  am  I  called  in  question  befoi'c  you. 

"  This  is  a  matter  of  high  import ;  tliis  is  a  matter  of  great  concernment.  May 
the  Lord  give  me  grace  to  open  it  in  order ;  may  the  Lord  also  give  me  strength  to 
sustain  the  burden  of  so  great  a  cause ;  and  may  the  Lord  give  me  wisdom  in  my 
words,  that  I  may  utter  nothing  which  may  be  a  stumbling-block  to  tlie  least  of  these 
little  ones ;  that  I  may  give  no  offense — no  needless  offense — to  any  of  His  enemies ; 
but  that  I  may  order  my  discourse  in  the  same  manner  as  my  Lord  would  have  done, 
standing  in  my  room.  Yea,  do  thou,  Lord  Jesus,  speak  through  thy  servant,  and  en- 
able him  to  set  forth  the  very  truth  of  God. 

"That  I  may  lay  this  case  rightly  before  this  court,  and  in  order,  this  method  pre- 
sents itself  to  my  mind  : 

"First,  As  I  am  to  justify  the  thing  which  I  have  done,  it  is  needful  to  show  the 
grounds  on  which  I  did  it ;  and  to  show  the  grounds  on  which  I  did  it,  it  is  needful 
to  show  the  thing  in  the  Word  of  God,  which  I  believe  God  has  given  us.  This  is 
the  first  thing  I  must  do ;  for  even  the  heathen  could  say  '  that  the  song  and  the  dis- 
course should  begin  from  God. '  Next,  It  is  needful  that  I  show  you  that  the  thing 
which  we  have  received  is  the  very  thing  contained  in  the  Word  of  God,  and  held 
out  to  the  hope  and  expectation  of  the  Church  of  God — yea,  of  every  baptized  man. 
Thirdly,  That  I  show  you  how  I  have  ordered  it,  as  the  minister  of  the  Church ;  and 
show  also  that  the  way  in  which  I  have  ordered  it  is  according  to  the  Word  of  God, 
and  in  nothing  contradictory  to  the  standards  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  Fourth- 
ly, To  speak  a  little  concerning  the  use  of  the  gifts.  And,  finally,  To  show  how  we 
stand  as  parties,  and  how  the  case  stands  before  this  court ;  and  then  I  shall  leave  it 
to  the  judgment  of  you,  and  of  all  here  present. 

"  I  read  it  in  the  Gospels — and  it  is  in  all  the  four  Gospels — that  John  the  Baptist 
spoke  the  following  words  :  '  I,  indeed,  baptize  you  with  water  unto  repentance ;  but 
He  that  cometh  after  me  is  mightier  than  I,  whose  shoes  I  am  not  worthy  to  bear ; 
He  shall  baptize  you  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire.'  Now,  in  the  beginning  of 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  I  find  it  thus  written :  'And  being  assembled  together  with 
them,  He  commanded  them  that  they  should  not  depart  from  Jerusalem,  but  wait 
for  the  promise  of  the  Father,  which,  saith  He,  ye  have  heard  of  me  ;  for  John  truly 
baptized  with  water,  but  ye  shall  be  baptized  with  the  Holy  Ghost  not  many  days 
hence.'  We  have  here  this  message  from  God  by  the  mouth  of  the  Baptist,  that 
Jesus  was  He  who  should  baptize  with  the  Holy  Ghost ;  that  that  was  the  end  of  His 
coming ;  and  we  have  here  also  the  declaration  from  the  mouth  pf  Jesus  Himself, 
after  His  resurrection,  that  He  had  not  done  that  in  the  days  of  His  flesh,  neither 


572  APPENDICES. 

between  His  resurrection  and  ascension,  but  that  He  was  to  do  it  not  many  days 
hence,  when  He  was  ascended  into  glory.  The  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  there- 
fore, is  a  thing  which  was  not  by  Jesus  in  His  ministry  while  on  earth  accomplished, 
nor  by  His  teaching  while  on  earth  accomplished  ;  but  it  was  accomplished  when  He 
had  ascended  up  on  high,  not  many  days  thereafter.  On  the  day  of  Pentecost,  as 
we  see  in  the  second  of  Acts,  was  it  accomplished ;  and  here  is  the  description  of  it : 
'  And  when  the  day  of  Pentecost  was  fully  come,  they  were  all  with  one  accord  in 
one  place.  And  suddenly  there  came  a  sound  from  heaven  as  of  a  rushing  mighty 
wind,  and  it  filled  the  house  where  they  were  sitting.  And  there  appeared  unto 
them  cloven  tongues  like  as  of  fire,  and  it  sat  upon  each  of  them ;  and  they  were  all 
filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  began  to  speak  with  other  tongues,  as  the  Spirit  gave 
them  utterance.'  Here  is  the  baptism  with  the  Holy  Ghost  which  Jesus  promised 
to  them  when  He  should  go  to  the  Father  ;  and  the  way  in  which  it  was  manifested 
was  the  speaking  with  other  tongues,  as  the  Spirit  gave  them  utterance. 

"Now  Peter,  when  preaching  on  that  occasion  to  the  people,  said  to  them  these 
words :  '  Therefore,  being  by  the  right  hand  of  God  exalted,  and  having  received  of 
the  Father  the  promise  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;'  that  is,  what  he  directed  their  attention 
to  when  he  said,  'Wait  for  the  promise  of  the  Father,  and  ye  shall  be  baptized  with 
the  Holy  Ghost;'  being,  he  says,  'by  the  right  hand  of  God  exalted,  and  having  re- 
ceived this  promise,  He  hath  shed  forth  this  that  ye  now  see'  in  these  men  '  and  hear' 
in  these  men,  speaking  with  other  tongues,  and  magnifying  God. 

"The  effect  of  this  discourse  on  the  people  is  thus  described:  'Now,  when  they 
heard  this,  they  were  pricked  in  their  heart,  and  said  unto  Peter,  and  to  the  rest  of 
the  apostles,  Men  and  brethren,  what  shall  we  do  ?'  Peter  having  said  to  them  that 
Jesus,  who  had  just  ascended  to  the  Father,  had  now  shed  down  the  gift  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  on  His  Church,  which  ye  now  see  and  hear,  says  to  all  people,  '  Eepent  and  be 
baptized,  and  ye  shall  receive  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;'  the  same  thing  He  had 
been  discoursing  of,  and  to  which  their  attention  had  been  drawn  by  the  outpouring 
of  the  Spirit,  and  speaking  in  the  midst  of  them.  And  if  ye  were  in  like  manner 
exercised,  when  ye  hear  in  the  Church,  speaking  with  tongues  and  magnifying  God — 
and  ye  never  hear  them  do  any  thing  else  in  my  Church  than  speaking  with  tongues 
and  magnifying  God — ye  would  hear  the  word  of  truth  saying  to  yourselves,  'Repent 
and  be  baptized,  every  one  of  you,  for  the  remission  of  sins,  and  ye  shall  receive  the 
gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost.'  We  have  all  been  baptized,  and  it  is  our  privilege  to  be 
baptized  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire ;  otherwise  Peter  held  out  a  false  mes- 
sage, and  preached  a  false  Gospel,  and  connected  a  false  benefit  with  baptism ;  for 
he  promised  it  distinctly  to  all.  If  Christian  baptism  be  that  which  Peter  on  the 
day  of  Pentecost  set  forth,  preached,  and  ministered,  every  baptized  person  is  privi- 
leged to  expect,  and  ought  to  possess,  and,  through  faith,  shall  receive,  the  gift  of  the 
Holy  Ghost;  'for  the  promise  is  to  you,  and  to  your  children,  and  to  all ;'  not  to  this 
generation  only,  but  to  another,  and  another,  and  another ;  for,  it  is  added,  '  to  them 
that  are  afar  off,'  Gentiles  as  well  as  Jews;  Jews  at  hand,  Gentiles  afar  off;  yea, 
'even  to  as  many,'  without  exception,  'as  the  Lord  our  God  shall  call.'  Ye  are 
called ;  ye  are  called  by  the  ministry  of  the  Gospel.  We  are  all  called  ;  we  are  all 
baptized  with  the  baptism  which  Peter  preached ;  for  there  is  no  other.  Jesus  had 
commanded  Peter  and  the  apostles  to  go  forth  into  all  natioBS,  and  preach  the  Gospel 
to  every  creature,  baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Peter  obeyed  that  commandment,  and,  in  obeying  it,  said, '  Ye  shall  receive 
the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  for  the  promise  is  unto  you,  and  to  your  children,  and 
to  all  that  are  afar  off,  even  as  many  as  the  Lord  our  God  shall  call.'  But  Peter's 
words  arc  only  a  quotation,  a  part  of  the  text  of  hLs  discourse.     The  text  is  taken 


APPENDIX  C.  573 

from  Joel ;  and  in  the  conclusion  of  his  discourse,  he  embodies  the  text  to  his  peo- 
ple, referring  them  to  their  own  prophets ;  for  he  was  speaking  to  them  that  believed 
the  prophets.  Peter  knew  himself  to  be  a  man  of  no  reputation,  and  despised  among 
them.  He  could  say  nothing  of  his  own  authority.  He  therefore  directed  their  at- 
tention to  their  own  prophets,  and  he  referred  them  to  the  prophecy  of  Joel,  as  con- 
taining the  promise  of  the  outpouring  of  the  Spirit,  and  assured  them,  in  the  words 
of  Joel,  that  it  should  be  fulfilled  in  those  days.  Now,  what  is  the  promise  of  Joel? 
'  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  after^vard  that  I  will  pour  out  my  spirit  upon  all  flesh ; 
and  your  sons  and  your  daughters  shall  prophesy,  your  old  men  shall  dream  dreams, 
your  young  men  shall  see  visions ;  and  also  upon  the  servants,  and  upon  tlie  hand- 
maidens in  those  days'  (twice  over  you  have  here  repeated  daughters  and  handmaid- 
ens) '  will  I  pour  out  my  Spirit.'  He  taketh  the  first  words  of  that  text,  'Your  sons 
and  your  daughters  shall  prophesy,'  and  tells  them,  'the  promise  is  to  you  and  to 
your  children;'  and  he  taketh  the  last  words  of  it,  'As  many  as  the  Lord  our  God 
shall  call ;'  and  so,  knitting  them  both  in  one,  he  projects  it  on  baptism,  and  binds 
the  prophecy  of  Joel  to  baptism.  And  I  say  that  every  baptized  person  is  privileged 
to  possess  this  gift,  and  is  responsible  for  it,  and  will  possess  it  through  faith  in  God ; 
and  only  does  not  possess  it  because  he  hath  rejected  the  promise  of  God,  and  turneth 
away  from  it.  I  say  it  is  knit  unto  baptism — it  is  the  rubric  of  baptism.  And  no 
minister  baptizeth  in  the  manner  Peter  baptized  who  doth  not  hold  out  to  the  bap- 
tized person  not  only  the  remission  of  sins,  but  also  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  set 
forth  in  that  promise  of  Joel,  which  is  to  '  as  many  as  the  Lord  your  God  shall  call.' 
Brethren,  this  is  for  the  conscience ;  it  is  not  for  the  members  of  the  body,  for  the 
feet,  nor  for  the  hands,  but  for  the  conscience  of  men. 

"Now,  sir,  it  is  about  four  or  five  years  ago,  very  soon  after  we  entered  the  Na- 
tional Scotch  Church — I  tliink  immediately  before  the  first  sacrament  therein ;  for 
the  last  thing  we  did  in  the  Caledonian  Church  was  to  administer  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per— and  immediately  before  the  next  ordinance  in  November,  that  I  was  called,  I 
felt  called  upon  to  open  to  the  people  the  subject  of  the  sacraments,  in  order  to  pre- 
pare them  with  due  knowledge  for  sitting  down  at  the  Lord's  table ;  and  so  far  back 
as  that  time  I  opened  to  them  what  I  now  open  in  your  hearing,  and  in  the  hearing 
of  this  court;  and  I  gave  it  as  my  judgment  before  them  all,  that  every  one  of  us  is 
responsible  for  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  all  the  fullness  in  which  it  was  ad- 
ministered by  Jesus  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  and  in  all  the  fullness  contained  in  that 
name  of  Baptizer  with  the  Holy  Ghost. 

"What  would  ye  say  if  any  one  were  to  stand  up  and  reason  thus:  'Yea,  John 
the  Baptist  said  of  Jesus,  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh  away  the  sins  of 
the  world.  No  doubt  Jesus  was  the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the 
world.  He  was  so  for  one  or  two  generations,  but  he  is  so  no  longer.'  And  what 
do  ye  say  now  to  those  who  reason  in  this  manner,  and  who  aifirm,  after  John  the 
Baptist  announced  the  same  Jesus  as  He  who  baptizeth  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
after  Jesus  Himself  had  turned  the  attention  of  His  disciples  to  the  thing  that  was 
to  be  fulfilled  not  many  days  hence,  as  the  baptism  with  the  Holy  Ghost  (and  when 
that  baptism  took  place,  it  was  with  speaking  with  tongues  and  prophesying  on  the  . 
day  of  Pentecost ;  and  Peter,  thereupon,  baptizing  with  water,  gave  the  promise  of  it 
to  the  whole  Church) — what  say  ye  to  those  who  say,  '  Oh,  yes,  he  was  the  baptizer 
with  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  that  kind  for  one  century  or  two,  but  he  is  no  longer  so  now?* 
What  do  I  say  to  them  but  that  they  are  deniers  of  the  name  of  Jesus  ?  And  if  they 
repent  not,  now  that  Jesus  is  manifesting  Himself  by  this  name.  His  judgments  will 
alight  on  their  heads. 

"  This  was  several  years  before  any  manifestations  appeared ;  and  as  the  Lord  or- 


574  APPENDICES. 

dered,  that  book  containing  the  Homilies  on  Baptism  was  printed,  and  was  before 
the  Church  several  years  before  any  manifestations  appeared,  clearly  showing  you 
that  it  was  a  conviction  of  my  own  soul,  gathered  from  the  Word  of  God,  and 
preached  publicly  in  the  whole  congregation,  and  the  whole  congregation  entreated 
faithfully  to  give  heed  to  it.  Now  I  need  not  go  into  other  scriptures  in  order  to 
confirm  what  I  have  now  said,  because,  a  thing  coming  forth  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Baptist,  and  promised  by  the  mouth  of  Jesus,  and  sealed  up  in  an  ordinance  by 
Peter,  needeth  not  to  be  confirmed.  You  might  as  well  take  the  passage  in  the 
sixth  chapter  of  John,  where  our  Lord,  speaking  of  the  eating  of  His  flesh  in  order 
to  everlasting  life,  and  which  He  knit  up  in  the  ordinance  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  say- 
ing, '  Take,  eat,  this  is  my  body' — you  might  as  well  require  that  that  discourse  in 
the  sixth  chapter  of  John,  sealed  up  in  the  ordinance  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  needeth 
more  scriptures  to  confirm  it,  as  that  the  proclamation  of  Christ's  name  by  the  Bap- 
tist as  Baptizer  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  substantiation  of  it  by  Christ  Himself  on 
the  day  of  Pentecost,  and  the  knitting  of  it  up  in  the  ordinance  of  baptism,  needeth 
confirmation.  But,  if  confirmation  be  wanting,  I  have  the  book  before  me,  and 
from  end  to  end  there  is  not  one  passage  in  which  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost  are 
mentioned  where  they  are  not  mentioned  as  the  property  of  the  whole  Church,  as 
the  blessing  of  the  whole  Church,  as  needful  to  the  growth  of  the  whole  Church,  and 
as  designed  to  continue  until  that  which  is  perfect  is  come — to  continue  until  we 
shall  see  ej'e  to  eye  and  face  to  face.  And  again,  in  the  fourth  chapter  of  Ephesians, 
it  is  said,  these  gifts  were  to  continue  '  until  we  all  arrive  at  the  measure  of  the 
stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ.'  Christ  ascending  up  on  high  gave  'to  some  apos- 
tles, to  some  prophets,  to  some  evangelists,  to  some  pastors  and  teachers,'  giving 
them  all  alike,  without  alteration  or  reservation,  '  for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints,  for 
the  work  of  the  ministry,  for  the  edifying  of  the  body  of  Christ,  until  we  all  come  in 
the  unity  of  the  faith,  and  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God,  unto  a  perfect  man, 
unto  the  measure  of  the  statui'e  of  the  fullness  of  Christ.' 

"How  any  man  dareth  to  take  out  of  this  passage  apostles,  evangelists,  prophets, 
and  to  say  that  they  were  only  intended  for  a  season,  but  that  the  pastor  and  the 
teacher  were  intended  always  to  continue,  I  never  have  been  able  to  find  a  reason. 
But  I  hold  it  to  be  a  daring  infriiction  of  the  integrity  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  per- 
mit me  to  say,  it  was  erroneously  alleged  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  that  she  denieth 
this  doctrine.  On  referring  to  the  Second  Book  of  Discipline,  which  I  hold  in  my 
hand  (whereof  you  ought  not  to  be  ignorant,  seeing  that  I  have  referred  to  it  in  the 
documents),  it  is  distinctly  said  that  though  these  gifts  do  not  now  exist  in  the  Church, 
they  might  be  revived  when  occasion  served ;  and  that  now  they  have  ceased  in  the 
Church,  except  it  shall  please  God  to  stir  some  of  them  up  again.  Who  can  say  that 
it  hath  not  now  pleased  God  to  stir  them  up  again  ?  But  now  at  this  part  of  the 
case,  if  ye  intend  to  act  as  attesters  of  the  standards  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  mere- 
ly, and  not  as  attesters  and  ministers  of  the  Word  of  God,  I  ask  of  you  to  say  wheth- 
er the  time  in  which  we  live,  when  anti-Christ  and  infidelity  are  coming  forth  in  all 
their  strength,  when  wickedness  rages  on  all  hands,  when  the  name  of  Jesus  is  cast 
out  by  the  kings  and  potentates  of  the  earth,  and  when  monarchs  are  set  up  to  rule 
in  their  own  names  instead  of  ruling  in  His  name — I  ask  if  these  are  not  those  extra- 
ordinary times  in  which  it  may  please  the  Lord  to  raise  them  up  again?  But  pass- 
ing that  by,  it  is  said  they  were  bestowed  for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints — for  the 
work  of  the  ministry — for  the  edifying  of  the  body  of  Christ.  Do  not  the  saints 
need  to  be  perfected  ?  The  work  of  the  ministry  needeth  to  be  wrought.  The  body 
needeth  to  be  edified,  and  we  are  not  yet  come  to  the  measure  of  the  stature  of 
Christ ;  and  1  believe  the  Lord  will  seal  apostles ;  I  believe  that  the  Lord  hath  sealed 


APPENDIX  C.  .  575 

prophets ;  and  I  believe  that  the  Lord  will  seal  evangelists,  and  pastors,  and  teachers, 
in  the  power  of  the  Spirit,  if  only  the  Church,  laying  hold  of  the  Word  of  God,  and 
forsaking  the  traditions  of  men  ;  if  only  the  saints  of  God,  believing  and  establishing 
themselves  on  the  rock,  which  is  the  word  of  Jesus,  and  pleading  the  name  of  Jesus, 
and  believing  on  Him  as  Baptizer  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  well  as  the  Lamb  of  God 
that  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world ;  if  one  half,  if  one  tenth,  if  one  hundredth 
part  of  those  before  me  will  with  confidence  look  unto  Him,  and  call  upon  Him, 
they  will  find  Him  faithful — they  will  find  His  name  to  be  a  strong  tower,  to  which 
the  righteous  runneth  and  is  safe.  And  it  will  not  be  long,  whether  you  consider  it 
or  not,  whether  you  will  hear  or  whether  you  will  forbear — it  will  not  be  long  until 
the  Lord,  who  hath  sealed  prophets,  will  also  seal  apostles,  and  evangelists,  and  ev- 
ery other  gift  in  His  Church.  This  is  the  thing,  sir,  which  we  expected — which  we 
prayed  for  in  the  National  Scotch  Church  privately  before  this  time  last  year ;  and 
publicly,  about  this  time  last  year,  Ave  met  together  about  two  weeks  befure  the  meet- 
ing of  the  General  Assembly,  to  pray  that  the  General  Assembly  might  be  guided  in 
judgment  by  the  Lord,  the  Head  of  the  Church  ;  and  we  added  thereto  prayers  for 
the  present  low  estate  of  the  Church ;  and  we  cried  unto  the  Lord  for  apostles,  proph- 
ets, evangelists,  pastors,  and  teachers,  anointed  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  gift  of  Je- 
sus ;  because  we  saw  it  written  in  God's  Word  that  these  are  the  appointed  ordi- 
nances for  edifying  the  body  of  Jesus.  We  continued  in  prayer,  we  met  morning 
after  morning,  at  half  past  six  every  morning,  and  the  Lord  was  not  long  in  hearing 
and  answering  our  prayers.  He  sealed  first  one,  then  another,  then  another ;  and 
gave  them,  first,  enlargement  of  spirit  in  their  own  devotions  when  their  souls  were 
lifted  up  to  God,  and  they  were  closed  with  him  in  great  nearness ;  He  then  gave 
them  to  pray  in  a  tongue,  which  Paul  said  he  was  wont  to  do  more  than  they  all : 
'I  bless  God,  speaking  with  tongues,  more  than  you  all.'  And  Paul,  speaking  of 
praying  in  an  unknown  tongue,  says:  'If  I  pray  in  an  unknown  tongue,  my  spirit 
prays,  but  my  understanding  is  unfruitful;'  just  as,  in  the  evidence  of  yesterday,  the 
witness  declared  that,  in  praying  in  a  tongue,  he  enjoyed  closer  communion  with 
God  than  in  praying  with  the  understanding.  Paul  said,  when  he  came  into  the 
congregation,  it  was  for  edification  of  the  body  of  Christ ;  and  he  would  not  then 
pray  in  a  tongue,  because  it  was  out  of  place ;  for  they  understood  not  the  tongue, 
therefore  he  prayed  both  in  spirit  and  in  the  understanding.  But  in  his  private  de- 
votion, blessing  God  in  his  eucharistical  services,  he  gaA-e  thanks,  speaking  in  tongues, 
more  than  they  all ;  but  in  the  Church,  as  contradistinguished  from  his  private  de- 
votions, he  would  rather  speak  five  words  with  the  understanding  than  ten  thousand 
in  an  unknown  tongue,  because  then  it  was  not  for  edification ;  for  he  would,  in  the 
latter  case,  be  to  them  a  barbarian,  for  no  one  would  understand  him  unless  an  in- 
terpreter were  also  present.  Just  as  it  was  with  Paul,  so  with  these  persons,  for  the 
first  time  in  their  private  devotions ;  when  they  were  wrapt  up  nearest  to  God,  the 
Spirit  took  them,  and  made  them  to  speak  sometimes  song,  sometimes  words,  in  a 
tongue  ;  and  by  degrees,  according  as  they  sought  more  and  more  unto  God,  the  gift 
became  perfected,  until  they  Avere  moved  to  speak  in  tongues,  even  in  the  presence 
of  others.  In  this  stage  I  suffered  them  not  to  speak  in  the  Church,  according  to 
the  canon  of  the  apostle ;  and  CA'en  in  private,  in  my  own  presence,  I  permitted  it 
not ;  but  I  heard  that  it  had  been  done.  I  would  not  have  rebuked  it ;  I  would  have 
sympathized  tenderly  with  the  person  who  was  carried  in  the  Spirit  and  lifted  up ; 
but  in  the  Church  I  would  not  have  permitted  it.  In  process  of  time,  about  fourteen 
days  after,  the  gift  perfected  itself,  so  that  they  were  made  to  speak  in  tongues,  and 
prophesy  the  Word  in  English,  for  exhortation,  edification,  and  comfort,  which  is  the 
proper  definition  of  prophecy,  as  testified  by  one  of  the  witnesses. 


576  •  APPENDICES. 

"Now, -when  we  had  received  this  into  the  Church,  in  answer  to  our  prayers,  it 
became  me,  as  the  minister  of  the  Church,  to  try  that  which  we  had  received.  I  re- 
peat it ;  it  became  me,  as  minister  of  the  Church,  and  not  another ;  and  my  author- 
ity for  this  you  will  find  in  the  second  chapter  of  Revelations,  where  the  Lord  Jesus, 
writing  to  the  Angel  of  the  Church  of  Ephesus,  speaks  thus  to  him :  '  I  know  thy 
Avorks,  and  thy  labor,  and  thy  patience ;  and  how  thou  canst  not  bear  them  which 
are  evil ;  and  thou  hast  tried  them  which  say  they  are  apostles,  and  are  not ;  and 
hast  found  them  liars.'  Here  the  Lord  Jesus,  the  Head  of  the  Church,  commend- 
ed the  Angel  of  the  Church  of  Ephesus,  the  head  of  that  Church,  in  whose  place  I 
stand  in  my  Church,  and  in  whose  place  no  other  standeth  (the  elders  and  deacons 
have  their  place,  but  this  belqpgeth  to  the  angel  or  minister  of  the  Church),  and  the 
Lord  commendcth  him  for  trying  them  which  say  they  are  apostles,  and  are  not. 
Therefore,  to  me,  as  minister  of  the  Church,  watching  over  the  souls  of  the  people, 
it  belongcth  to  try  every  one  who  says  he  is  commissioned  of  Jesus,  be  he  prophet, 
apostle,  or  evangelist,  pastor  or  teacher.  I,  as  responsible  for  those  souls,  must  search 
into  the  matter,  and  it  was  on  my  responsibility  if  I  allowed  a  wolf  to  come  into  the 
fold ;  and  if  I  keep  out  one  who  is  a  prophet,  apostle,  or  evangelist,  and  prevent  him 
from  exercising  the  gift  given  him  for  the  edifying,  not  of  one  part  of  the  Church, 
but  of  the  whole  Church  of  God,  I  do  it  at  my  peril.  I  dare  not  do  otherwise  ;  be- 
cause the  Lord  Jesus,  the  only  Head  of  the  Chixrch,  in  writing  these  seven  epistles  to 
the  angels  of  the  seven  churches  in  Asia,  in  order  to  guide  them,  commendeth  the 
Angel  of  the  Church  of  Ephesus  for  having  taken  upon  him  this  duty ;  and  I,  as  the 
minister  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  dare  not  disobey  him,  though  the  loss  of  my  head,  of  my 
life,  of  a  hundred  lives,  were  the  consequence.  I  dared  not  willingly  disobey  him, 
and  set  to  all  my  people,  and  to  all  authorities,  an  example  of  disobedience.  I  was 
necessitated  to  obey  him,  though  my  life  were  taken.  Therefore,  when  the  Lord  sent 
us  what  professed  to  be  prophets,  what  we  had  prayed  for,  what  the  Lord  had  given 
in  answer  to  prayer — when  there  appeared  the  sign  of  the  prophet  speaking  with 
tongues,  and  prophesying  and  magnifying  God,  and  what  appeared  to  be  true — I 
dared  not  shrink  from  my  plan  of  trying  them,  and  putting  them  to  the  proof;  and, 
if  found  not  so,  preventing  them,  and  if  they  were  so,  permitting  them ;  yea,  and  giv- 
ing thanks  to  Jesus  for  having  answered  our  prayers,  and  sent  us  the  ordinance  of 
prophesying,  which  is  expressly  said  to  be  for  the  edification  of  the  Church ;  for  it  is 
said,  'He  that  prophesieth  edifietli  the  Church.'  Moreover,  I  learned  that  this  duty 
doth  devolve  upon  me,  the  angel  and  pastor  of  the  Church,  from  the  same  second 
chapter  of  Revelations ;  where,  writing  to  the  Angel  of  the  Church  in  Thyatira,  he 
says,  '  Notwithstanding,  I  have  a  few  things  against  thee,  because  thou  suiFerest  that 
woman,  Jezebel,  which  calleth  herself  a  prophetess,  to  teach  and  to  seduce  my  ser\-- 
ants.'  Here  we  have  the  proof  that  there  were  true  prophetesses  in  the  Church. 
The  same  thing  is  referred  to  in  Joel,  ii.,  28.  And  again  in  the  second  chapter  of 
Acts,  where  we  are  told  that  Philip  the  Evangelist  had  four  daughters,  virgins,  which 
did  prophesy.  And  in  the  second  chapter  of  1st  Corinthians  there  are  instructions 
for  women  to  pray  and  prophesy  in  a  comely  manner  in  the  Church.  In  the  Church 
at  Thyatira,  this  woman,  Jezebel,  calling  herself  a  prophetess,  was  permitted  to  teach. 
A  prophetess  may  not  teach :  to  teach  belongeth  to  a  man ;  it  is  an  office  of  author- 
ity. A  prophetess  may  prophesy,  speaking  by  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  none  of  those 
persons  prophesying  in  my  Church  have  ever  spoken  by  any  power  except  by  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  I  believe.  But  Jezebel  was  suffered  to  teach  in  the 
Church,  and  also  to  seduce  the  servants  of  the  Lord,  contrary  to  the  canons  of  Paul, 
given  in  1  Cor.,  ii.,  and  1  Timothy,  ii.  I  produce  this  second  commandment  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  your  Head,  the  Head  of  the  Church,  my  Head,  and  the  Head  of 


APPENDIX  C.  577 

every  man ;  whom  no  man,  as  he  vaUies  his  own  salvation,  dares,  on  any  account, 
willin{j;ly  to  disobey.  This  commandment  of  Jesns  reprovetii  the  angel  of  that  Church 
for  refusing  to  do  that  which  was  his  duty,  and  permitting  this  woman,  calling  her- 
self a  prophetess,  to  teach.  So  that  here  have  I  one  commended  for  fulfilling  this 
duty,  and  one  reproved  for  not  fulfilling  it;  and  I  want  no  more  evidence  to  show 
that  it  was  my  duty,  as  the  servant  of  Jesus,  to  fulfill  His  commandment ;  and  I  want 
no  other  authority  than  Ilis  command,  whom  I  must  not,  whom  I  dare  not,  whom  I 
will  not  disobey,  to  make  trial  of  the  persons  who  have  these  gifts ;  and  I  proceeded 
to  that  trial. 

"  The  first  thing  toward  the  trial  was  to  hear  them  prophesy  before  myself,  and  so 
I  did  it.  The  Lord,  in  His  providence,  gave  me  ample  opportunity  in  private  pray- 
er-meetings, of  which  many  were  in  the  congregation  established,  of  hearing  them 
speaking  with  tongues,  and  prophesying ;  and  it  was  so  ordered  by  Providence  that 
every  person  whom  I  heard  was  known  to  myself,  so  that  I  had  this  double  test,  first, 
of  their  private  walk  and  conversation,  and,  second,  of  hearing  the  thing  prophesied. 
The  private  walk  and  conversation  were,  as  far  as  I  knew,  according  to  godliness ; 
they  waited  on  the  ordinances  daily ;  they  were  all  duly  baptized ;  they  were  all 
members  of  Christ,  and  therefore  fully  pi-ivilcged  to  expect  baptism  of  the  Holy 
Ghost ;  they  were  all  in  full  communion,  though  not  all  in  my  Church ;  but  my 
Church  is  only  a  part  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  which  condemneth  none  and  separ- 
ateth  from  none.  It  was  not  the  custom  of  the  Primitive  Church  in  the  apostolic 
times,  that,  when  one  or  two  brethren  came  from  another  church,  they  were  not  per- 
mitted to  speak  or  to  exhort  the  brethren  until  they  had  sat  down  with  them  at  the 
Lord's  table ;  for  our  Lord  Jesus  Himself,  wherever  He  went,  spake  in  the  syna- 
gogues ;  and  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  Paul  and  Barnabas,  though  they  were  only 
known  as  brethren,  went  into  the  synagogues  and  exhorted.  And  I  hold  it  to  be 
contrary  to  the  constitution  of  the  Protestant  Church  that  any  member  or  minister 
of  one  church,  being  in  full  communion  with  it,  should  not  be  admissible  into  full 
communion  with  another.  A  member,  for  instance,  of  the  Church  of  England  is  in 
full  communion  with  the  Scotch  Church,  both  in  respect  to  Baptism  and  the  Lord's 
Supper.  It  is  so  by  the  Acts  of  the  Assembly.  I  can  not  tell  you  the  express  date 
of  the  Act,  but  it  comes  between  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  1692,  and  the  date  of 
1720.  I  can  not  charge  my  memory  with  the  exact  date ;  but  it  is  a  short  Act,  set- 
ting forth  that  the  member  of  another  communion,  coming  into  the  bosom  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  is  admissible  to  all  the  ordinances,  if  his  walk  is  according  to 
godliness ;  for,  as  it  is  generally  said,  we  ought  rather  to  use  diligence  to  draw  them 
over  to  us,  than  we  to  go  to  them.  These  persons  were  members  of  the  Church  of 
Christ,  walking  in  His  commandments  and  ordinances  blameless ;  nay,  distinguished 
for  acts  and  labors  of  love  in  their  own  churches ;  in  fact,  there  was  only  one  such ; 
and  another,  though  not  admitted  to  membership,  was  under  examination  previous 
to  communion.  First,  they  were  of  blameless  walk  and  conversation,  and  in  full 
communion  with  the  Church  of  Christ.  Second,  in  private  prayer-meetings,  where 
they  were  accustomed  to  exercise  the  gift  of  utterance,  I  could  discern  nothing  con- 
trary to  sound  doctrine,  but  every  thing  for  edification,  exhortation,  and  comfort. 
There  was  the  sign  of  the  unknown  tongue,  and  prophesying  for  edification,  exhort- 
ation, and  comfort ;  and,  beside  these,  there  is  no  other  outward  and  visible  test  to 
which  they  might  be  brought.  Having  these  before  me,  I  was  still  very  much  afraid 
of  introducing  it  into  the  Church,  and  was  exceedingly  burdened  in  conscience  for 
some  weeks.  'Look  at  the  condition  in  which  I  was  placed.  I  had  sat  at  the  head 
of  the  Church,  praying  that  these  gifts  might  be  poured  out  on  the  Church ;  believ- 
ing in  the  Lord's  faithfulness,  and  that  I  was  praying  the  prayer  of  faith,  and  that 

Oo 


578  APPENDICES. 

He  had  poured  out  the  gifts  in  the  Church  in  answer  to  our  prayers.  Was  I  to  dis- 
believe what  in  faith  I  had  been  praying  for,  and  which  we  had  all  been  praying  for? 
When  it  came,  I  had  every  opportunity  of  proving  it.  I  had  put  it  to  the  proof  ac- 
cording to  the  Word  of  God,  and  I  found,  so  far  as  I  was  able  to  discern,  that  it  is 
the  thing  written  in  the  Scriptures,  and  into  the  faith  of  which  we  had  been  bap- 
tized. Having  found  this,  I  was  in  a  great  strait  between  two  opinions,  and  much 
burdened.  God  knoweth  for  certain  days,  nay,  even  weeks,  my  burden  I  could  dis- 
close to  no  one.  A  great  burden  it  was,  for  I  felt  it  was  my  duty  to  act ;  and  I 
feared,  if  I  were  to  go  seeking  counsel  of  others,  and  any  were  to  say,  '  Do  not  intro- 
duce it  into  the  Church, '  then  I  should  be  putting  myself  into  a  sti-ait  between  my 
obedience  to  the  Lord  and  my  inclination  to  follow  the  counsel  of  wise  men.  In  this 
state  I  remained  some  time ;  and  I  need  not  tell  the  leadings  of  Providence,  which 
led  me,  at  length,  to  determine ;  but  it  was  veiy  much  the  testimony  of  my  own 
heart.  In  the  morning  meeting  the  Spirit  burst  out  in  the  mouth  of  that  witness 
whom  you  examined  yesterday ;  and,  several  times  in  one  day,  the  voice  of  the  Spir- 
it was,  that  it  was  quenched  and  restrained  in  the  Church.  I  felt  this  very  burden- 
some to  me,  and  this  conviction  came  at  once  to  my  heart :  It  belongs  to  you  to  open 
the  door ;  you  have  the  power  of  the  keys ;  it  is  you  that  are  restraining  and  hin- 
dering it.  I  reflected  on  it  all  that  day,  and  next  morning  I  came  to  the  Church. 
After  prayers  I  rose  up,  and  said  in  the  midst  of  them  all,  '  I  can  not  any  longer  be 
a  party  to  hinder  that  which  I  consider  to  be  the  voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost  from  being 
heard  in  the  Church.  I  feel  I  have  too  long  deferred,  and  I  pray  you  to  give  heed 
while  I  read  out  these  passages,  as  my  authority  and  the  commandment  of  the  Lord 
concerning  the  prophets ;'  and  I  read,  therefore,  these  passages,  1  Cor.,  xiv.,  23  :  'If, 
therefore,  the  whole  Church  be  come  together  into  one  place,  and  all  speak  with 
tongues,  and  there  come  in  those  who  are  unlearned,  or  unbelievers,  will  they  not 
say  that  ye  are  mad  ?'  The  apostle  was  here  writing  of  speaking  with  tongues,  in 
conti'adistinction  to  prophesying ;  that  is  to  say,  speaking  nothing  but  the  unknown 
tongue  ;  for  what  should  it  profit  unless  there  be  an  interpreter  ?  He  is  not  speak- 
ing of  what  we  have ;  that  which  we  have  is  one  fifth  or  one  tenth  in  tongue,  and  the 
rest  in  prophesying.  He  is  taking  the  distinction  between  speaking  with  tongues 
and  prophesying.  No  one  in  our  Church  could  say  the  person  speaking  is  mad,  be- 
cause he  doth  not  utter,  perhaps,  more  than  two  minutes  or  one  minute  in  tongue, 
and  then  he  begins  to  prophesy  in  English  for  the  edification,  exhortation,  and  com- 
fort of  all :  the  one  is  the  sign  of  inspiration  that  it  is  the  power  of  the  Spirit ;  the 
other  is  the  thing  which  the  Spirit  would  give  forth  for  the  edification  of  the  Church. 
"Sometimes  it  comes  forth  without  the  sign,  but  generally  it  is  otherwise;  for  I 
think  I  have  observed  in  the  Church,  when  many  are  present  who  disbelieve,  or  doubt, 
or  mock,  the  sign  is  given  in  great  power ;  but  it  is  otherwise  ordered  in  a  company 
of  persons  believing  the  calling  of  the  prophet,  when  the  sign  is  not  given,  but  the 
word  of  prophecy  comes  out  simply.  But  I  have  observed,  if  the  word  of  prophecy 
is  hard  to  be  received,  the  sign  is  given,  even  in  the  company  of  those  strong  in  the 
faith  ;  yea,  I  have  seen  it  occur  more  than  once  that  the  sign  has  been  given,  and 
then  the  word  in  English  follows,  and  then  the  sign  is  again  repeated.  I  have  no- 
ticed that  in  this  case  something  is  added  hard  to  be  received,  or,  perhaps,  a  rebuke 
to  some  one  present,  or  something  hard  for  the  will  of  the  party  to  receive ;  for  the 
Spirit  speaketh  to  the  conscience.  Well,  I  read  out  this  passage:  '  But  if  all  proph- 
esy, and  there  come  in  one  that  believeth  not,  or  one  unlearned,  he  is  convinced  of 
all,  he  is  judged  of  all,  and  thus  are  the  secrets  of  his  heart  made  manifest ;  and  so, 
falling  down  on  his  face,  he  will  worship  God,  and  report  that  God  is  among  you  of 
a  truth.'    Then  it  is  said,  'When  the  whole  Church  cometh  together  into  one  place,' 


APPENDIX  C.  579 

they  may  '  all  prophesy,  one  bj'  one ;'  and  it  is  added,  '  Let  the  prophets  speak,  two 
or  three,  and  let  the  others  judge,'  and  discern  the  things  which  they  prophesy,  and 
try  the  spirit  that  it  is  done  by ;  whether  the  prophet,  through  carelessness  or  want 
of  holiness,  be  overtaken  of  any  temptation,  even  as  the  witness  examined  yesterday 
did  declare  before  you  all,  without  being  questioned,  in  the  honest  purity  and  sim- 
plicity of  his  heart,  that  he  once  was  made  to  rebuke  me  in  a  manner  which  he  be- 
lieved was  not  by  the  Spirit  of  God ;  and  this  he  learned  by  another  prophet's  dis- 
cerning ;  and  after  waiting  on  the  Lord,  at  the  end  of  two  days  it  was  made  mani- 
fest, agreeably  to  this :  '  Let  the  prophets  speak  two  or  three,  and  let  the  others  dis- 
cern ;'  and,  fiirther,  *If  any  thing  be  revealed  to  another  sitting  by,  let  the  first  hold 
his  peace.'  Now  I  beg  your  attention  to  this  passage,  as  it  bears  much  on  the  ease 
attempted  to  be  made  out  against  me,  and  yet  not  against  me,  but  against  the  voice 
of  the  Spirit  in  the  Church. 

"And  here  let  me  say,  they  are  not  interruptions,  though  they  are  called  interrup- 
tions, of  the  service  of  the  Church  ;  for  we  are  told,  '  If  any  thing  be  revealed  to  an- 
other sitting  by,  let  the  first  hold  his  peace.'  And  if,  by  the  Spirit,  any  thing  be  re- 
vealed to  any  one  sitting  by,  though  I  be  engaged  in  pra}ing — though  I  be  engaged 
in  preaching — I  am  required  to  hold  my  peace,  because  I  might  be  preaching  false- 
hood, which  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  might  wish  to  defend  the  congregation  from.  Je- 
sus is  the  Head  of  the  congregation,  not  I;  I  am  only  His  deputy,  and  the  prophets 
are  His  voice.  You  are  very  ignorant  of  the  Old  Testament  if  you  know  not  that 
the  prophet  is  the  voice  of  God  to  kings  and  to  princes ;  he  is  the  voice  of  Jesus  to 
His  Church;  and  if  I  be  speaking  any  thing  contrary  to  the  mind  of  Jesus,  shall  not 
He,  the  Head  of  the  Church,  have  liberty  by  His  prophets  to  tell  the  congregation  so, 
and  guard  them  from  eiTor  ?  If  I  be  praying  in  error  or  in  a  wicked  spirit — for  a 
man  may  be  erroneous  in  his  prayers  ;  a  man  may  curse  and  blaspheme  in  his  prayer; 
and  if  I  do  so,  shall  not  the  Lord  Jesus  have  power  in  His  own  Church,  then  and 
there,  to  make  manifest  the  error,  that  the  congregation  be  not  poisoned  thereby  ?  If 
a  father  saw  improper  food  put  upon  the  plate  of  his  child,  which  the  child  should  not 
eat,  would  he  not  step  in  and  take  the  morsel  out  of  his  mouth?  And  shall  the  Lord 
Jesus,  the  master  of  the  house,  not  be  permitted  to  step  in,  at  any  time,  and  prevent 
such  food  from  being  partaken  of  by  the  children  whom  He  hath  purchased  with  His 
own  blood  ?  He  shall  in  my  church.  He  shall  in  my  church,  so  long  as  He  honors 
me  by  permitting  me  to  be  the  minister  of  it.  Call  it  not  interruption ;  ye  speak  it 
in  ignorance — ye  understand  it  not,  and  you  examine  not  into  it — and  the  Lord  for- 
giveth  it.  Take  heed  lest  your  ignorance  be  not  willful.  The  complainants  have 
mostly  withdrawn  their  ears  from  it,  and  would  not  hear  it ;  they  would  not  put 
themselves  to  the  pains  of  examining  it,  but  would  beat,  with  the  high  hand  of  a 
trust-deed,  the  minister  of  Jesus  from  his  place,  and  the  Lord  Jesus  from  his  place 
also." 

Moderator.  "  Order !  I  will  not  allow  any  one  to  say  that  we  beat  the  Lord  Jesus 
from  his  place.  We  hear  Mr.  Irving  from  a  matter  of  tenderness  and  courtesy,  and 
he  must  not  use  this  language  toward  us." 

Mr.  Irving.   "The  thing  stated  was  a  truth." 

His  Solicitor  protested  against  the  interruption. 

Mr.  Irving.  "I  have  spoken  the  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth,  and  God  knows 
it ;  and  whether  the  truth  should  not  be  spoken.  He  knoweth  also ;  but  be  it,  be  it 
so.  Well,  then,  I  read  this  passage,  and  also  the  passage  which  concerneth  the 
comely  way  in  which  women  should  prophesy  and  pray  in  the  Church,  which  is  thus 
written  in  1  Cor.,  xi.,  4-10:  'Every  man  praying  or  prophesying  having  his  head  n" 
covered,  dishonoreth  his  head.     But  every  woman  that  prayeth  or  prophesieth  with 


f 


580  APPENDICES. 

her  head  uncovered,  dishonoreth  her  head,  for  that  is  even  all  one  as  if  she  were 
shaven.  For  if  the  woman  be  not  covered,  let  her  also  be  shorn ;  but  if  it  be  a 
shame  for  a  woman  to  be  shorn  or  shaven,  let  her  be  covered.  For  a  man  indeed 
ought  not  to  cover  his  head,  forasmuch  as  he  is  the  image  and  glory  of  God ;  but 
the  woman  is  the  glory  of  the  man.  .  .  .  For  this  cause  ought  the  woman  to  have 
power  on  her  head,  because  of  the  angels.'  The  woman  having  power  on  her  head 
is  a  sign  of  authority,  because  of  the  angels  of  the  Church,  in  reference  to  their 
office.  I  know  there  has  been  a  difference  of  opinion  in  this  matter,  and  that  the 
passage  has  been  confronted  with  that  passage  in  1  Cor.,  xiv.,  34,  35:  'Let  your 
women  keep  silence  in  the  churches;  for  it  is  not  permitted  unto  them  to  speak,' 
etc. ;  and  another  passage  in  1  Tim.,  ii.,  11,  12,  to  the  same  effect.  Now  it  has 
been  said  we  have  gainsa{v'ed  these  passages,  and  that  we  have  interpreted  them  in  a 
way  that  would  never  have  been  thought  of  but  for  this  which  has  occurred.  Now, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  old  commentators,  I  give  you,  among  the  moderns,  the  opinion 
of  Locke,  that  master  of  exact  interpretation,  though  not  of  sound  doctrine ;  yet  he 
was  the  master  of  logic,  which  is  the  science  of  sound  words.  I  also  refer  you  to 
Scott,  whom  the  whole  evangelical  body  in  England  consider  the  pattern  of  com- 
mentators. I  refer,  also,  to  Brown,  who  is  looked  upon  in  Scotland  as  Scott  is  in 
England.  These  three  commentators  have  all  judged  of  these  passages  as  I  have 
judged  of  them,  namelj^,  that  the  two  latter  refer  to  women  speaking  by  their  own 
power  and  strength,  the  former  to  women  speaking  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost ; 
the  one  not  to  be  pemiitted,  the  other  not  to  be  prevented.  I  have  these  three,  than 
whom  none  stand  higher  in  their  respective  schools :  Locke  in  the  Arminian  school, 
Scott  in  the  Evangelical  school,  and  Brown,  iiniversally  consulted  in  the  Scottish 
churches ;  and  all  these  interpret  them  as  I  have  done.  No  one  can  say  that  we 
have  strained  the  Scriptures  to  suit  our  pui'poses.  Grotius  also  concurs  in  the  same 
view,  than  whom  no  one,  at  the  period  of  the  Reformation,  stood  in  such  reputation 
among  the  remonstrants.  And  almost  all  the  interpreters  in  the  primitive  Church 
held  the  same  views,  and  the  practice  was  almost  invariably  continued  in  the  first 
ages  of  the  Church,  and  may  be  traced  till  the  time  of  Cyprian,  when  women,  and 
even  children,  were  accustomed  to  prophesy  in  the  Church  by  the  Holy  Ghost ;  as  it 
is  written  in  the  Psalms,  '  Out  of  the  mouth  of  babes  and  sucklings  Thou  hast  per- 
fected praise.'  And  Cyprian,  who  was  Bishop  of  Carthage,  thought  it  not  beneath 
him  to  send  the  things  spoken  by  children  in  the  Church,  by  the  power  of  the  Spirit, 
to  the  Presbyteries  of  his  diocese  for  their  instruction.  Now,  having  read  these  pas- 
sages, therefore,  I  said  to  the  people,  '  I  stand  here  before  you,  after  my  conscience 
has  been  burdened  with  it  for  weeks,  and  I  can  no  longer  forbid  it,  but  do,  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  permit  that  every  one,  who  has  received  the  Gift  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  and  is  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  shall  have  liberty  to  speak.' 

"  It  pleased  the  Lord  at  that  meeting  to  sanction  this  by  His  own  approval ;  while 
I  w&s  reading,  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  spoke  in  Mr.  Taplin,  who  appeared  yesterday 
as  a  witness,  and  said,  'Let  them  prophesy,  but  let  it  be  under  authority.'  And  at 
the  same  meeting,  both  Mrs.  Cardale  and  Miss  E.  Cardale  spoke  in  the  Spirit,  with 
tongues  and  prophesying,  rejoicing  at  what  had  been  done.  Now  observe,  according 
to  the  commandment  of  Jesus,  I  took  to  myself  the  privilege  and  responsibility  of 
trying  the  prophets  in  private  first,  before  permitting  them  to  speak  in  the  Church. 
I  then  gave  to  the  Church  the  opportunity  of  fulfilling  its  duty ;  for  it  belongs  not 
to  the  pastor  merely,  but  to  every  man,  to  try  the  spirits ;  as  it  is  written  in  Mat- 
thew, that  our  Lord,  when  speaking  to  His  disciples  in  the  mount,  '  Beware  of  false 
prophets,  which  come  to  you  in  sheep's  clothing,  but  inwardly  they  are  ravening 
wolves ;  ye  shall  know  them  by  their  fruits.'     And  I  say,  therefore,  it  is  the  boundeu 


APPENDIX  C.  581 

duty  of  every  one,  when  the  minister  puts  forth  any  person  before  the  congregation 
whom,  having  tried,  he  bclieveth  to  speak  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  to  be  on  their  guard, 
and  beware  of  false  prophets,  and  to  try  tliem.  Moreover,  Paul,  in  his  Epistle  to 
Timothy,  declares  of  some  who  in  the  last  days  should  give  heed  to  seducing  spirits, 
and  he  warncth  the  Church  against  being  insnared  by  them.  In  like  manner,  John 
also,  in  his  first  catholic  epistle,  gives  instruction  to  try  spirits,  whether  they  be  of 
God,  and  gives  the  rule  whereby  they  might  be  tried :  '  Every  spirit  that  confesseth 
not  tliat  Jesus  is  come  in  the  flesh  is  not  of  God ;  and  whosoever  denieth  this  is 
anti-Christ.' 

"It  was  my  duty,  therefore,  in  obedience  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  ever 
ruleth  all  churches,  and  without  whom  any  Church  is  nothing  but  a  synagogue  of 
Satan,  after  trying  the  spirits,  to  put  them  forth  to  the  people,  that  they  might  be 
tried  by  them.  I  put  the  prophets  forth  at  the  morning  exercises  of  the  Church; 
and  I  made  it  known  to  the  people  at  prayer,  in  preaching,  and  in  all  ways,  and  in- 
vited the  people  to  come  and  witness  for  themselves ;  and  so  the  thing  continued. 
I  had  not  yet  introduced  it  into  the  great  congregation,  permitting,  I  should  sup- 
pose, four  or  five  weeks  for  probation  by  the  Church,  and  was  still  reluctant — for  I 
erred  on  the  side  of  reluctance  ;  and  seeing  tlie  spirit  of  many  of  the  congregation, 
that  they  viewed  with  dislike  and  suspicion  the  whole  subject.  I  waited,  and  it  was 
not  until  silence  was  broken,  in  spite  of  me,  that  I  spoke  in  the  full  congregation 
concerning  the  duty  of  its  being  then  heard ;  and  that  day,  after  the  speaking  by 
which  the  congregation  was  thrown  into  a  good  deal  of  distress,  I  left  my  ordinary 
subject ;  for  although  it  was  attempted  to  be  instructed  in  evidence  yesterday  that  I 
set  myself  to  discourse  on  one  subject  exclusively,  and  fed  my  people  on  that,  my 
custom  is  to  go  regularly  on,  reading,  preaching,  and  lecturing ;  but  when  the 
Church  was  tried  in  this  way,  I  felt  it  my  duty  to  take  up  the  subject  as  it  occurs  in 
1  Corinthians,  xiv.,  to  prevent  their  souls  being  snared  by  Satan,  and  exhorted  them 
to  try  the  spirits  according  to  the  rules  there  laid  down.  I  am  ashamed  and  grieved 
to  say  that,  from  that  time  forward,  several  of  the  trustees  entered  not  the  church 
any  more,  notwithstanding  all  I  could  say,  to  hear  and  make  trial  whether  it  were 
the  work  of  God  or  not,  but  set  it  down  at  once  as  a  thing  tliat  ought  not  to  be,  and 
then  left  it.  At  the  same  time  I  appear  here,  not  to  complain  against  any  one,  but 
merely  to  state  the  truth  to  the  court ;  that  the  Presbytery  may  be  rightly  informed, 
I  am  willing  to  substantiate  these  things,  if  the  Presbytery  desire  it,  from  the  evidence 
of  the  persons  sworn. 

' '  After  the  speaking  was  thus  forced  on  the  congregation,  I  felt  I  could  no  longer 
resist  it ;  but  in  the  evening  I  rose  in  my  place,  and  said,  '  If  the  worship  of  God 
should  be  again  added  to  by  those  speaking  with  tongues  and  prophesying — for  that 
is  the  right  word,  for  it  is  the  addition  of  an  ordinance  of  prophesying — that  they 
should  understand  it  to  be,  not  the  word  of  man,  bat  what  I  believed  it  to  be,  the 
Word  of  the  Spirit  of  God, '  and  it  was  added  to.  From  that  time  I  felt  it  my  duty, 
in  obedience  to  the  great  Head  of  the  Church,  to  take  order  that  it  should  not  be 
prevented,  but  encouraged ;  I  claim  the  word  encouraged ;  and  I  took  all  lawful 
means  in  the  midst  of  the  congregation  to  encourage  it,  and  did  so  in  obedience  to 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  had  given  this  precious  gift;  not  for  naught,  but  for  the 
edifying  of  the  Church,  which  is  His  body ;  and  I  would  think  myself  a  most  un- 
worthy pastor  if,  after  receiving  a  gift,  I  did  not  lay  it  out  to  use,  and  encourage  it 
to  be  used  for  the  good  of  the  people.  I  did  it  in  obedience  to  Jesus,  for  the  good  of 
the  flock  ;  and  if  you  want  testimony,  I  shall  pledge  myself  that  I  will  produce  five 
hundred  men  and  women  who  shall  come  forward  voluntarily,  and  testify  in  this 
court  that  there  have  been  prophets  raised  up  in  our  Church  whose  words  have  been 


582  APPENDICES. 

most  edifying,  yea,  like  a  marrow  and  fatness  to  their  souls.  These  five  hundred 
persons,  walking  in  the  commandments  and  ordinance  of  the  Lord,  will  freely  come 
forward  on  any  day  you  will  appoint,  and  declare  that  it  hath  been  the  most  blessed 
thing  to  their  souls,  next  to  the  ministry  of  the  Word  and  ordinance.  And  thus 
these  were  the  steps  I  took  for  proving  it — for  all  this  comes  under  the  head  of  pro- 
bation— first,  by  myself,  privately ;  then,  not  in  public,  but  at  the  morning  service, 
where  all  might  have  attended  if  they  would ;  and  then  before  all  the  congregation ; 
and  still  it  is  continued,  for  the  probation  is  not  yet  done.  Many  in  the  Church 
have  not  yet  received  full  pi'obation  of  it ;  and  them  I  teach  to  wait  on  the  Lord, 
and  they  shall  receive  full  satisfaction ;  for  I  believe  that  the  Lord  tenderly  regards 
the  doubts  of  every  one  of  his  children ;  '  for  the  bruised  I'ced  will  He  not  break,  nor 
the  smoking  flax  will  He  not  quench  ;'  and  I  believe  there  is  not  a  weak  member  of 
Christ's  Church  waiting  humbly  and  sincerely  on  Him,  to  whom  He  will  not  give 
conviction.  I  have  never  made  it  a  test  in  my  church,  although,  as  a  man  preach- 
ing to  his  congregation,  I  have  seen  it  my  duty  to  declare  the  truth  concerning  it ; 
for  the  Lord  Jesus  is  very  tender  and  very  loving ;  and  if  a  man  will  but  turn  aside, 
and  see  what  this  gi"eat  thing  is,  he  will  be  taught  and  fed  of  God.  If  there  be  any 
of  my  flock  here  present,  let  them  take  assurance,  as  a  consolation  to  their  souls. 
On  the  other  hand,  I  believe,  that  if  men  turn  away  from,  and  harden  themselves 
against  it,  it  will  prove  to  them  that  which  Isaiah  said  it  was  sent  for.  It  is  only 
mentioned  once  in  the  Old  Testament  (speaking  with  tongues) ;  and  notice  what  the 
Prophet  Isaiah,  in  the  28th  chapter,  says  it  was  sent  for :  '  Whom  shall  He  teach 
knowledge  ?  and  whom  shall  He  make  to  understand  doctrine  ?'  The  high-minded  ? 
No.  Men  who  are  proud  in  their  own  conceit  ?  No.  IMen  who  haA-e  enough,  and 
want  no  more,  saying,  '  Having  the  ordinances  and  institutions  of  the  Gospel,  we 
have  enough  ?'  No.  Let  the  prophet  answer :  '  Them  that  are  weaned  from  the 
milk  and  drawn  from  the  breasts;'  babes;  those  that  feel  they  need  much;  those 
that  are  weak,  like  a  weaned  child ;  for  '  precept  must  be  upon  precept,  precept  upon 
precept;  line  upon  line,  line  upon  line;  here  a  little,  and  there  a  little.'  As  you 
speak  to  a  child,  so  should  it  be ;  and  so  it  is  in  prophesying ;  it  is  precept  upon  pre- 
cept, line  upon  line,  discourse  not  regularly  built  up.  That  is  the  reason  why  the 
leai-ned  of  the  Avorld,  those  that  are  not  babes,  despise  it ;  because  it  is  not  built  up 
on  argument  or  reasoning ;  not  set  forth  in  eloquent  language,  but  in  simple,  pure, 
unadulterated  milk ;  not  cooked  in  the  kitchen,  but  cooked  in  the  body  of  the  parent, 
fresh  from  the  body  of  Jesus,  by  the  Spirit  of  Jesus,  coming  down  direct  from  Him, 
as  milk  of  the  children,  which,  indeed,  the  pastor  may  prepare,  and  serve  out  to  the 
Church ;  and  which,  in  dependence  on  my  Master,  I  have  endeavored  to  prepare 
and  sen'C  out,  according  to  the  taste  of  the  people — that  is,  as  they  can  bear  it. 
'For  with  stammering  lips' — ah!  who  can  bear  that? — 'and  with  men  of  other 
tongues  will  I  speak  to  this  people.'  And  He  hath  thus  spoken  in  the  midst  of  us. 
Paul  quotes  this  of  the  gift  of  tongues  given  to  the  Gentile  Church ;  on  the  day  of 
Pentecost  it  was  sealed  to  the  Gentile  Church.  Oh,  and  he  says,  'This  is  the  rest 
wherewith  ye  may  cause  the  weary  to  rest,  and  this  is  the  refreshing ;  yet  they 
would  not  hear.'  Though  it  be  rest  and  refreshing  which  is  preached  by  it  contin- 
ually, yet  they  would  not  hear,  and  wherefore  ?  that  they  may  go  and  fall  backward, 
and  be  broken,  and  snared,  and  taken.'  There  is  another  end  of  it,  and  it  is  for  a 
rest  to  the  weary ;  but  for  those  who  are  not  children,  and  think  they  are  learned 
enough,  and  do  liot  feel  their  lowly  estate,  to  them  it  is  given  '  that  they  may  go  and 
fall  backward,  and  be  broken,  and  snared,  and  taken.'  And  it  will  prove  so  to  this 
generation. 

"Now  ye  have  heard  the  method  I  took  to  prove  that  it  was  the  thing  contained 


APPENDIX  C.  583 

in  the  Scriptures  that  we  had  received ;  first,  the  walk  and  conversation  of  the  per- 
sons ;  second,  by  trying  it  from  the  words  of  Scripture,  which  says  that  the  sign  is 
the  speaking  with  tongues,  and  the  prophesy  is  for  edification,  exhortation,  and  com- 
fort ;  third,  by  the  consciousness  of  the  Spirit  within  myself,  bringing  the  conviction 
to  my  own  heart;  fourth,  by  submitting  it  to  all  the  people.  And  I  believe  the  ef- 
fect of  such  probation  is  this — that  the  snares  of  Satan  have  been  detected,  and  that 
that  which,  if  left  alone,  and  not  taken  into  the  Church,  Satan  would  have  prevailed 
against,  hath  prevailed  against  Satan ;  for  we  ought  to  remember  the  prophets  are 
not  infallible;  for  they  are  directed  to  speak  by  two  or  three, that  the  rest  may  dis- 
cern ;  and  by  bringing  it  before  the  Church,  the  spirit  in  the  prophets  has  discerned 
when  the  false  prophets  spoke,  and  when  the  flesh  spoke ;  ay,  and  the  very  members 
of  the  Church,  also,  endued  with  the  Holy  Giiost,  have  been  able  to  discern  it.  I 
believe  it  will  always  be  so.  Jesus  hath  not  given  up  His  place  to  the  prophet  any 
more  than  to  the  minister ;  and  lie  hath  let  them  know  that  prophecy  is  a  fallible 
ordinance,  as  well  as  the  ordinance  of  the  ministry  ;  and  it  is  only  by  the  congrega- 
tion, and  the  prophets,  and  the  minister  abiding  in  Jesus  in  all  obedience,  in  the 
light  of  Jesus  as  he  is  in  the  light,  in  the  love  of  one  another,  and  in  the  love  of  God 
— it  is  only  thus  that  the  minister  can  be  preserved  from  erring,  or  the  prophets,  or 
the  people ;  for  the  minister  is  not  lord  over  the  heritage,  nor  is  the  prophet  the  Word 
of  God  to  the  heritage  ;  but  the  lord  of  the  heritage  is  Jesus,  and  the  Word  of  God 
to  the  heritage  is  this  book ;  neither  are  the  people  rulers  over  the  minister  to  say 
'You  shall  not  do  this,'  which  the  Lord  requireth  of  him,  nor  the  people  rulers  over 
the  prophets  to  say  the  prophet  shall  not  utter  what  the  Lord  giveth  him  to  utter ; 
but  these,  like  the  members  of  the  body — the  head,  the  lips,  the  hands,  the  feet — are 
all  bound  together  in  mutual  respect  to  one  another,  and  by  their  mutual  respect  and 
service  to  one  another  they  are  all  preserved  in  health  and  comfort,  provided  the  life 
be  in  them  all,  which  is  Jesus.  Therefore  I  say,  this  method  of  proceeding  God  has 
shown  to  be  good ;  for  He  hath  shown  my  judgment  not  to  be  enough  for  the  pi-oph- 
ets ;  and  even  the  congregation,  on  whom  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  have  detected 
what  I  could  not  detect ;  and  it  is  not  that  any  one  ofiice  should  be  prevented  from 
exercising  their  functions,  or  prophecy,  or  tongues,  because  they  are  not  infallible, 
but  that  one  and  all,  according  to  the  orders  of  their  Great  Captain,  in  this  book  laid 
down,  and  in  their  various  posts,  united  together  in  brotherly  love  and  amity,  might 
fulfill  their  kindly  and  dutiful  offices  one  toward  another.  Thus  the  Church  of  God 
is  built  up  and  flourishes.  If  the  people  rise  up  against  the  minister,  or  the  minister 
lord  it  over  the  people ;  or  if  either  rises  up  against  the  prophets,  and  puts  them 
down,  then  the  golden  cord  of  love  is  broken,  and  the  Church  must  suffer.  In  every 
case  where  love  is  preserved,  it  will  be  found  that  all  are  necessary,  that  all  going  on 
together  will  be  preserved  in  unity,  and  make  increase  of  the  Church.  So  much  for 
the  second  head. 

"  I  make  no  apology  for  the  length  of  time  I  have  occupied,  for  eight  hours  have 
been  allowed  to  the  accusers,  and  I  am  the  party  most  deeply  interested  in  the  case, 
and  I  trust  you  will  bear  with  me  in  patience.  The  third  thing  to  which  I  referred 
is  the  manner  of  ordering  it  in  the  Church ;  this  I  have  in  a  great  manner  antici- 
pated ;  but  still,  as  the  point  of  the  complaint  standeth  here,  I  think  it  good  to  attend 
to  it  carefully.  It  is  complained  by  the  trustees  of  the  National  Scotch  Church,  in 
discharge  of  the  duty  imposed  on  them  by  the  trust-deed,  and  which  is  the  founda- 
tion of  their  complaint,  First,  that  I  have  allowed  the  worship  of  the  Church  to  be  in- 
terrupted by  persons  speaking,  who  are  neither  ordained  ministers  nor  licentiates  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland.  Now,  with  respect  to  the  ordering  of  it,  which  is  here  com- 
plained against  as  a  violation  of  the  trust-deed,  and  a  violation  of  the  constitutions 


584  APPENDICES. 

of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  I  can  say  with  the  Apostle  Paul,  when  he  went  to  Rome 
to  his  countrymen,  '  That  unto  this  day  not  only  have  I  done  nothing  contrary  to  the 
Word  of  God,  but,  men  and  brethren,  I  have  done  nothing  against  the  people  or  cus- 
toms of  our  fathers.' 

"  I  lay  it  down  as  a  solemn  principle  that,  as  a  minister  of  Christ,  I  am  responsible 
to  Him  at  every  instant,  in  every  act  of  my  ministerial  character  and  conduct,  and 
owe  to  Him  alone  an  undivided  allegiance ;  and  I  say  more,  that  every  man  is  re- 
sponsible to  Jesus  at  every  instant  of  his  life,  and  for  every  act  of  his  life,  and  not  to 
another,  in  an  undivided  allegiance.  He  is  the  head  of  every  man,  and  upon  this  it 
is  that  the  authority  of  conscience  resteth ;  on  this  it  is  that  toleration  resteth ;  on 
this  it  is  that  all  the  privileges  of  man  rest ;  that  Jesus  is  the  head  of  every  man ; 
and  this  is  His  inalienable  prerogative.  Nothing  can  come  between  it  and  a  man ; 
and  every  man  must  die  for  his  duty  to  Jesus  rather  than  his  duty  to  the  king ;  he 
must  die  loyally,  not  rebelliously ;  but  still  he  must  rather  die  than  disobey  Jesus  ; 
and  I  say  more,  eveiy  man  must  gainsay  his  minister  if  he  believe  him  to  be  in  er- 
ror ;  must  gainsay  his  prophet,  yea,  every  creature  on  the  earth,  if  in  error ;  must  do 
it  reverently,  not  rebelliously,  but  still  do  it,  because  Jesus  is  the  head  of  every  man ; 
and  every  elder,  and  every  minister  and  deacon  of  a  church,  must  do  the  same.  And 
if  any  person  or  court,  or  the  Pope  of  Rome,  or  any  court  in  Christendom,  come  be- 
tween a  man,  or  a  minister,  and  his  master,  and  say,  'Before  obeying  Jesus,  you 
must  consult  us,'  be  they  called  by  what  name  they  please,  they  are  anti-Christ.  I 
say  no  Protestant  Church  hath  ever  done  so.  I  deny  the  doctrine  that  was  held 
forth  yesterday,  that  it  is  needful  for  a  minister  to  go  to  the  General  Assembly  before 
he  docs  his  duty ;  I  deny  the  doctrine  that  he  can  be  required  to  go  up  to  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  for  authority  to  enable  him  to  do  that  which  he  discerneth  to  be  his 
duty." 

Moderator.  "Let  these  words  be  taken  down." 

Mr.  Irvhiff.  "Ay,  take  them  down,  take  them  down.  I  repeat  the  Avords:  I  deny 
it  to  be  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  that  any  minister  is  required  to  go  vp  to 
the  General  Assembly  for  authority  to  do  that  which  he  discerneth  to  be  his  duty.  Ye 
are  pledged  to  serve  Jesus  in  your  ordination  vows.  Ye  are  the  ministers  of  Jesus, 
and  not  ministers  of  any  assembly.  Ye  are  ministers  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  not 
ministers  of  the  standards  of  any  Church.  I  abhor  the  doctrine  ;  it  is  of  anti-Christ ; 
it  is  the  essence  of  anti-Christ — it  is  Popery  in  all  its  horrors ;  it  hath  never  been 
endured  in  this  land ;  and  I  trust  there  is  still  sufficient  reverence  for  the  name  of 
Jesus  not  to  endure  it.  And  if  any  man  seeth  any  thing  to  propose  to  the  Church 
in  which  they  err  or  come  short,  in  duty  to  the  Church,  and  not  in  fear  of  the  Church 
— for  there  is  no  authority  in  the  Church  above  the  authority  of  the  minister — it  is 
his  duty  to  set  this  matter  in  order,  and  lay  it  before  his  brethren,  saying,  '  I  have 
discovered  we  are  in  fault  in  this  matter,  and  have  set  it  in  order,  and  do  you  like- 
wise.' It  is  an  easy  way  of  appeasing  a  man's  conscience  to  say,  '  I  must  go  to  the 
General  Assembly  for  authority  to  do  this  or  that.'  It  is  Satan's  trap  to  keep  all 
things  as  they  are ;  to  prevent  all  things  from  returning  to  what  they  have  been,  and 
to  prevent  them  from  coming  forward  to  farther  perfection.  But  I  lay  it  down  as  a 
doctrine  that  if  I,  as  a  minister  of  the  Church,  for  instance,  see  evidence  of  the  speedy 
coming  of  Christ  to  this  world,  to  execute  the  judgments  written  in  the  Scriptures, 
and  destroy  anti-Christ,  and  establish  His  kingdom,  and  reign  with  His  saints  upon 
the  earth,  I  am  not  to  be  prevented  preaching  it  because  it  is  not  in  the  standards. 
When  were  the  standards  made  the  measure  of  the  liberty  of  preaching  and  of  proph- 
esying, which  is  the  basis  of  all  liberty  ?  When  was  the  liberty  of  preaching  bound 
up  within  the  limits  of  Twenty-six  or  Thirty-nine  Articles?     Never  since  the  world 


APPENDIX  C.  585 

began  ;  never  was  it  so,  and  never  shall  it  be  endured.  What !  is  it  meant  to  be  as- 
serted that  the  decision  of  a  council  sitting  in  Westminster,  in  troublous  times,  was 
forever  to  bind  up  the  tongue  of  the  preacher  to  preach  nothing  but  the  things  con- 
tained therein  ?  I  never  subscribed  these  articles  with  that  view  ;  and  if  any  other 
man  hath  so  signed  them,  it  is  with  a  false  view ;  and  if  with  that  view  it  is  said  I 
did  subscribe  them,  I  say  it  is  not  so ;  and  if  any  one  say  I  must  use  them,  I  solemnly 
say  I  will  not  do  so. 

"As  for  the  trust-deed,  was  it  ever  heard  that  those  who  merely  hold  a  trust  over 
the  yalls  of  a  building  should  step  in  and  take  from  the  minister  the  right  and  priv- 
ilege he  hath  as  a  minister  of  Jesus,  and  the  obedience  he  owcth  unto  Jesus?  But 
this  trust-deed  distinctly  provideth  for  the  contrary,  namely,  'That  all  matters  relat- 
ing to  the  public  worship  of  God,  in  the  said  church  or  chapel,  and  the  administra- 
tion of  such  religious  rites  and  services  as  should  be  performed  or  observed  therein, 
shall  be  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  minister  for  the  time  being,  during  such  time  as 
tliere  shall  be  a  minister.' 

"  Seeing  that  the  ordinances  and  services  performed  or  observed  in  that  chapel  are 
left  to  the  discretion  of  the  minister  for  the  time  being,  the  complainants  must  in- 
struct the  Presbytery  that  I  have  set  up  an  ordinance  contrary  to  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land ;  that  the  Church  of  Scotland  has  forbidden  the  ordinance  of  pi'ophcsying  to  be 
in  the  Church,  by  those  who  are  moved  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  for  the  evidence  which 
is  on  your  table  is  evidence  to  the  effect  that  they  speak  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  Ye 
are  judges  of  the  f;act ;  it  is  a  complaint  on  a  point  of  fact;  and  the  fact  instructed 
is  this,  that  they  speak  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  But  it  is  the  fact  you  must  bring  to 
the  constitution  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  not  your  opinion  of  the  fact.  I  charge 
the  Presbytery  before  Ilim  who  is  the  judge  of  all,  that  they  put  aside  their  own  opin- 
ion whether  these  persons  speak  by  the  Spirit  of  God ;  for  they  have  not  heard  or 
examined  it,  neither  have  they  proved  them  by  the  text  of  Scripture.  You  are  not, 
in  such  circumstances,  competent  to  question  it ;  and  for  your  souls,  your  precious 
souls'  sake,  ye  must  take  the  fact  as  judges,  and  show  by  the  canons  of  the  Church 
that  men  are  forbidden  to  speak  in  tongues,  and  prophesy  by  the  constitution  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland ;  and  ye  shall  search  long  before  ye  shall  find  it.  I  have  not, 
therefore,  suffered  the  public  service,  as  charged  against  me,  of  the  Church  to  be  in- 
terrupted by  persons  not  being  ministers  or  licentiates  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  ;  I 
have  not.  I  have  permitted  it  to  be  interrupted  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  that  accord- 
ing to  the  canons  of  Scripture,  where  we  read,  that  '  If  any  thing  be  revealed  to  an- 
other that  sitteth  by,  let  the  first  keep  silence.' 

"2dly.  It  is  charged  that  I  have  allowed  the  public  worship  of  said  National 
Scotch  Church  to  be  interrupted  by  persons  speaking  who  were  neither  members  nor 
seat-holders.  I  have  not.  Your  evidence  shows  I  have  not  suffered  the  worship  of 
God  to  be  interrupted  by  persons  not  members  or  seat-holders,  but  by  the  person  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  speaking  in  the  members  of  Jesus.  And  respecting  the  particular 
assignation,  'not  being  seat-holders,'  they  arc  members  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  and 
I  know  them  to  be  so ;  and  I  never  yet  heard  of  seat-holders  in  Scripture,  or  in  the 
constitution  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  ;  nor  did  I  ever  hear  of  holding  a  seat  in  the 
Church  of  Scotland  giving  any  right  or  privilege  by  its  constitutions,  but  quite  the 
contrary  ;  for  in  the  generality  of  the  churches,  the  seats,  or  at  least  the  greater  part 
of  them,  are  not  held  by  the  persons  who  sit  in  them,  the  church  being  divided  among 
the  heritors  and  tenants.  It  is  the  custom  for  the  servants  and  tenants  to  sit  in  their 
landlord's  seat  indiscriminately ;  and  I  wish  there  was  no  such  thing  as  seat-holding 
and  seat-renting  in  churches :  it  is  one  of  the  most  dishonorable  things  in  the  Prot- 
estant Church,  which  has  never  been  known  in  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  is  not  at 


586  APPENDICES. 

this  day.  Yea,  more,  it  is  contrary  to  the  law  of  the  realm  of  Scotland  that  seats 
should  be  private  property ;  and  in  the  case  of  Haddington  Church,  it  was  ruled  by 
the  Lord  Ordinary  that  the  lock  of  a  pew  should  be  taken  off;  and  that,  if  not,  any 
person  might  break  it  off,  after  the  worship  had  begun. 

"odly.  I  am  charged  with  allowing  females  to  speak  in  the  ChuVch:  I  have  not 
allowed  females  to  speak  in  the  Church ;  but,  believing  that  it  was  the  Holy  Ghost 
speaking  in  them,  I  have  permitted  it ;  but  I  never  allowed  any  one,  male  or  female, 
to  speak  of  themselves,  as  the  evidence  bears ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  when  others 
spoke,  I  caused  them  to  be  silenced,  and  even  sent  for  aid  to  the  police-office  when  I 
found  by  milder  means  they  would  not  be  restrained. 

"4thly.  It  is  charged  that  other  individuals,  members  of  the  congregation,  were 
suffered  by  me  to  interrupt  the  public  service  on  Sabbath  and  other  days.  I  have 
not  done  so,  as  the  evidence  on  the  table  will  show,  and  that  evidence  adduced  by 
the  complainants  themselves. 

"Sthly.  It  is  charged  that  I  appointed  set  times  for  the  suspension  of  the  wor- 
ship, in  order  to  encourage  and  allow  these  interruptions.  This  needs  a  little  ex- 
planation. 

"When  I  saw  it  was  my  duty  to  take  this  ordinance  into  the  Church,  I  then  con- 
sidered with  myself  what  was  the  way  to  do  it  with  the  greatest  tenderness  to  my 
flock,  so  as  to  cause  the  least  anxiety  and  disturbance ;  for  complaints  immediately 
came  to  me  from  several  persons  that  they  were  unable  to  taste  the  good  and  profit 
of  the  other  services  for  fear  of  these  interruptions.  My  anxiety,  therefore,  was  to 
deal  faithfully  by  the  shepherd,  and  tenderly  with  the  flock.  I  observed,  therefore, 
what  was  the  manner  of  the  spirit  in  the  morning  meetings ;  and  I  found  generally 
it  was  the  manner  of  the  spirit,  when  I,  the  pastor,  had  exhorted  the  people,  to  add 
something  to  the  exhortation,  either  to  enforce  it,  if  it  were  according  to  the  mind  of 
God,  or  to  add  to  it ;  or  graciously  and  gently  to  correct  it,  if  it  were  incorrect.  I 
also  observed  it  was  the  way  of  the  spirit  not  to  do  this  generally,  but  in  honor  of  the 
pastor ;  and  that  the  spirits  in  the  prophets  acknowledged  the  office  of  the  angel  of 
the  Church  as  standing  for  Jesus ;  and  accordingly,  I  said,  wishing  to  deal  tenderly 
with  the  flock,  let  it  begin  with  this  order,  that,  after  I  have  opened  the  chapter,  and 
after  I  have  preached,  I  will  pause  a  little,  so  that  then  the  prophets  may  have  an 
opportunity  of  prophesying  if  the  spirit  should  come  upon  them ;  but  I  never  said 
that  the  prophets  should  not  prophesy  at  any  other  time.  I  did  this  in  tenderness  to 
the  people ;  and,  feeling  my  way  in  a  case  where  I  had  no  guidance,  I  did  it  accord- 
ing to  the  best  records  of  ecclesiastical  antiquity ;  and  I  was  at  great  pains  to  con- 
sult the  best  records  ;  and  I  found  Mosheim,  in  his  most  learned  dissertation  on 
Church  histoiT,  declare  to  this  effect :  That  in  tlie  first  three  ages  of  the  Church,  it 
was  the  custom,  after  the  pastor  had  exhorted  the  people,  for  the  congregation  to 
rest,  and  the  prophets  prophesied  by  two  or  three ;  so  that  I  walked  in  the  ordinances 
of  the  Church  of  Christ.  It  is  true,  there  are  no  directions  to  this  effect  in  the  stand- 
ards of  the  Church  of  Scotland ;  but  I  never  yet  understood  that  the  Book  of  Disci- 
pline, or  the  Confession  of  Faith  in  1560,  was  intended  to  begin  a  new  Church,  nor 
that  it  was  intended  to  be  said,  we  must  get  at  the  Scriptures  only  through  these 
standards ;  and  I  know,  and  am  very  sure,  that  if  the  Eeformers  had  expected  any 
such  doctrine  to  be  broached  by  us,  their  descendants,  they  would  have  suffered  their 
hands,  ay,  and  their  heads  too,  to  be  cut  off  rather  than  have  compiled  and  put  forth 
these  articles.  There  are,  in  fact,  no  instructions  at  all  in  the  canons  of  the  Church 
on  the  subject ;  but  in  the  First  Book  of  Discipline  there  is  an  endeavor  made  to  re- 
constitute the  order  of  prophets,  as  laid  down  in  1  Cor.,  xiv.,  and  this  with  the  ma- 
terials they  tlicn  had.     1  state  it  for  the  information  of  the  Presbytery,  and  also  of 


APPENDIX  C.  587 

the  complainers,  that  so  fur  was  the  Church  of  Scotland  from  preventing  at  the  time 
any  person  from  speaking  in  the  Cliurch  but  ordained  ministers  or  licentiates,  that 
there  are  express  provisions  laid  down  requiring  every  person  who  hath  a  gift  to 
come  forward  at  the  request  of  the  minister,  on  pain  of  proceedings  before  a  civil 
magistrate ;  nay,  more,  men  in  whom  is  supposed  to  be  any  gift  which  might  edify 
the  Church  must  be  charged  by  the  ministers  and  ciders  to  join  in  the  session,  and 
'  company  of  interpreters,  to  the  end  that  the  Kirk  may  judge  whether  they  be  able 
to  serve  to  God's  glory,  and  to  the  profit  of  the  Kirk,  in  the  vocation  of  ministers  or 
not ;  and  if  they  be  found  disobedient,  and  not  willing  to  communicate  the  gifts  and 
special  graces  of  God  with  their  brethren,  after  sufficient  admonition,  discipline  must 
proceed  against  them,  provided  the  civil  magistrate  concur  with  the  judgment  and 
election  of  the  Kirk.  For  no  man  may  be  permitted,  as  best  plcascth  him,  to  live 
within  the  Kirk  of  God  ;  for  every  man  must  be  constrained,  by  fraternal  admonition 
and  correction,  to  bestow  his  labors,  when  of  the  Kirk  he  is  required,  to  the  edifica- 
tion of  others.'  Now  this  is  in  the  First  Book  of  Discipline,  drawn  up  by  our  Re- 
formers, and  which  received  the  assent  of  Parliament  in  the  reign  of  James  VI.,  and 
never  has  been  abrogated  to  this  day.  The  Westminster  Articles  of  Confession  were 
intended  as  a  supplement  to  the  others,  but  not  to  supersede  them ;  and  they  were 
adopted  chiefly  for  the  sake  of  conformity  with  the  Presbyterian  churches  in  En- 
gland, and  nothing  whatever  therein  contained  is  to  prejudice  what  is  found  in  these 
standards. 

"So  far,  then,  from  being  the  rule  of  the  Established  Church,  it  is  expressly  pro- 
vided that  any  member,  even  with  an  ordinaiy  gift  of  teaching,  if  charged  by  the 
minister  to  join  with  the  session  to  come  forward,  must  obey,  in  order  to  see  wheth- 
er he  may  labor  in  the  vocation  of  the  ministry  or  not.  The  prophets,  therefore,  are 
one  part  of  the  ministry ;  and  in  permitting  them  to  speak,  I,  in  fact,  did  exactly 
obey  this  canon.  I  tried  the  gifts,  and  then  planted  them  in  the  Church ;  and  in- 
stead of  acting  contrary  to  the  standards  in  so  doing,  I  say  I  acted  in  the  spirit  of 
them.  For  it  is  thus  written  in  the  ninth  head  of  the  First  Book  of  Discipline,  enti- 
tled, '  For  Prophesying  or  Interpreting  the  Scriptures.' 

"  'To  the  end  that  the  Kirk  of  God  may  have  a  trial  of  men's  knowledge,  judg- 
ments, graces,  and  utterances,  as  also  such  that  have  somewhat  profited  in  God's 
Word  may  from  time  to  time  grow,  in  more  full  perfection,  to  serve  the  Kirk,  as  ne- 
cessity shall  require,  it  is  most  expedient  that  in  every  town  where  schools  and  re- 
pair of  learned  men  arc,  there  be  one  certain  day  in  every  week  appointed  to  that 
exercise,  which  St.  Paul  calls  prophesying,  the  order  whereof  is  expressed  by  him  in 
these  words:  "Let  two  or  three  prophets  speak,  and  let  the  rest  judge;  but  if  any 
be  revealed  to  him  that  sits  by,  let  the  former  keep  silence ;  ye  may  one  by  one  proph- 
esy, that  all  may  learn,  and  all  may  receive  consolation.  And  the  spirit,"  that  is, 
the  judgment,  "of  the  prophets  is  subject  to  the  prophets."  By  which  words  of  the 
apostle  it  is  evident  that,  in  the  Kirk  of  Corinth,  when  they  did  assemble  for  that 
purpose,  some  place  of  Scripture  was  road,  upon  the  which  one  first  gave  his  judg- 
ment, to  the  instruction  and  consolation  of  the  auditors ;  after  whom  did  another 
cither  confirm  what  the  former  had  said,  or  added  what  he  had  omitted,  or  did  gen- 
tly correct,  or  explain  more  properly,  where  the  whole  verity  was  not  revealed  to  the 
former.  And  in  case  things  were  hid  from  the  one  and  from  the  other,  liberty  was 
given  for  a  third  to  speak  his  judgment  to  the  edification  of  the  Kirk ;  above  which 
number  of  three  (as  appears)  they  jiassed  not  for  avoiding  of  confusion.  This  exer- 
cise is  a  thing  most  necessary  for  the  Kirk  of  God  this  day  in  Scotland;  for  thereby, 
as  said  is,  shall  the  Kirk  have  judgment  and  knowledge  of  the  graces,  gifts,  and  ut- 
terances of  every  man  within  their  body.     The  simple,  and  such  as  have  somewhat 


588  APPENDICES. 

profited,  shall  be  encouraged  daily  to  study  and  to  proceed  in  knowledge — the  Kirk 
shall  be  edified.  For  this  exercise  must  be  patent  to  such  as  list  to  hear  and  learn ; 
and  every  man  shall  have  liberty  to  utter  and  declare  his  mind  and  knowledge  to 
the  comfort  and  consolation  of  the  Kirk.  But,  lest  of  this  profitable  exercise  there 
arise  debate  and  strife,  curious,  peregrine,  and  unprofitable  questions  are  to  be  avoid- 
ed. All  interpretation  disagreeing  from  the  principles  of  our  faith,  repugning  to 
charity,  or  that  stands  in  plain  contradiction  with  any  other  manifest  place  of  Scrip- 
ture, is  to  be  rejected.  The  interpreter  in  this  exercise  may  not  take  to  himself  the 
liberty  of  a  public  preacher  (yea,  although  he  be  a  minister  appointed),  but  he  must 
bind  himself  to  his  text,  that  he  enter  not  in  digression ;  or,  in  explaining  common 
places,  he  may  use  no  invective  in  that  exercise,  unless  it  be  of  sobriety,  in  confuting 
heresies :  in  exhortations  or  admonitions  he  must  be  short,  that  the  time  may  be 
spent  in  opening  the  mind  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  that  place,  following  the  sequel  and 
dependence  of  the  text,  and  observing  such  notes  as  may  instruct  and  edify  the  audi- 
tory for  avoiding  of  contention  ;  neither  may  the  interpreter,  or  any  in  the  assembly, 
move  any  question  in  open  audience  whereto  himself  is  not  able  to  give  resolution 
without  reasoning  with  one  another;  but  every  man  ought  to  speak  his  own  judg- 
ment to  the  edification  of  the  Kirk. 

"  '  If  any  be  noted  with  curiosity  of  bringing  in  of  strange  doctrine,  he  must  be  ad- 
monished by  the  moderator,  ministers,  and  elders  immediately  after  the  interpretation 
is  ended. 

"  '  The  whole  ministers,  a  number  of  them  that  are  of  the  assembly,  ought  to  con- 
vene together,  where  examination  should  be  had  how  the  persons  that  did  interpret 
did  handle  and  convey  the  matter  (they  themselves  being  removed)  ;  to  each  must  be 
given  his  censure  ;  after  the  which,  the  person  being  called,  the  faults  (if  any  notable 
be  found)  are  noted,  and  the  person  gently  admonished. 

"  'In  that  assembly  are  all  questions  and  doubts,  if  any  arise,  resolved  without 
any  contention ;  the  ministers  of  the  parish  kirks  in  landwart  adjacent  to  every 
chief  town,  and  the  readers,  if  they  have  any  gift  of  interpretation,  within  six  miles, 
must  concur  and  assist  those  that  prophesy  within  the  towns,  to  the  end  that  they 
themselves  may  either  learn,  or  others  may  cither  learn  by  them.  And,  moreover, 
men  in  whom  is  supposed  to  be  any  gift  which  might  edify  the  Church,  if  they  were 
well  employed,  must  be  charged  by  the  ministers  and  elders  to  join  themselves  with 
the  session  and  company  of  interpreters,  to  the  end  that  the  Kirk  may  judge  whether 
they  be  able  to  serve  to  God's  glory,  and  to  the  profit  of  the  Kirk  in  the  vocation  of 
ministers  or  not ;  and  if  any  be  found  disobedient,  and  not  willing  to  communicate 
the  gifts  and  special  graces  of  God  with  their  brethren,  after  sufficient  admonition, 
discipline  must  proceed  against  them,  provided  that  the  civil  magistrate  concur  with 
the  judgment  and  election  of  the  Kirk.  For  no  man  may  be  permitted,  as  best 
pleascth  him,  to  live  within  the  Kirk  of  God.  But  every  man  must  be  constrained 
by  fraternal  admonition  and  correction  to  bestow  his  labors,  when  of  the  Kirk  he  is 
required,  to  the  edification  of  others.  What  day  in  the  week  is  most  convenient  for 
that  exercise,  what  books  of  Scripture  shall  be  most  profitable  to  read,  we  refer  to 
the  judgment  of  every  particular  kirk — we  mean,  to  the  wisdom  of  the  ministers  and 
elders.' 

"If  our  Church  has  ruled  that  in  a  matter  of  ordinary  gifts  there  should  be  liberty 
given  to  speak,  can  any  one  believe  that  if  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost  had  been  in 
the  Church  they  would  not  have  ruled  it  for  these  extraordinary  gifts  also?  Is  it 
possible  to  believe  the  Eeformed  Church  would  have  justified  the  complainers  in  this 
motion,  or  justify  the  Presbytery  in  coming  to  the  decision  that  I  should  be  ejected 
from  the  National  Scotch  Church  because  I  admitted  persons,  after  they  had  been 


APPENDIX  C.  589 

fully  proved  to  have  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  exercise  those  gifts  in  the  con- 
gregation ?  Can  any  one  say  that  it  is  contrary  to  the  ordinances  of  the  Reformed 
churches  of  Scotland  so  to  do  ?  But  if  there  were  ordinances  to  this  effect  (which 
there  are  not),  I  would  disobey  them ;  if  there  were  ordinances  of  the  king  to  this 
effect,  I  would  disobey  them.  Yea,  I  would  disobey  all  ordinances,  whether  of  the 
ecclesiastical  or  civil  power,  which  commanded  me  not  to  do  a  thing  which  I  be- 
lieved the  Lord  Jesus  commanded  me  to  do ;  and  the  man  who  doth  not  so  act  in 
this  matter  is  guilty  of  treason  against  the  King  of  Heaven ;  and  I  would  disobey 
any  earthly  king  in  this  matter,  but  I  would  do  it  loyally,  not  rebelliously.  I  would 
say,  *  Whether  it  be  right  I  should  obey  man  rather  than  God,  judge  ye ;'  and  whether 
it  be  riglu  in  tlie  sight  of  God  to  obey  the  great  Head  of  the  Church  or  His  servants ; 
the  Head  of  the  Church  speaking  in  His  Word,  or  His  servants  speaking  through  any 
confession  or  canon  of  their  drawing  up,  judge  ye.  And  if  any  man  thinks  I  have 
set  my  hand  to  any  thing  contrary  to  that,  I  deny  it.  I  tell  that  man  I  have  not 
done  it  knowingly ;  and  if  unknowingly  I  have  done  it,  I  do  here,  before  the  Church 
of  God,  confess  I  have  done  wrong ;  for  it  never  was  given  to  a  man  to  sign  away  his 
liberty  of  serving  Jesus.  It  can  not  be  required  of  a  man ;  no  power  on  earth  can 
require  it.  And  if  by  any  act  of  my  life  I  have  given  away  my  power  of  serving 
Jesus,  I  confess  I  have  done  wrong,  and  when  it  is  brought  to  my  conscience  I  will 
renounce  it,  because  I  solemnly  deny  that  there  is  any  power  on  earth  which  can 
take  away  a  man's  power  of  sen-ing  Jesus,  who  bought  him  with  His  blood,  who  is 
King  over  all ;  who  sitteth  in  the  congregation  of  His  saints  as  head,  and  raiscth  the 
beggar  from  the  dunghill  to  set  him  among  princes,  and  who  casts  down  princes 
from  their  thrones.  But  I  have  not  done  it ;  the  Church  of  Scotland  hath  not  re- 
quired it ;  and  if  the  Church  of  Scotland  had,  in  an  evil  hour,  in  her  fallibility  (which 
none  is  so  ready  to  confess  as  she  is ;  for,  in  the  Preface  to  the  first  Confession  of  the 
Reformed  Church  of  Scotland,  words  nearly  to  the  following  effect  are  contained. 
I  can  not,  perhaps,  quote  the  precise  words,  but  I  will  answer  for  the  substance: 
'  If  any  man  do  discover  in  these  Articles  any  thing  which  repudiates  God's  Word 
or  right  reason,  we  crave  him  of  his  honor  or  of  his  kindness  to  inform  us,  and  we 
promise  that  we  will  give  him  satisfaction  out  of  the  Word  of  God  and  sound  reason, 
or  admit  that  we  are  wrong') — if,  therefore,  the  Church  of  Scotland,  in  the  exercise 
of  that  fallibility,  which  none  were  so  ready  to  acknowledge  as  our  Reformers,  stand- 
ing up  as  they  did  against  the  infallibility  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  had  framed  any 
canon  to  prevent  me  as  a  minister  of  Christ  from  doing  the  thing  which  I  have  done 
in  obedience  to  Christ,  I  would  have  felt  it  my  duty  to  disobey  that  canon,  and  have 
borne  the  consequences.  I  would  not  have  waited  for  months  or  years  the  result 
of  a  slow  process  before  the  Church  courts  for  authority  so  to  do ;  for  where  in  the 
mean  time  were  my  conscience ;  where  were  my  Lord ;  where  were  the  spiritual 
edification  of  my  flock ;  where  were  the  ordinance  of  prophesying  ?  But  the  Church 
expecteth  it  of  her  ministers  that  they  should  walk  according  to  the  ordinances  of 
Christ,  and  fulfill  their  duty  to  Him ;  and  in  doing  so  I  should  have  advised  my 
brethren  to  do  it,  and  would  have  taken  counsel  with  them  in  the  matter.  Nay,  I 
did  take  counsel  with  the  brethren  in  the  ministiy  in  this  matter,  at  least  with  two, 
than  whom  none  stand  higher  in  their  respective  churches:  the  Rev.  D.  Dow,  min- 
ister of  Irongray,  in  Scotland,  than  whom  no  man  in  that  Church  stood  in  higher 
reputation  till  he  had  received  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  but  of  whom  I  must  now 
say  that  he  hath  become  a  fool  for  Christ's  sake — I  wrote  to  him  on  the  subject,  and 
also  communed  with  another,  who  stood  in  the  very  highest  place  in  the  English 
Church  before  the  evangelical  body ;  and  I  asked  them  what  they  thought  of  this 
matter ;  and  the  deliverances  I  received  from  them  answered  exactly  to  the  previous 


590  APPENDICES. 

judgment  of  my  own  mind.  At  the  same  time  I  wrote  to  a  clergyman  of  the 
Church  of  England,  than  whom  none  stood  higher  in  his  Church,  but  who  is  now 
also  become  a  fool  for  Christ's  sake,  and  received  his  judgment  to  the  same  effect ; 
so  that  in  one  week  I  had  three  judgments  concurring  with  my  own  opinion  to  the 
very  letter.  These  I  laid  before  the  elders  and  deacons,  in  order  to  show  them  that 
I  was  not  acting  precipitately,  but  with  the  counsel  of  my  brethren.  And  I  do  not 
say  but  that,  if  I  had  been  a  member  of  this  Presbytery,  which  at  that  time  I  was 
not,  I  would  have  felt  it  my  duty  to  lay  it  before  them.  Ah!  surely  I  would;  I 
would  never  have  hid  any  thing  in  my  bosom  which  came  from  the  Lord,  and  I 
knew  it  to  be  so ;  for  while  I  was  connected  with  this  Presbytery,  every  thing  that 
was  brought  to  me  I  brought  into  the  Presbytery ;  but  then  I  had  been  rejected  by 
this  Presbytery  as  a  heretic ;  I  had  been  publicly  repudiated  by  them  as  a  heretic, 
and  branded  with  this  stigma  over  the  whole  land,  and  I  had  none  to  consult  with. 
I  would  have  observed  brotherly  love,  but  I  was  under  no  authority  to  them,  or  to 
any  Church  court ;  for  the  General  Assembly,  at  their  last  meeting,  clearly  laid  it 
down  that  they  could  not  exercise  any  rule  beyond  the  kingdom  of  Scotland.  It 
was  ruled  so  by  men  on  both  sides  the  house ;  so  that  if  I  had  been  inclined  to  act 
the  churchman  instead  of  the  Christian  minister ;  if  I  had  been  inclined  to  act  the 
I^art  of  a  minister  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  not  the  part  of  a  minister  of 
Christ ;  if  I  had  been  inclined  to  put  myself  forth  as  a  trustee  of  the  standards 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  not  as  a  minister  of  the  living  Word,  even  then  I 
could  not  have  done  the  thing  required  of  me,  namely,  to  apply  to  them  to  allow  the 
speaking  with  tongues  and  prophesying  in  the  congregation ;  but  I  would  not,  so 
there  is  an  end  of  that  kind  of  argument.  I  would  not,  because,  when  I  felt  the  aii- 
thority  of  my  Lord  in  my  conscience,  it  would  have  been  an  insult  to  Him  to  ask  for 
more.  There  is  no  authority  that  can  come  between  the  angels  of  the  Church  and 
Him  the  Head.  See  ye  if  it  is  ever  written  in  the  seven  epistles  of  Christ  to  his 
Church,  in  the  Revelations,  or  in  the  Word  of  God  any  where,  that  a  minister  is  re- 
quired to  go  to  the  Presbytery  or  synod  before  obeying  the  commands  of  Jesus.  See 
ye  if  there  be  any  instance  in  which  it  is  not  charged  to  the  angel  of  the  Church  if 
any  thing  disorderly  occurs  in  the  Church ;  and  I  say,  after  long  and  painful  study 
of  the  constitution  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  after  long  love,  and  ardent,  to  her 
constitution  and  discipline,  and  much  active  service  for  her  sake,  and  after  much  de- 
lightful communion  with  her  members,  I  will  say  to  my  younger  brethren  in  the 
ministry  here  present,  that  it  is  not  sound  doctrine  which  teacheth  that  the  Presbytery, 
or  the  General  Assembly,  or  any  court,  or  any  man,  or  bishop,  or  any  pope  inter- 
veneth  and  interposeth  their  authority  between  a  minister  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
who  speaks  to  the  minister  directly,  and  the  minister  directly  obeys  Christ.  The 
counsels  of  the  Church  are  for  settling  the  diiferences  that  arise,  but  are  not  intended 
to  take  away  the  free  standing  of  a  minister  of  Christ  in  the  Church.  I  say  it  is  the 
only  sound  doctrine  that  the  ministers  of  Christ,  and  pastors  of  His  people,  stand  di- 
rectly responsible  to  Christ,  all  Presbyteries,  synods,  councils,  creeds,  canons,  and 
confessions  notwithstanding.  These,  doubtless,  have  their  use  and  place,  but  this  is 
not  within  the  present  question. 

"Now  I  have  brought  this  third  head  to  a  close,  namely,  concerning  the  ruling 
of  it.  I  deny  every  charge  brought  against  me  seriatim,  and  say  it  is  not  per- 
sons, but  the  Holy  Ghost  that  speaketh  in  the  Church.  I  do  not  say  what  the 
judgment  of  this  Presbytery  might  be  if  they  could  say  that  these  persons  do  not 
speak  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  But  this  they  can  not  do.  This  is  what  I  rest  my  case 
upon.  This  is  the  root  of  the  matter.  This  is  what  I  press  on  the  conscience  of 
the  Presbytery ;  and  it  is  laid  before  them  out  of  the  mouths  of  all  the  witnesses. 


APPENDIX  C.  591 

The  evidence  is  entirely  to  this  cifect;  not  one  witness  has  witnessed  to  the  con- 
trary. 

"I  do  not  tliink.  it  necessary  to  go  into  the  institution  of  the  Church  of  Scotland 
to  show  my  faithfulness  to  the  Church  since  I  came  into  this  city  ;  how  many  of  the 
ordinances  I  found  fallen  down,  and  my  labors  in  building  them  up  again;  the  office 
of  deacon,  the  duty  of  the  elders  in  visiting  the  sick  of  the  flock,  public  baptism  in 
the  Church,  the  services  before  and  after  the  holy  communion,  etc. ;  but  I  am  not 
here  to  testify  of  myself,  for  if  I  did  my  witness  were  not  true.  I  am  here  to  testify 
of  another,  even  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  whose  name  as  Baptizer  with  the  Holy 
Ghost,  whose  standing  name  of  Godhead — for  it  is  that  which  distinguisheth  His 
name  as  God,  implying  that  He  hath  a  jjcrson  of  the  Godhead  to  distribute — is  denied 
by  this  complaint.  And  though  the  coniplaiucrs  shut  their  cars  upon  it,  yet  it  is  the 
truth,  it  is  the  burden  of  it ;  and  it  is,  let  me  say,  the  guilt  of  it,  and  a  heinous  guilt 
it  is.  I  believe  this  standing  name  of  Godhead  which  Jesus  hath,  as  Baptizer  with 
the  Holy  Ghost,  it  is  the  purpose  of  this  complaint  to  suppress  in  the  Church,  to 
prevent  from  being  exercised  in  tlie  Church.  It  is  the  purpose  of  this  complaint  to 
prevent  the  Lord  Jesus  from  fulfilling  His  covenant  of  baptism  to  every  member  of 
the  Church ;  it  is  the  purpose  of  this  complaint  to  prevent  the  Lord  Jesus  from 
speaking  with  His  own  voice  in  the  Church." 

Moderator.  "Order!  I  will  not  allow  this  assertion.  As  long  as  Mr.  Irving  speaks 
to  facts,  we  will  hear  him ;  but  when  he  imputes  intentions  to  the  complainers,  I  sub- 
mit it  is  clearly  disorderly." 

Mr.  Irving.  "You  do  not  understand  what  I  mean.  I  mean  that  it  is  the  animus 
of  this  document.  Is  it  not  the  very  intention  of  the  whole  complaint  ?  I  appeal  to 
the  court." 

Moderator.  "You  have  made  severe  personal  charges,  and  I  rule  it  is  not  compe- 
tent so  to  go  on.'* 

Mr.  Irving.  "I  ask  the  judgment  of  the  court  on  this  point,  whether  it  is  not  the 
very  intention  of  this  deed,  and  whether  I  was  arguing  as  to  the  persons,  or  as  to  the 
deed  of  complaint ;  and  I  was  saying  it  is  the  very  spirit  of  the  complaint  to  prevent 
the  voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost  from  being  heard  in  the  Church,  which  is  the  temple  of 
the  Holy  Ghost ;  it  is  the  spirit  of  the  complaint  to  put  it  down,  because  it  has  the 
sign  of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  it,  which  is  speaking  with  tongues." 

Mr.  Mann  here  interrupted  the  defender,  and  disavowed  the  intentions  imputed  to 
the  trustees. 

Mr.  Irving.  "I  speak  to  this  paper  (the  copy  of  the  complaint),  and  I  am  perfect- 
ly in  order.  I  have  a  good  right  to  judge  of  this  paper,  and  no  man  shall  prevent 
me.  Surely  this  Presbytery,  to  whom  I  appeal,  will  allow  me  to  speak  to  my  in- 
dictment." 

Dr.  Cromhie.  "I  must  say.  Moderator,  that  I  conceive  Mr.  Irving  perfectly  in  or- 
der, although  the  words  might  have  been  qualified  as  to  the  effect  of  the  complaint. 
Mr.  Irving  has  explained  that  he  does  not  impute  improper  motives  to  the  complain- 
ers; he  means  not  the  spirit  of  the  complainers,  but  the  spirit  of  the  complaint." 

Mr.  Irving.  "The  tendency  and  effect  of  the  complaint,  then,  that  is  quite  regular." 

Moderator.   "That  is  what  I  suggested." 

Mr.  Irving.  "Well,  I  say,  the  tendency  and  effect  of  the  complaint  is  to  resist  and 
hinder  the  voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost  speaking  in  the  Church  ;  and  let  me  enumerate 
the  points  in  the  complaint  again,  and  glad  am  I  to  have  another  opportunity  of  enu- 
merating them.  Well,  then,  the  inevitable  tendency  of  the  complaint  is  to  destroy 
the  name  of  Jesus  as  Baptizer  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  by  a  verdict  of  a  court,  and 
with  a  canon  of  a  Church  (and  it  makes  no  matter  what  court  it  is,  for  the  highest 


592  APPENDICES. 

of  human  authorities  is  but  as  the  lowest  when  compared  with  the  dignity  of  Jesus), 
to  take  away  from  Him  this  name  as  Baptizer  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  to  say  that 
name,  in  its  full  property,  and  grace,  and  blessedness,  and  effects,  belongeth  not  to 
Him.  The  tendency  of  the  complaint  is  to  take  away  from  every  child  of  God,  in 
the  bosom  of  the  National  Scotch  Church,  the  hope  and  the  desire  of  having  the  bap- 
tism of  the  Holy  Ghost  given  to  them  for  the  edification  of  the  Church,  according 
to  the  covenant  of  baptism.  The  tendency  of  the  complaint  is  to  take  away  the  lib- 
erty from  that  Church  of  having  and  exercising  the  gift  of  tongues  and  of  prophecj-, 
the  grand  ordinance  which  the  apostle  expressly  says  is  for  edification,  exhortation, 
and  comfort.  The  tendency  and  eflfect  of  the  complaint  is  to  take  away  the  speak- 
ing with  tongues  and  prophesying,  which  is  for  the  edification  of  the  Church.  The 
tendency  of  the  complaint  is  to  take  away  the  ordinance  of  the  prophet  from  the 
Christian  Church,  which  ordinance  Jesus  hath  ai:)pointed  to  be  in  the  Chui'ch  always, 
and  which  would  always  have  been  in  the  Church,  had  men  looked  always  to  the 
ordinances  of  Jesus,  instead  of  looking  to  human  wisdom  and  traditions,  and  human 
system  and  human  authority.  The  tendency  of  the  complaint  is  to  take  away  from 
the  Holy  Ghost  the  liberty  of  speaking  in  the  Church,  His  own  temple,  the  temple  of 
truth,  and  that  because  the  thing  spoken  is  accompanied  with  His  own  sign  of  speak- 
ing with  tongues.  It  is  the  spirit  and  tendency  of  this  complaint  to  take  from  a  min- 
ister of  Christ  the  dignity  and  responsibility  which  pertaineth  to  him  as  an  ofiicer  of 
the  Church  of  Christ,  to  rule  and  order  his  church  in  spiritual  things,  and  to  be  the 
responsible  deputy  of  Christ  in  all  things  pertaining  to  words  and  ordinances.  It  is 
the  tendency  and  effect  of  this  complaint  to  take  from  a  minister  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland  the  liberty  and  privilege  which  belongs  to  him  as  a  minister  of  Christ, 
which,  though  not  given  him  by  the  Church  of  Scotland,  yet  are  guaranteed  to  him 
both  by  the  canons  of  the  land  and  the  canons  of  the  Church ;  which  are  given  to 
him  by  Jesus,  and  are  guaranteed  to  him  by  the  powers,  as  well  civil  as  ecclesiastic- 
al, so  that  no  man  shall  let  or  hinder  him  therein.  It  is  the  tendency  and  effect  of 
this  complaint  to  put  trustees  (who  have  nothing  to  do  but  with  the  care  of  the  build- 
ing, that  it  be  not  diverted  from  its  proper  ends,  which  in  this  case  has  not  been 
done ;  and  I  defy  them,  and  all  men,  to  show  that  I  have  contravened  any  ordi- 
nances of  the  Church  of  Scotland  or  of  the  Church  of  Christ) — to  exalt  trustees  over 
the  minister,  and  to  make  him  their  bondman.  And  I  warn  you,  ministers,  that  if 
you  do  sanction  such  an  interference  with  a  man  acting  in  the  spirit  in  which  I  have 
acted ;  if  you  do  wink  at  these  proceedings,  and  not  look  them  in  the  face,  but  give 
these  men  power  to  cast  me  and  my  flock — a  flock  of  hundreds,  and  a  congregation 
of  thousands — out  of  that  church  which  has  been  built,  I  will  say,  very  much  on  the 
credit  of  my  name  ;  if  you  aid  them  in  casting  me  out  into  the  wide  streets,  you  will 
do  a  thing  for  which  the  Lord  will  chastise  you,  not  in  higher  matters  only,  but  in 
this  kind  also  in  which  you  offend,  namely,  in  those  who  have  the  secular  care  of  the 
houses  where  you  worship.*  I  have  but  one  word  to  add  as  to  the  position  in  which 
I  submit  this  matter  to  the  Presbytery,  because  in  this  matter  both  parties  have  a 
right  of  judgment.  With  all  reverence,  therefore — and  you  must  hear  it  with  pa- 
tience, for  what  I  am  going  to  say  is  not  pleasing  to  flesh  and  blood ;  but  I  must  ex- 
onerate my  conscience — with  all  reverence,  therefore,  I  say,  I  do  not  submit  this  case 
to  the  Presbytery  as  a  Presbytery  of  the  Cliurch  of  Scotland,  having  any  jurisdiction 
over  me ;  and  ye  will  not  ask  it  of  me,  because  I  have  no  right  of  appeal  from  this 
Presbytery  to  the  Church  of  Scotland.  I  do  not,  therefore,  submit  it  to  this  Pres- 
bytery as  a  Presbytery  having  any  right  of  superintendence  over  me ;  for,  though  I 
was  once  a  member  of  your  Presbyter}-,  I  went  out  from  you  of  my  own  free-will ; 
*  This  warning  has  been  eingularly  and  literally  jasti&ed.  by  the  course  of  events  since  then. 


APPENDIX  C.  593 

and  when  I  had  so  gone  forth  from  you,  because  I  saw  you  not  acting  as  I  judged 
according  to  the  commandments  of  the  Lord,  ye  did  judge  me,  in  my  absence,  a  her- 
etic on  great  points  of  faith ;  and  then,  at  the  sessions  of  our  Church,  the  Cliurch 
did,  by  solemn  act  of  the  ruling  ciders,  withdraw  itself  from  the  Presbytery,  and 
therefore  wo  arc  in  no  respect  under  your  jurisdiction.  And  although  many  ques- 
tions have  been  put  by  you  to  the  witnesses  as  to  my  doctrine,  and  ye,  I  believe, 
would  not  have  done  so  if  you  had  not  supposed  erroneously  that  you  had  jurisdic- 
tion over  nic,  I,  although  1  could  have  arrested  it,  yet  being  desirous  that  the  truth 
should  be  fully  known,  and  knowing  the  examination  would  throw  some  light  on  the 
question  in  hand,  I  suffered  it  to  go  on,  although  I  felt  that  in  it  the  Presbytery  did 
trespass  very  fiir  on  my  rights  as  a  party  in  this  case ;  and  I  will  say  also,  did  very 
much  forget  the  calmness  and  disinterestedness  of  judges;  for  never  did  I  hear,  or 
any  one  else,  in  any  court,  witnesses  so  questioned  and  cross-questioned — no,  not 
even  where  evidence  of  the  most  suspicious  kind  is  wont  to  be  brought  forward — as 
they  were  here  cross-questioned  by  the  Presbytery ;  and  that,  too,  even  in  the  most 
solemn  matters.  And  the  witnesses  being  voluntary,  and  under  no  compulsion,  were 
subjected  to  a  most  unusual  process  of  vexatious  scrutiny." 

Mr. Maclean.  "Order!  I  say.  Moderator,  the  questions  were  not  put  in  an  im- 
proper manner.  They  were  questions  quite  in  order,  and  for  sifting  the  truth  in 
respect  to  this  matter ;  although  the  manner  may  have  been  that  of  firmness  and 
decision,  there  was  no  improper  feeling." 

Tlie  Moderator  rose  to  defend  the  Presbytery,  and  thought  they  had  not  departed 
from  gravity  in  cross-examining  the  witnesses.  There  was  no  parallel  between  them 
and  civil  judges,  for  the  Presbytery  were  both  prosecutors  and  judges,  and  therefore, 
in  duty  to  the  Church,  they  were  bound  to  put  all  questions  needful  to  elucidate  the 
truth. 

Mr.  Irving.  "It  stands  in  evidence  that  the  witnesses  were  examined  as  to  my 
doctrine,  and  as  to  matters  far  away  from  the  matter  in  hand.  I  can  only  say  I 
never  authorized  the  Presbytery  to  inquire  into  my  doctrine.  Nay,  I  say  more,  I ' 
never  could  submit  my  doctrines  to  you  as  a  court  of  Christ ;  for,  by  refusing  all 
reference  to  the  Holy  Scriptui-es,  ye  have  put  yourselves  beyond  this  privilege.  What 
would  any  one  say  of  a  civil  court  in  Britain  which  would  refuse  an  appeal  to  the 
laws  of  the  realm  ?  Would  not  such  a  court,  sitting  in  name  of  the  king,  who  would 
so  despise  the  laws,  be  guilty  of  rebellion  against  the  king,  whose  office  it  is  to  ad- 
minister the  laws  impartially  to  all  his  subjects  ?  So  say  I  if  a  court,  calling  itself 
the  court  of  Christ,  says.it  will  not  allow  appeal  to  lie  open  to  the  Scriptures,  which 
are  the  statutes  of  our  King,  as  was  ruled  by  this  Presbytery  in  deliberate  judgment 
yesterday,  and  that  judgment  protested  against,  then  that  court  ceaseth  to  be  a  court 
of  Christ :  and  I  can  not  i-etract  or  qualify  my  assertion  that,  by  such  proceeding, 
this  Presbytery  hath  become  only  a  court  of  anti-Christ." 

Mr.  Maclean  rose  to  order,  and  said,  "It  is  quite  competent  to  the  reverend  gen- 
tleman to  protest  against  our  decision  on  that  point,  but  not  to  impugn  the  court ; 
but  to  say  that  we  are  not  a  court  of  Christ,  but  a  court  of  anti-Christ,  I  will  never, 
never  submit  to  it.  I  hold  my  judgment  on  the  matter  to  be  as  good  as  that  of  the 
Rev.  E.  Irving,  and  maintain  that  he  is  not  competent  to  do  any  thing  but  to  enter 
a  protest  against  us." 

Mr.  Trvinrj.  "I  have  said  the  word,  and  do  not  retract  it,  because  it  is  the  truth. 
I  said  it,  I  assure  you,  sir,  in  sorrow ;  I  grieve  over  it,  I  lament  over  it  in  faithful- 
ness. I  am  bound  to  say  the  Presbytery  have  most  grievously  erred  in  this  matter; 
and,  until  repentance  be  shown  by  them  for  this  sin,  the  Lord  is  angry  with  them. 
I  can  not,  therefore,  submit  this  matter  to  the  Presbytery  as  a  Presbytery,  but  mere- 

Pp 


594  APPENDICES. 

ly  as  referees.  I  do  not  deny  that  the  Presbytery  when  it  meets  is,  or  at  least  ought 
to  be,  constituted  in  Christ,  the  Head  of  the  Church,  and  ought  to  be  conducted  by 
entire  regard  to  the  teaching  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  but  this  Presbytery  have  virtually 
denied  this,  and  have  cut  themselves  off  from  the  fountain  of  justice  ;  they  have  cast 
themselves  from  all  judgment  on  the  basis  of  Scripture,  which  is  the  only  standard 
of  faith  and  practice,  as  declared  by  the  very  standards  of  our  Church ;  and  they 
can  not  give  righteous  judgment  in  this  cause  until  they  repent  of  that  which  Avas 
done  yesterday,  in  cutting  themselves  off  from  all  appeal  to  this  Book,  and  expunge 
their  decision  on  this  point  from  the  records ;  and  not  only  not  prevent,  but  gladly 
permit,  in  all  causes  that  come  before  them,  reference  to  be  made  to  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures. For  how  would  I  be  a  good  magistrate  of  the  king  if,  when  parties  came  be- 
fore me  with  any  case  to  be  adjudged,  and  those  parties  were  referring  to  the  stat- 
utes of  the  land,  I  should  say,  you  ought  not  to  refer  to  the  statutes  of  the  king,  but 
to  some  antique  customs,  or  some  of  the  new-come  notions — some  of  the  notions 
lately  come  up  in  this  part  of  the  country — which  we  have  ruled  among  ourselves  ? 
At  our  Quarter  Sessions,  if  a  man  should  come  up  before  a  magistrate,  and  should 
be  accused  of  any  matter,  and  it  should  be  found  out  and  showed  that  the  statutes 
of  the  realm  applied  to  the  very  point,  but  that  they  had  been  long  neglected,  and 
were  lying  in  desuetude,  surely  you  would  judge  him  by  the  statute  so  adduced. 
If  that  court  were  to  say  No,  we  can  not  permit  any  such  appeal,  would  you  say  they 
were  fulfilling  their  office  justly  ?  So  I  say  you  ought  to  encourage  appeals  to  the 
Word  of  God,  because  it  is  the  only  rule  of  faith  and  of  practice.  It  is  the  thing 
which  is  imposed  on  every  baptized  person,  and  as  such  it  is  obligatory  on  you.  Is 
it  not  the  custom  with  you,  and  with  every  other  minister  of  our  Church,  to  impose 
it  on  every  baptized  person  in  these  very  words  ?  Do  you  not  oblige  every  person 
who  comes  to  be  baptized  to  declare  that  these  Scriptures  are  the  only  rule  of  faith 
and  practice,  whereof  an  excellent  summary  is  contained  in  the  Confession  of  Faith, 
and  in  the  shorter  and  longer  Catechisms?  Yes,  these  are  the  words  which  are 
■  imposed  on  every  baptized  person.  I  have  imposed  them  on  every  person  I  have 
baptized,  except  occasionally  I  may  have  forgotten  it ;  and  it  is  the  constant  custom 
to  impose  them  on  every  baptized  person.  The  Scriptures  are  laid  on  every  parent 
as  the  only  rule  of  faith  and  practice.  You  are  bound  by  this  obligation,  whether  as 
fathers  or  as  ministers ;  and  yet  now,  when  I  come  into  your  court,  and  submit  to 
you  a  cause,  a  most  solemn  cause,  a  most  momentous  cause,  a  most  ponderous  cause, 
the  like  of  which  hath  not  been  agitated  in  Christendom  for  many  centuries — a  cause 
affecting  the  honor  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  His  work  in  the  Church,  which  is  His 
temple  ;  a  cause  touching  the  Holy  of  Holies,  and  not  the  skirts  of  the  tabernacle — 
ye,  when  I  come  before  you  with  this  cause,  refuse  all  proof  of  such  work  from  the 
Scriptures,  and  say,  We  will  not  rule  our  practice  by  the  Word  of  God." 

Mr.Irvincj,  on  being  called  to  oi'der,  said  in  explanation,  "I  was  only  saying  that, 
in  the  practice  of  this  court,  there  was  never  such  a  solemn  subject  before  it.  Is  it 
not  the  naked  fact  that  you  did  prevent  me  from  appealing  to  the  Scriptures  ?  Am 
I  to  be  held  in  disorder  for  speaking  the  plain  and  naked  truth  ?" 

The  ]ifoderator  denied  the  analogy  drawn  between  civil  courts  and  ecclesiastical 
courts,  and  disclaimed  the  inference  drawn  by  Mr.  Irv'ing  from  their  conduct  that 
they  had  interdicted  him  from  appealing  to  the  Scriptures.  "What  are  the  laws  of 
a  kingdom  but  the  will  of  the  king  constructed  by  the  nation  ?  The  standards  of 
our  Church,  in  like  manner,  were  held  to  be  the  will  of  the  King  of  Zion,  as  declared 
by  our  Church,  and  therefore  we  are  in  order  when  we  insist  that  the  reverend  de- 
fender shall  plead  to  the  will  of  the  King  as  declared  in  the  standards  of  our  Church. 
The  reverend  defender  must  show  that  he  is  acting  according  to  his  ordination  vows 


APPENDIX  C.  595 

in  this  matter.  He  has  taken  a  larger  range,  however,  and  gone  into  irrelevant 
matters.  We  have  borne  with  him  by  courtesy  and  in  tenderness ;  but  I  will  not 
compromise  the  dignity  of  the  court,  and  permit  him  to  use  epithets  which  I  think 
are  abusive." 

Mr.  Irving.  "I  speak  at  this  bar  as  a  minister  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  as  a 
minister  of  His  Word,  which  the  Lord  has  given  me  to  keep  and  to  minister ;  and 
as  a  maintainer  of  the  paramount  authority  of  His  Word ;  and  I  say  again,  that  dis- 
honor of  the  most  flagrant  nature  hath  been  done  to  the  Word  of  God  in  these  pro- 
ceedings by  preventing  an  appeal  to  it ;  and  if  I  were  not  to  lift  up  my  voice  against 
it,  the  very  stones  out  of  the  wall,  and  the  beams  out  of  the  timbqf,  would  cry  out. 
What  I  if  I  am  not  to  appeal  to  the  facts  which  have  actually  taken  place  in  this 
court,  which  have  been  ruled  in  this  court  by  the  Presbytery  in  this  matter,  I  will  sit 
down  and  speak  no  more.  For  I  will  not,  I  can  not,  be  prevented  by  the  court. 
There  is  a  right  above  every  court,  and  there  is  one  Head  over  every  court.  It  has 
been  endeavored  to  prevent  me  from  alluding  to  the  things  which  were  ruled  in  this 
court,  to  take  away  from  me  the  only  line  of  defense  which,  as  a  minister  of  the 
Word  of  God,  I  could  have  taken.  Sir,  I  can  not  but  appeal  from  the  course  that 
has  been  adopted  toward  me,  since  I  was  prohibited  by  a  solemn  decision  of  the 
court  from  appealing  to  the  only  authority  on  the  subject,  which  is  the  Word  of  God ; 
for  there  is  not  a  line  nor  a  word  in  the  standards  of  the  Church  which  directly  tiikcs 
up  the  subject  of  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  There  is  not  a  word  concerning  speak- 
ing with  tongues  and  prophesying  in  the  standards  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  There 
is  not  a  word  within  the  whole  compass  of  the  Church  canons  to  carry  an  appeal  to ; 
and  I  say  it  is  a  mere  hoodwinking  of  a  man,  after  you  have  shut  my  mouth  on  this 
important  part  of  my  case,  to  say  that  my  judgment  was  not  taken  away  by  your 
decision.  Find  me  in  the  standards  of  the  Church  any  thing  to  appeal  to ;  ye  can 
not." 

Mr.  Mann  here  rose  with  a  call  of  "  Order." 

Mr.  Irving.  "  If  I  am  to  be  interrupted  thus,  I  will  sit  down.  I  wish  to  act  rev- 
erently toward  my  brethren,  but  I  must  be  more  reverent  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ; 
God  knows  I  am  acting  as  a  minister  of  His  Word.  Well,  I  say,  I  submit  the  mat- 
ter to  this  Presbytery  as  to  a  number  of  men  endowed  with  conscience — with  the 
conscience  and  discernment  of  truth,  and  who  are  beholden  to  exercise  their  consci- 
entious discernment  for  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  the  Head  of  this  court,  and  the 
head  of  every  man,  and  who  are  beholden  to  judge  all  things  according  to  the  law 
of  Jesus  Christ,  which  is  the  law' of  this  court,  the  law  of  every  man-,  and  I  say  that 
this  Presbytery  are  called  upon  before  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  see  and  ascertain 
whether  that  thing  I  have  declared  to  them  upon  the  veracity  of  a  minister,  which  is 
substantiated  by  the  testimony  on  their  table,  given  by  witnesses  yesterday,  all  of 
their  own  selection,  and  which  I  will  pledge  myself  to  authenticate  farther  by  the 
testimony  of  not  less  than  five  hundred  persons,  of  unblemished  life  and  sound  faith, 
that  it  is  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  speaking  with  tongues  and  prophesying.  And 
as  all  the  witnesses  have  borne  a  uniform  testimony  to  it  as  the  work  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  the  Presbytery  can  not,  they  may  not,  before  God,  before  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  before  all  these  witnesses,  shut  their  eyes  willfully  against  such  testimo- 
ny in  this  matter,  or  if  they  do,  they  will  have  to  stand  at  a  bar  where  thetcan  not 
evade  the  force  of  conscience  and  the  deep  responsibility  they  now  take  to  them- 
selves, where  there  is  no  shutting  of  eyes,  but  where  every  thing  shall  be  disclosed. 
It  is  instructed  before  you  (surely  the  Presbytery  will  not  shut  its  eyes  to  the  evi- 
dence on  the  table)  that  it  is  by  the  Holy  Ghost  that  these  persons  speak.  There  is 
no  civil  court  whatever  that  would  refuse  to  receive  the  evidence  lying  on  your  ta- 


596  APPENDICES. 

ble  ;  and  you  may  not  as  members  of  a  Christian  Church,  you  may  not  as  ministers 
and  elders,  vou  may  not  as  honest  men,  turn  aside  from  the  matter  of  fact  that  has 
been  certified  to  you,  and  say.  We  will  leave  that  matter  in  the  background ;  we  will 
not  consider  it  at  all ;  we  will  go  simply  by  the  canons  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
and  see  what  they  say  on  the  subject.  They  say  nothing  on  it,  seeing  they  could 
say  nothing,  seeing  there  was  no  such  thing  in  being.  There  is  nothing  of  the  kind 
mentioned  in  the  Confession  of  Faith ;  and  I  ask  you  with  what  conscience  you  can 
turn  from  the  plain  evidence  that  it  is  the  Holy  Ghost  speaking  in  the  Church,  and 
rest  yourselves  on  nothing  but  points  of  formality.  I  say,  go  to  nothing  to  make  up 
your  judgment,  for  even  from  the  Holy  Scripture  ye  may  not  do  it ;  you  may  not  do 
it,  you  can  not  do  it  if  you  fear  the  living  God ;  you  can  not  do  it  if  you  respect 
men ;  you  can  not  do  it  if  you  respect  your  children  ;  you  can  not  do  it  if  you  re- 
spect truth  and  justice  ;  you  can  not  do  it  if  you  respect  the  Head  of  the  Church,  if 
you  acknowledge  the  authority  of  the  Lord  Jesus ;  you  can  not  do  it  if  you  have 
any  revei'ence  for  the  Holy  Ghost.  And  if  you  resolve  so  to  do,  which  may  the  Lord 
forbid,  I  shall  appear  at  the  bar  of  the  Great  Judge  as  a  witness  against  you,  that  I 
did  here  this  day  for  four  or  five  hours  contend,  no  irrelevant  matter,  but  contend 
the  very  matter  in  question — that  we  have  received  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  that 
we  have  ordered  it  according  to  the  Word  of  God,  and  that  it  ought  not  to  be  cast 
out  of  the  Church.  I  shall  appear  at  that  bar  where  all  secrets  shall  be  revealed, 
and  evidence  that  you  have  shut  your  eyes  against  this  thing,  notwithstanding  all 
the  evidence  that  could  be  adduced ;  yea,  though  I  have  offered  to  substantiate  it 
by  five  hundred  persons  of  unblemished  reputation,  who  would  willingly  come  for- 
ward and  testify  to  this  work  being  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  before  this  court,  or  any  diet 
you  may  appoint.  Ah !  if  ye  will  turn  aside  from  that,  and  say  No,  there  are  no 
customs  or  authority  in  the  canons  of  the  Church  for  it,  and  we  will  not  consider 
whether  the  thing  is  in  Scripture  or  not ;  if  ye  will  not  consider  it  in  the  only  true 
light — the  light  of  the  Scripture — I  tell  you,  ye  shall  be  withered  in  your  church- 
es ;  I  tell  you,  ye  will  be  visited  with  heavy  retribution ;  I  tell  you,  the  waters  in 
your  cisterns  shall  be  dried  up ;  I  tell  you,  ye  shall  have  no  pastui'es  in  which  to 
feed  your  flocks ;  I  tell  you,  your  flocks  shall  pine  away  for  hunger  and  shall  die. 
Moreover,  I  stand  here  rejoicing,  not  on  your  account  truly,  but  oh !  I  rejoice  that  I 
am  counted  worthy  to  suffer  shame  and  reproach  for  this  testimony.  If  ye  will,  as 
members  of  a  Christian  court,  give  your  decision  against  me,  while  I  deplore  it  on 
your  account  and  that  of  the  complainers,  I  rejoice,  yea,  I  rejoice  exceedingly,  for 
my  own  sake,  and  for  the  sake  of  my  flock ;  yea,  I  will  call  on  them  to  rejoice,  and 
to  be  exceeding  glad,  that  I  am  counted  worthy  to  suffer  for  the  Lord's  sake.  And 
I  will  say  of  this  Presbytery  that  it  took  away  my  judgment ;  that  it  thrust  away  my 
judgment;  that  it  would  not  examine  into  the  merits  of  the  case ;  that  it  set  aside 
the  testimony  of  honest  men — of  an  elder,  and  a  deacon,  and  a  prophet,  and  a  min- 
ister of  Christ ;  and,  judging  against  all  the  evidence,  ye  have  thrust  aside  their 
testimony,  and  have  merely  said.  Is  there  any  authority  for  this  in  the  Church  of 
Scotland  ?  Oh,  it  is  a  small  matter  to  he  cast  out  of  a  house ;  it  is  a  small  matter 
this,  seeing  we  have  'a  house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens,'  and  are 
here  but  as  pilgrims  and  sojourners  on  the  earth,  as  all' our  fathers  were.  The  Lord, 
we  do  not  doubt,  will  provide  us  another,  and  if  not,  we  are  no  worse  off  than  He 
who  waft,ccustomed  to  preach  the  glad  tidings  of  the  kingdom  by  the  Sea  of  Gal- 
ilee ;  who  taught  His  flock  In  the  fields  and  desert  places  of  Judea,  and  on  the 
Mount  of  Olives.  We  can  take  ourselves  to  the  fields  and  open  places  around  this 
great  city,  and  there  I  can  feed  my  flock ;  we  can  not  be  worse  off  than  He  who,  to 
seek  retirement,  went  up  into  a  desert  mountain  to  pray,  and  who  had  not  where  to 


APPENDIX  C.  597 

lay  His  head  ;  and  when  they  all  went  to  tlieir  several  homes,  lie  went  to  the 
Mount  of  Olives  during  the  night  to  sleep  there.  We  are  not  worse  off  than  He. 
Oh,  it  is  a  small  matter  to  he  turned  out  of  our  church.  He  will  soon  recompense 
ns  with  'a  city  which  hath  foundations,  whose  huilder  and  maker  is  God.'  Tlie  day 
is  near  at  hand  when  the  heavens  shall  he  opened,  and  He,  the  Son  of  Man,  shall  ap- 
pear in  the  clouds,  with  power  and  great  glory,  and  when  His  saints  shall  be  taken  to 
Him,  to  dwell  before  His  throne.  It  is  near  at  hand,  we  know ;  that  day  is  near  at 
hand  ;  and  we  know  this  voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost  has  been  sent  to  His  Church  to  be 
the  witness  to  prepare  all  men  for  His  speedy  coming,  by  a  voice  that  could  not  be 
doubted,  which  the  Lord  has  been  graciously  pleased  to  send  among  us  in  answer  to 
our  prayer.  When  ye  had  set  aside  the  voice  of  testimony,  which  I  have  lifted  up 
for  the  last  five  or  six  years,  to  the  coming  of  Jesus,  and  counted  it  as  a  fable,  then 
the  Lord,  in  order  that  ye  might  not  perish,  sent  His  own  voice,  as  in  the  old  time, 
to  prepare  you  for  His  coming ;  and  poured  out  His  Spirit  to  lead  you  to  Jesus,  in 
order  that  ye  might  receive  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  to  call  on  you  to  receive 
the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  through  which  alone  you  can  be  saved  in  that  day 
when  the  Lord's  judgments  shall  be  revealed  from  heaven  in  flaming  fire ;  when  there 
shall  be  signs  in  the  sun  and  in  the  moon,  and  in  the  earth  distress  and  perplexity 
of  nations,  as  is  now  begun.  And  when  anti-Christ,  that  man  of  sin,  shall  be  re- 
vealed, and  shall  be  destroyed  with  judgment ;  and  when  only  those  shall  be  jire- 
served  from  the  persecutions  of  anti-Christ  who  have  an  anointing  from  the  Holy 
One.  When  we  know  these  things,  it  is  a  small  matter  to  be  cast  out  of  the  Church, 
because  we  know  that  house,  that  throne  of  glory,  that  temple  in  which  God  dwells, 
shall  be  prepared — shall  soon  be  prepared — for  us ;  when  we  know  that  in  our  time — 
yea,  even  in  our  time — He  will  come  with  all  his  saints  to  execute  vengeance  upon 
all  them  who  fear  not  God,  and  obey  not  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  But  it  is  a  most 
momentous  thing  for  you,  who  have  been  thus  betrayed  into  the  snare  of  Satan,  to 
bring  up  a  complaint  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  from  which  awful  responsibility  I 
pray  God  j'our  souls  may  be  delivered.  A  blessed  thing  will  it  be  for  you  if  you  give 
heed,  and  turn ;  but  if  ye  will  not  turn,  and  yet,  not  having  examined  the  thing  for 
yourselves,  ye  will  give  judgment  against  it,  it  will  be  a  burdensome  thing  to  you. 
It  will  be  a  burdensome  thing  to  this  Presbytery  if  it  shall  give  judgment  against 
that  which  hath  been  instructed  before  them  to  be  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
which  none  of  them  can  say,  on  their  own  conscience  or  discernment,  not  to  be 
the  Holy  Ghost,  since  they  have  not  come  to  witness  it,  they  have  not  attempted  to 
prove  it.  Ah !  it  will  bo  a  burdensome  thing,  not  to  this  Presbytery  alone,  but  to 
this  city  also,  if  ye  shut  the  only  church  in  it,  yea,  the  only  church  in  this  kingdom 
in  whicfc  the  voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  heard !  Think  you,  O  men  !  if  it  should  be 
the  Holy  Ghost,  what  ye  are  doing  !  Consider  the  possibility  of  it,  and  be  not  rash  ; 
consider  the  possibility  of  the  evidence  being  true,  of  our  averments  being  right,  and 
see  what  ye  are  doing.  Ah !  I  tell  you  it  will  be  an  onerous  day  for  this  city  and 
this  kingdom,  in  the  which  ye  do  with  a  stout  heart  and  high  hand,  and  without  ex- 
amination or  consideration,  upon  any  grounds,  upon  any  authority,  even  though  you 
had  the  commandment  of  the  king  himself,  shut  up  that  house  in  which  the  voice 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  heard,  that  house  in  which  alone  it  is  heard.  Pause — pause — 
pause,  and  reflect.  Ye  are  going  to  set  yourselves  to  the  most  terrible  work  to  w-hich 
a  Presbytery  ever  set  its  hand.  I  must  say,  in  honesty,  I  do  not  see  every  where 
that  spirit  prevailing  (it  may  prevail  in  some  of  you,  I  judge  no  man),  but  I  do  not 
see  that  spirit  prevailing  of  looking  at  the  act  ye  are  about  to  do  in  that  solemn 
magnitude  in  which  it  truly  standeth  before  the  Judge  of  all.  I  beseech  you  to 
pause ;  pause  for  the  sake  of  the  complainers,  if  not  for  your  own  sakes ;  pause  for 


598  APPENDICES. 

the  sake  of  this  city ;  paiisc  for  the  sake  of  this  land.  Be  wise  men ;  come  and  hear 
for  yourselves.  The  church  is  open  every  morning;  the  Lord  is  gracious  almost 
every  morning  to  speak  to  us  by  His  Spirit.  The  church  is  open  many  times  in  the 
week,  and  the  Lord  is  gracious  to  us,  and  speaks  through  his  servants  very  often. 
Ah  !  be  not  hard-hearted,  be  not  proud  of  mind  ;  remember  ye  are  but  men.  Re- 
member, this  work  of  the  Spirit,  this  speaking  with  tongues,  is,  indeed,  for  rest  and 
refreshing  to  the  weary ;  but  it  is  also  for  the  stumbling,  and  snaring,  and  taking  of 
the  proud  and  high-minded.  Remember  that  it  is  to  teach  wisdom  to  those  only 
who  are  weaned  from  the  breasts,  and  have  the  spirit  of  little  children.  If  ye  be 
like  those  who  are  weaned  from  the  breasts,  and  have  in  you  the  spirit  of  little 
children,  ye  will  beware,  and  learn ;  but  if  ye  have  the  spirit  of  strong  men,  and 
think  your  own  wisdom  sufficient,  believing  that  in  the  Church  there  is  enough,  or  in 
the  traditions  of  the  Church  there  is  enough,  ye  will  plunge  headlong  into  the  wrath 
of  God.  I  have  no  doubt  in  saying  it,  and  I  would  be  an  unfaithful  man,  pleading 
not  my  cause,  but  the  cause  of  God,  the  cause  of  Christ,  the  cause  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
in  this  Presbytery  (for  it  is  not  the  cause  of  a  man ;  no,  man  has  no  charge  against 
me ;  I  stand  unimpeached,  unblemished  before  them),  did  I  not  say  it.  It  is  only 
this  interruption,  this  new  thing  (for  it  is  not  an  interruption)  that  hath  occurred, 
which  is  instructed  by  the  evidence  to  be  the  voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  speaking 
with  tongues  and  prophesying,  which  I  have  declared  to  be  the  same,  which  hath 
given  offense.  And  I  sit  down,  solemnly  declaring  before  you  all,  before  God  and 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  on  the  faith  of  a  minister  of  Christ,  that  I  believe  it  to  be  the 
work  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  for  the  edifying  of  the  Church,  for  the  warning  of  the 
world,  and  for  preventing  men  from  running  headlong  into  the  arms  of  anti-Christ, 
and  for  pointing  out  that  condition  of  Babylonish  confusion  into  which  the  churches 
are  come ;  for  we  all  lament  with  one  accord,  and  must  acknowledge  that  we  have 
surely  departed  from  what  we  were  originally  as  a  Church,  and  how  could  the  Lord 
show  what  the  Church  should  be  but  by  restoring  those  gifts  which  she  had  at  the 
beginning?  What  can  reconstitute  the  Church  of  God  but  that  which  constituted  it 
at  the  first  ?  What  can  deliver  the  captive  from  the  bondage  of  the  flesh  but  that 
God  who  called  Abraham  from  his  native  land  ?  That  God  is  now  come  in  the  per- 
son of  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  deliver  His  Church  from  the  bondage  of  Egypt,  from  the 
bondage  of  the  flesh  in  which  she  is. 

"One  word  more,  and  I  conclude.  I  do  solemnly  declare  (it  is  the  faith  of  a 
Christian,  and  I  mean  no  oftense),  but  I  do  solemnly  declare  my  belief  that  the 
Protestant  churches  are  in  the  state  of  Babylon  as  truly  as  is  the  Roman  Church. 
And  I  do  separate  myself,  and  my  flock  standing  in  me,  from  that  Babylonish  con- 
federacy, and  stand  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  under  the  great  Head  of  the  Church, 
waiting  for  His  appearing,  who  shall  come  out  of  Zion  a  Deliverer,  constituting  no 
schism,  but,  as  a  minister  believing  his  Lord  is  soon  to  appear,  desiring  and  praying 
that  his  Church  may,  by  the  baptism  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire,  be  made 
meet  for  His  appearing.  And  with  this  hope  and  prospect  I  still  have  great  love  for 
each  of  you,  and  desire  you  to  know  the  same,  and  entreat  you  to  come  out  from  the 
Babylonish  mixture,  to  come'  out  of  all  carnal  ordinances,  from  all  human  authority 
repressing  you,  and  putting  you  in  bondage  to  man's  devices,  and  preventing  you 
from  entering  the  promised  land  of  the  Spirit.  I  entreat  you  to  set  up  the  Holy 
Scriptures  as  the  only  basis  of  faith  and  practice ;  to  look  as  ministers,  and  to  look 
as  people,  to  them  alone ;  and  I  know  this,  that  if  you  throw  the  Bible  aside,  you 
will  not  look  to  much  else  that  is  good.  You  may  talk  about  standards  as  you 
please,  but  I  know  there  will  be  little  reading  of  the  standards  or  other  good  books 
if  there  be  not  much  reading  of  the  Scriptures.     Therefore  I  entreat  you  to  piit  the 


APPENDIX  C.  599 

standards  on  their  own  basis,  and  every  moment  to  walk  before  the  Lord  in  His 
commandments.  Cry  to  the  Lord,  and  repent  of  worldUness ;  turn  to  the  Lord, 
and  call  on  Him  to  lead  you  into  the  true  faith,  and  to  baptize  you  with  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  the  Lord  will  soon  tcacii  you  and  bless  you.  What  I  say  to  the  Presby- 
tery I  say  also  to  you  all ;  and  I  would  farther  urge  you,  in  doing  so,  not  to  fear  but 
that  in  the  day  of  His  apjjcaring  the  Lord  will  spread  His  mantle  over  you,  and  hide 
you  in  the  secret  of  His  pavilion,  and  give  you  forever  reverently  to  inquire  for,  and 
to  know  Him  in  His  holy  i»lace.     Amen  and  Amen." 

This  defense  was  followed  by  a  speech  from  Mr.  Mann,  the  representative  of  the 
trustees,  after  which  the  Presbytery  adjourned  for  a  week. 

On  Wednesday  the  Presbytery  met,  and  after  the  court  had  been  opened  in  the 
usual  form,  the  reverend  Moderator  rose  and  said,  that,  "as  there  was  no  appeal 
from  the  decision  of  the  court,  the  Presbytery  had  come  to  the  determination  that 
they  would  permit  Mr.  Irving  to  make  any  obserA'ations  he  might  think  fit  to  make 
in  reply  to  Mr.  Mann's  remarks,  provided  he  would  keep  himself  entirely  to  the  mat- 
ter to  wliich  Mr.  Mann  had  adverted." 

Mr.  Irving  then  rose,  and  after  a  short  pause,  which  he  devoted  to  prayer,  said, 
"In  order  that  I  may  aid  my  memory,  and  walk  strictly  by  the  rule  which  the  court 
has  laid  down,  I  hold  in  my  hand  the  report  of  the  speech  made  on  Friday,  on  be- 
half of  the  trustees  (of  which  I  did  not  take  notes),  as  it  is  reported  in  the  Record 
newspaper ;  and  I  will  endeavor,  by  the  help  of  my  memory,  and  of  this  report,  how- 
ever imperfect,  to  keep  within  the  proper  limits ;  and  if  in  any  thing  I  may  travel 
out  of  them,  I  desire  to  be  called  by  you  or  the  opposite  party  to  order.  Neverthe- 
less, you  will  allow  me  the  privilege  of  replying  in  such  a  manner  as  that  I  may  set 
forth  a  full  and  fair  answer,  according  to  the  convictions  of  my  own  mind,  to  the 
things  which  were  alleged  in  the  speech  of  the  gentleman  who  appeared  on  the  oth- 
er side.  The  first  thing  of  importance  which  he  stated  was,  that  '  He  did  not  con- 
sider himself  called  upon  to  make  any  reply  to  the  unseemly  and  untimely  denuncia- 
tions with  which  I  attempted  to  stem  the  course  of  justice.'  To  this  I  reply,  I  did 
not  attempt  to  stem  the  course  of  justice  by  any  thing  which  I  spoke,  but  I  sought 
to  open  the  channels  for  the  stream  of  justice  to  flow  freely  ;  and  because  I  believe 
that  the  present  question  before  the  Presbytery  amounteth  to  this,  Whether  the  out- 
breakings  of  the  latter-day  glory  shall  be  quenched  or  permitted  to  proceed  in  the 
churches  of  Scotland  and  of  England  ?  I  was  at  pains  to  lay  before  you  the  awful 
consequences  involved  in  this  issue,  being  truly  desirous  to  save  my  brethren  and  my 
country  from  the  wrath  of  God,  which  will  come  upon  all  who  stand  in  the  way  of 
His  gracious  purposes.  For  I  do  certainly  foresee  that  if  you,  as  a  Presbytery  hav- 
ing power  given  to  you  in  this  matter,  should  decide  on  any  ground  earthly,  that  this, 
which  is  by  the  evidence  on  your  table  sworn,  and  which  I  solemnly  declare  to  be 
the  voice  of  God  speaking  again  in  His  Church,  shall  now  be  hindered  and  put  to 
silence,  the  end  of  it  shall  be  great  and  heavy  judgments  of  the  Lord  on  all  those 
who  have  a  hand  in  opposing  His  work ;  yea,  and  upon  the  Church  itself,  if  the 
Church  shall  take  part  in  these  proceedings,  if  she  do  not  enter  her  solemn  protest 
against  them,  and  deliver  her  soul  from  them  altogether.  It  was  not  surely  to  stem 
the  course  of  justice,  but  to  lay  open  before  your  eyes  what  I  believe  to  be  involved 
in  your  decision,  that  I  did  not  hesitate  to  put  these  things  forth,  not  in  the  way  of 
denunciation  (for  who  am  I,  that  I  should  judge  or  denounce  any  man  ?),  but  as  the 
convictions  of  my  faith  :  'I  believed,  and  therefore  have  I  spoken,'  as  the  Holy  Ghost 
saith  in  reference  to  the  Lord  (Psalm  cxv.),  which  the  apostle  also  taketh  to  himself 


600  APPENDICES. 

(2  Cor.,  iv.,  13).  I  therefore  beseech  the  Presbyteiy  not  to  be  carried  away  by  this 
misrepresentation,  as  if  I  had  taken  upon  me  God's  seat  of  judgment,  and  spoken 
from  that  seat,  in  order  to  stem  the  course  of  justice  on  earth.  I  hope  the  word  was 
spoken  unadvisedly,  and  not  with  evil  design ;  yet,  if  it  had  weight  with  any  of  the 
judges,  let  them  be  careful  to  put  it  away.  The  fearful  things  which  I  spake  were 
not  intended  to  stem  the  course  of  justice,  but  to  let  the  judges  know  what  depended 
on  the  issue  of  the  question  before  them.  And  most  solemnly  do  I  again,  before  this 
court,  declare  my  faith  to  be,  that  like  as  the  Man  of  Sorrows,  because  of  His  humil- 
iation, and  desertion  of  all  the  people,  was  rejected  and  crucified  by  the  Jews,  where- 
by they  brought  down  upon  their  nation  all  those  consuming  judgments  under  which 
they  still  lie  oppressed,  and  from  which  they  shall  not  be  recovered  till  they  look  on 
Him  whom  they  pierced,  and  mourn  over  their  sin,  so  is  this  Presbytery  now  brought 
into  the  peril  of  rejecting  the  small  and  slender  beginnings  of  the  Holy  Ghost's  work, 
because  of  the  humble  form  in  which  it  hath  appeared,  as  a  few  droppings  before  the 
abundant  latter  rain ;  into  which  snai'e  if  you  fall,  then,  while  I  believe  that  the 
Lord's  work  will  not  be  hindered  by  you  or  by  all  men,  I  farther  believe  that,  because 
you  will  not  further  it,  but  fight  against  it,  you  will  bring  down  upon  you  heads,  not 
the  judgment  of  the  Jewish  Church,  which  can  be  forgiven,  because  they  sinned 
against  the  Son  of  Man,  but  the  judgment  of  the  Gentile  Church,  w-hich  can  not  be 
forgiven,  neither  in  this  world  nor  in  that  which  is  to  come,  because  it  is  done 
against  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Spirit  of  the  Father,  which  is  now  revealed  in  its  first- 
fruits,  and  standeth  before  you,  the  ministers  of  Jesus,  to  be  discerned  and  encour- 
aged, not  to  be  overlooked  and  quenched,  so  far  as  your  influence  extends. 

"  The  next  thing  spoken  in  reply  was.  That  the  subject  matter  before  the  Presby- 
tery was  not  of  doctrine,  but  of  discipline.  But,  brethren,  I  aver,  and  you  should 
know  well,  that  discipline  without  doctrine  is  nothing  but  legal  constraint  and  abso- 
lute tyranny — a  thing  unknown  in  the  Christian  Church.  Discipline  is  not  a  thing 
which  can  be  considered  apart,  being  in  truth  nothing  else  than  the  labor  of  the  vine- 
dresser when  the  vine  is  putting  forth  exuberant  leaves  and  branches,  which  hinder 
the  fruit  from  being  perfected ;  a  labor,  surely,  which  presupposeth  life  in  the  vine, 
which  life  cometh  in  the  Church  from  sound  and  fruitful  doctrine.  Discipline,  apart 
from  doctrine,  hath  no  grace  or  love  to  rest  upon,  and  turneth  to  severity.  For  here- 
in a  court  of  the  Church  differeth  from  a  court  of  law  in  that  it  ruleth  every  thing, 
not  according  to  the  letter  of  the  statute,  but  according  to  tho  spirit  of  charity ;  and 
if  she  findeth  her  children  in  error  in  any  matter,  the  Church  treateth  with  the  con- 
science, not  to  destroy,  but  to  save ;  to  pluck  out  the  root  of  bitterness,  and  set  the 
heart  right  with  God,  with  our  neighbor,  with  the  Church ;  to  indoctrinate  him  in 
the  mind  of  Jesus ;  to  deal  lovingly  and  gently  with  him  for  whom  Christ  died ;  to 
open  upon  him  the  flood-gates  of  the  Gospel,  and  hold  forth  to  his  view  the  holiness, 
the  love,  and  the  salvation  against  which  sin  doth  blind  the  eye  and  harden  the  heart. 
So  that,  supposing  we  were  even  to  grant  the  allegation  that  it  were  a  mere  question 
of  discipline,  this  Presbytery  can  not  treat  it  rightly  unless  it  inquire  into  the  doc- 
trine which  the  discipline  doth  order  and  regulate ;  and  if  we  be  found  of  you  to 
have  erred  in  any  thing,  teach  us  the  true  doctrine,  and  we  will  promise  to  walk 
therein,  according  to  the  wholesome  discipline  of  love.  But  I  deny  the  averment 
that  it  is  a  question  of  discipline  and  not  of  doctrine  ;  for  if  these  be  the  manifesta- 
tions of  the  Holy  Ghost,  what  court  under  heaven  would  dare  to  interpose  and  say 
they  must  not  be  suffered  to  proceed  ?  Tell  me  if  that  body  does  exist  on  the  face 
of  the  earth  which  would  dare  to  rule  it  so  if  they  believe  the  work  to  be  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Surely  not  in  the  Christian  Church  doth  such  a  body  exist ;  therefore  tho 
decision  must  entirely  depend  on  this :.  whether  it  be  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  or  whether 


APPENDIX  C.  601 

it  be  not  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  For  if  it  be,  who  dare  gainsay  it  ?  Will  any  one  say, 
if  it  be  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  any  rule  of  discipline  or  statute  of  the  Church,  sup- 
posing the  statutes  were  sevenfold  strong,  instead  of  being  none  at  all — for  on  this 
subject  the  statutes  of  the  Churcli  of  Scotland  arc  entirely  silent — will  any  one  dare 
to  say  that,  if  it  be  the  voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  all  laws  and  statutes  in  which,  du% 
ing  the  days  of  her  ignorance,  the  Church  might  have  sought  to  defend  herself  against 
the  entcrisg  in  of  the  voice  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  should  be  allowed  to  keep  Ilim  out? 
And  is  it  possible  that  this  Presbytery  should  shuffle  off  the  burden  of  the  issue,  and 
act  upon  the  assertion  made,  that  it  is  not  the  matter  of  doctrine  which  is  to  be  en- 
tered into,  the  more  when  the  evidence  upon  the  table  is  unanimous  to  this  point, 
tliat  it  is  the  voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  And  with  such  evidence  upon  your  table, 
and  none  other,  will  they  say  that  you  should  not  go  into  the  question,  but  decide  on 
the  matter  according  to  an  arbitrary  rule,  when,  in  point  of  fact,  there  is  no  such 
rule  in  existence  ?  Verily,  if  the  Presbytery  should  do  so,  it  would  make  void  all 
the  laws  of  evidence,  and  convert  witness-bearing  into  an  idle  formality,  if  it  pre- 
sumes to  judge  away  from  the  evidence  before  it.  But  I  hope  better  things  of  this 
body  of  ministers  and  elders  than  that  they  will  fall  into  the  trap  laid  for  them,  of 
hiding  the  matter  of  fact  in  evidence  before  them  from  their  eyes,  of  shunning  the 
question  of  doctrine,  and  converting  this  weightiest  of  all  questions  into  a  mere  mat- 
ter of  form.  I  know  that  you  consider  yourselves  constituted  under  the  Holy  Ghost ; 
and  when  you  pray  to  be  directed  under  Christ  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  you  are  not  put- 
ting up  prayers  in  hypocrisy,  but  in  sincerity ;  and  being  so,  when  it  is'  on  the  table 
in  evidence,  brought  by  the  accusing  party,  that  it  is  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
this  Presbyteiy,  constituted  under  the  Holy  Ghost,  will  surely  never  set  such  evidence 
to  a  side,  and  refuse  to  expiscate  the  truth  of  the  matter,  either  to  justify  before  the 
world  the  Holy  Ghost's  work,  or  else  to  expose  the  fallacious  pretense  thereto,  and 
so  protect  the  dignity  and  sanctity  of  that  name  in  which  you  believe  that  you  sit 
constituted. 

"But  to  return  to  the  course  holden  by  the  other  party;  taking  it  up  as  a  ques- 
tion of  discipline,  the  gentleman  who  was  the  mouth  of  the  trustees  set  forth  to  you 
that '  the  subject-matter  before  the  Presbytery  was  not  the  question  of  the  doctrine, 
it  was  a  question  of  discipline  ;  that  being  the  case,  would  he  not  be  right  in  refer- 
ring to  the  discipline  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  as  set  out  in  her  own  standards? 
Because  he  did  not  go  to  the  Word  of  God  to  find  out  what  was  not  in  the  Word  of 
God,  was  he  to  be  told  that  he  refused  to  appeal  to  the  Word  of  God  ?  Certainly 
not.'  In  reply  to  this,  I  say  that  any  man  who  will  go  into  the  standards  of  the 
Church  as  if  they  stood  upon  a  basis  of  their  own,  and  had  an  authority  in  them- 
selves, he  doth  thrust  the  Word  of  God  to  the  ground,  and  trample  it  under  his  feet. 
Standards,  in  their  own  place,  I  respect  as  a  testimony  against  error,  lifted  up  by  one 
generation,  not  to  prevent  another  generation  from  standing  up  in  the  same  liberty 
of  testifying  for  what  our  fathers  testified,  to  add  to,  or  take  away  from  their  testi- 
mony, according  as  the  Spirit  in  the  Church  may  make  the  truth  more  manifest,  or 
array  it  in  better  forms  against  the  enemy.  I  maintain  that  if  any  man  will  go  into 
the  standards  of  any  Church,  be  they  Canons  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  the  Articles 
of  Pope  Pius  the  Fourth,  the  Articles  of  the  Church  of  England  and  her  Canons  of 
different  reigns,  or  be  they  the  Articles  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  her  Books  of  Dis- 
cipline, or  the  conclusions  of  the  Westminster  Assembly — be  they  what  they  please, 
and  presume  to  put  them  forth  as  having  the  weight  of  a  feather  in  themselves  until 
they  be  confirmed  by  the  Holy  Scriptures,  he  doth,  in  so  doing,  plant  his  hand  upon 
the  throne  of  God  ;  and  as  Amalek  was  smitten  by  Jehovah  for  that  sin,  so  God  will 
have  war  with  hira  forever.    For  what  is  the  throne  of  God?    Is  it  not  His  Word, 


602  APPENDICES. 

His  indefeasible,  immutable  "Word,  His  evev-to-be-revered  Word,  every  jot  and  tittle 
of  which  is  most  holy,  most  awfully  holy,  and  heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but 
it  shall  not  pass  away. 

"But  let  us  come  to  the  facts,  and  wrestle  with  them  on  their  own  ground.  And 
1^  fact  is  this :  that  there  is  not  one  word  in  the  standards  against  the  thing  which 
I  have  done ;  I  know  very  well  where  the  minds  of  those  who  think  difterently  take 
refuge ;  in  the  clause  pointed  out  in  the  forms  of  Church  government  approved  by 
the  synod  of  divines  in  Westminster,  where  it  is  said  that  the  ofiSce  of  apostles,  etc. 
hath  ceased.  But  I  appeal  from  that  to  the  Second  Book  of  Discipline,  which  is  of 
higher  authority  in  the  Church,  and  where  it  is  said  that  they  may  be  revived  if  the 
Lord  see  it  good.  Now  we  say  positively  it  hath  been  revived  ;  and  in  proof  of  our 
asseveration,  I  appeal  to  the  evidence,  the  whole  evidence  upon  your  table,  which  if 
you  refuse  to  admit,  you  not  only  set  the  oaths  of  honest  men  at  naught,  but  refuse 
to  reverence  that  proviso  and  reverend  supposition  of  your  fathers  that  the  extraor- 
dinary gifts  which  were  ceased  might  be  revived  again.  Now,  saving  these  two 
places,  I  declare  before  j'ou  all  that,  up  to  this  moment,  I  am  unconscious  of  a  word 
concerning  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  and  the  revival  of  the  offices  of  apostles  and  proph- 
ets being  spoken  of  in  any  of  the  articles  of  the  Church.  I  do  not  say  that  it  is  not 
so,  but  I  am  unconscious  of  its  being  so :  I  have  never  been  curious  to  examine ;  but 
having  engaged  myself  in  republishing  the  ancient  books  of  the  Church,  I  know  for 
certain  that  in  the  Confession  of  Faith,  and  in  the  Book  of  Discipline  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  there  is  not  a  word  spoken  farther  on  the  subject. 

"But,  even  supposing  that  there  were  a  breach  of  discipline,  I  ask  you  to  bear  on 
your  hearts  of  what  degree  and  kind  the  breach  of  discipline  ought  to  be  which  would 
depose  a  man  from  being  a  minister  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  The  question  is  not 
whether  I  have  in  any  thing  infringed  on  the  letter  of  the  standards,  but  whether  I 
have  been  guilty  of  a  ci-ime  sufficient  to  depose  me  from  my  Church  ?  Am  I  charged 
with  heres}^,  neglect  of  public  worship,  leaving  the  flock  for  five  or  six  Sundays  with- 
out due  notice  to  the  Presbytery,  notorious  swearing,  theft,  adultery,  fornication  ? 
Are  these  the  things  which  the  trustees  have  come  hither  to  complain  of?  for,  veri- 
ly, to  guard  against  such  opprobrious  scandals  was  the  meaning  of  the  clause,  under 
the  protestation  of  which  they  drag  me  up  hither.  In  the  name  of  common  sense, 
can  you  think  that  the  trustees  were  constituted  for  the  end  of  keeping  a  look-out 
on  the  discipline  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  or  its  doctrines  either  ?  to  come  into 
every  ordinance  of  the  Church  and  office  of  the  minister,  and  see  whether  they  can 
rake  up  any  thing  in  our  doings  whereon  they  can  fasten  a  complaint  before  the  Pres- 
bytery ?  Surely  this  was  never  meant,  but  that  they  should  take  cognizance  of  such 
things  as  would  depose  a  man  in  the  Church  of  Scotland.  Have  I  done  any  thing 
worthy  of  deposition?  Who  is  the  man  who  can  stand  up  before  the  Presbytery, 
and  challenge  me  in  any  point  of  doctrine ;  in  my  walk  and  conversation ;  in  my 
ministerial  faithfulness ;  in  any  thing  which  would  invoke  the  question  of  deposi- 
tion ?  Oh,  if  justice  is  not  departed  from  the  breasts  of  men  ;  if  the  sacred  duty  of 
protecting  a  brother  against  oppression  is  not  departed  from  the  breasts  of  clergy- 
men ;  if  reverence  for  a  pastor  and  minister  who  hath  labored  and  spent  himself  for 
ten  years  in  their  service  do  dwell  in  the  breasts  of  elders  and  people,  think  what  you 
are  doing  this  day  in  sustaining  a  question  of  deposition  against  a  man  who,  in  the 
eye  of  the  whole  Church,  is  blameless  as  to  its  ordinances ;  who  has  been  at  pains  to 
rebuild  the  ordinances  of  the  Church,  fallen  into  decay  and  desuetude  ;  who  has  re- 
constituted its  discipline  in  this  city,  i*estoring  the  office  of  the  deaconship,  the  fast- 
days,  with  the  other  regular  services  both  before  and  after  the  communion,  the  regu- 
lar meetings  of  session,  domestic  visitation  of  the  flock,  the  custom  of  lecturing  and 


APPENDIX  C.  603 

preaching,  and  public  baptism,  yea,  and  every  other  form  of  worship  and  discipline  ; 
bringing  it  into  consistency  with  the  standards  of  the  Church  and  the  Word  of  God ! 
What  a  thing  it  is  for  you  to  take  sides,  as  you  have  manifestly  done,  against  a 
brother  brought  up  before  you  on  a  question  of  deposition,  for  no  immorality,  for  no 
heresy,  for  no  neglect  of  duty,  no  schism,  nothing  subversive  of  the  Church,  but,  upon 
their  own  showing,  for  a  mere  irregularity  or  informality,  if  such  it  be  !  Is  justice, 
is  charity,  is  honor  gone  from  your  breasts,  that  you  can  bear  such  an  insolence  ?  If 
these  be  left  with  you,  I  can  still,  notwithstanding  your  manifested  partiality,  safely 
trust  this  question  to  the  arbitration  of  the  Presbytery. 

"  It  hath  been  farther  said  by  the  com])lainer  '  that  they  never  merged  on  the  mat- 
ter of  doctrine  till  they  were  compelled  by  the  witnesses  refusing  to  answer  the  ques- 
tions on  the  point  of  doctrine  in  the  way  they  thought  it  ought  to  be  put.'  Here  he 
appcalcth  to  a  fact  in  order  to  show  the  way  in  which  he  was  brought  into  the  mat- 
ter of  doctrine ;  and  I,  standing  here,  appeal  to  the  remembrance  of  the  court  and 
people  whether  it  be  not  true  that,  of  their  own  free  will,  without  any  constraint  of 
any  kind,  they  went  into  the  doctrine.  Was  it  ever  heard  that  a  witness  compelled 
a  party  or  a  court  to  change  their  purpose  ?  It  is  too  absurd  to  be  mentioned.  The 
witness  compels  no  one  to  go  out  of  his  course  ;  many  times  the  questioner  compelled 
the  witness,  but  never  the  witness  the  questioner.  A  witness  is  a  silent  man  ;  noth- 
ing can  be  laid  on  his  shoulders  except  the  simple  fact  how  he  answereth  the  ques- 
tions put  to  him.  It  is  too  much  for  honest  men  to  bear  it  if  one  will  say  that  the 
questions  broached  around  the  table  were  not  put  of  their  own  free  will,  inquiring 
and  on  set  purpose  framed,  in  order  to  take  to  task,  yea,  and  tease  the  witnesses,  in 
order  to  find  out  my  doctrine.  It  is  too  much  for  honest  men  who  heard  to  take  it 
in  that  you  were  compelled  by  the  witnesses  to  go  into  the  doctrine ;  and  when  my 
solicitor  objected  to  the  relevancy  of  your  doing  so,  I  said,  '  No,  I  allow  you  all  liber- 
ty to  go  all  length  into  any  inquiry  connected  with  the  manifestations  of  the  Spirit, 
and  the  doctrines  which  I  preach.'  But  after  you  did  so  fully  indulge  your  inquis- 
itive curiosity,  and  put  the  witnesses  on  the  rack  of  the  most  refined  ingenuity,  and 
almost  laid  for  them  the  traps  of  cunning  sophistry,  it  is  too  much  for  you  to  turn 
round  and  say,  when  it  suits  your  arguments  to  do  so.  It  is  all  a  matter  of  disci- 
pline ;  and  if  we  did  go  into  doctrine,  it  was  not  our  wish  to  do  so,  but  we  were  forced 
out  of  our  course  by  the  witness — who  is  altogether  passive  in  your  hands,  and  hath 
no  activity  or  force  at  all.  If,  therefore,  you  have  gone  into  the  question  of  doctrine 
— as  from  the  evidence  appeareth,  nine  tenths  of  which  has  to  do  with  points  of  doc- 
trine only — an  evidence,  let  me  say  it,  led,  as  if  on  purpose,  to  find  out,  if  you  could, 
some  connection  between  the  manifestation  of  the  Spirit  and  the  doctrine  which  I 
teach — yea,  some  collusion  between  the  prophets  and  myself,  which  you  may  say 
was  not  intended,  but  was  so  evident  as  to  strike  one  of  the  witnesses  with  such  hor- 
ror as  forced  him  to  exclaim,  '  Do  you  think  we  stand  here  as  knaves  ?'  I  say,  then, 
if  you,  of  your  own  accord,  have  thoroughly  expiscated  the  question  of  doctrine  in 
the  evidence,  and  turn  round  upon  us,  and  say,  as  the  gentleman  who  was  the  mouth 
of  the  trustees  declared,  '  It  is  a  question  of  mere  discipline,  and  not  one  of  doctrine 
at  all,'  you  do  commit  tergiversation  with  a  witness." 

The  Moderator  here  interposed  :  "  The  court  does  not  commit  itself  to  the  allega- 
tion of  Mr.  Mann  ;  we  consider  it  as  a  mixed  question  of  doctrine  and  discipline." 

J/;-.  Irving.  "I  am  very  glad  to^ear  that,  sir;  I  am  sure  the  contrary  could  not 
be  entertained. 

"  The  next  thing  which  was  asserted  by  the  other  party  in  his  speech  was  to  this 
effect :  That  I  called  upon  them  to  take  my  assumption,  and  the  assumption  of  the 
witnesses,  that  it  was  the  voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost.     I  assume  nothing,  but  refer  you 


604  APPENDICES. 

to  the  testimony.  And  when  was  it  ever  heard  that  a  witness  assumeth  any  thing, 
•who  only  beareth  testimony  ?  and  his  testimony  ye  are  bound  to  take,  for  he  is  upon 
oath. 

"Ye  yourselves  chose  them,  led  forth  the  evidence,  and  requested  that  they  should 
be  put  upon  their  oath,  and  ye  are  bound  to  receive  their  testimony  if  it  contradict 
not  itself  or  otherwise  be  invalidated.  As  you  defer  to  the  sacred  obligation  of  an 
oath,  ye  are  bound  to  give  sentence  according  to  the  evidence.  Is  a  man  to  take  an 
oath  in  vain,  that,  after  commanding  them  to  be  sworn,  ye  should  now  declare  that 
to  be  the  mere  assumption  of  the  witnesses  which  is  their  testimony  upon  oath  ? 
And  '  an  oath  for  confirmation  is  an  end  of  all  strife.'  God  could  not  go  farther 
than  an  oath,  and  man  can  not  go  farther ;  and  when  a  man  has  given  his  testimo- 
ny upon  oath,  are  ye  to  call  that  mere  assumption  ?  When  a  witness  is  upon  oath, 
are  ye  to  say  that  in  his  heart  he  denies  the  responsibility  on  oath,  and  giveth  forth 
assumptions  ?  It  is  to  insult  man ;  it  is  to  insult  God,  in  whose  name,  and  in  whose 
presence  he  stands  arraigned  thus  to  speak  ;  and  honest  men  will  not  abide  it.  Have 
you  any  thing  upon  your  table  in  counter  testimony  ?  Not  a  word.  Here,  then,  you 
have  the  testimony  of  witnesses  selected  by  my  opponents  that  this  is  not  a  work  of 
enthusiasm  or  fanaticism,  but  a  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost  (not  their  assumption,  but 
their  testimony) ;  and  surely  out  of  thousands  they  have  selected  men  worthy  of  cred- 
it in  the  matter,  the  testimony  of  men  whom  you  required  to  be  sworn  to  give  evi- 
dence as  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  I  say  that  it  is  an  insult  to  the  Sovereign  Loi'd  of 
heaven  and  earth  to  make  thus  light  of  their  testimony,  unless  an  opposite  testimo- 
ny may  be  given.  The  Presbytery  will  look  to  it  that  the  evidence  be  not  without 
cause  traduced,  otherwise  they  will  be  answerable  to  God,  whose  name  they  have 
caused  to  be  taken  in  vain,  and  to  these  witnesses,  whose  solemn  testimony,  confirm- 
ed by  an  oath,  they  disregard.  All  law  and  equity  do  regard  an  oath  as  the  most 
holy  of  all  things.  Many  men  have  been  hanged  on  the  testimony  of  a  single  man ; 
and  here  are  three  men,  chosen  to  make  good  the  complaint,  whose  testimony  bear- 
eth that  it  is  all  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Be  ye  ware,  then,  of  the  rash,  unad- 
vised statements  of  one  who  talketh  of  the  testimony  of  the  witness  as  mere  assump- 
tion. And  as  to  the  other  less  important  part  of  the  charge,  that  I  assume  any  thing, 
I  offered  to  prove  it  by  the  testimony  of  five  hundred  men ;  and  I  strictly  charged 
my  adversaries,  in  the  hearing  of  the  court,  that  if  they  judged  me  speaking  any 
thing  at  random,  or  away  from  the  truth,  they  should  challenge  the  same,  and  I 
would  justify  it  on  the  spot,  out  of  the  mouths  of  their  own  witnesses,  summoned  and 
sworn  by  themselves.  After  these  false  charges  against  me  and  the  witnesses,  it  was 
said  that  to  call  it  a  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost  was  an  outrage  on  common  sense  and 
decency.  The  good  Lord  forgive  this  word ;  forgive  the  lips,  O  God,  by  wliich  it 
was  uttered  !  O  God,  forgive  it,  and  let  it  not  be  reckoned  against  a  brother.  [Here 
the  reverend  gentleman  -was  much  affected.] 

"The  next  thing  asserted  in  his  reply  was.  That  the  doctrine  I  laid  down  con- 
cerning this  matter  in  my  place  of  minister  in  this  church  was  the  doctrine  of  pope- 
ry, which  he,  as  an  Englishman  and  a  Protestant,  could  not  receive.  I  founded  the 
doctrine  on  the  authority  of  two  passages  of  Holy  Writ,  namely,  the  two  jiassages 
from  the  2d  chapter  of  Revelations,  concerning  the  duty  of  the  angel  of  the  Church 
toward  apostles  and  prophets.  Now  if  I,  the  minister,  am  not  the  angel  of  the 
Church,  it  hath  no  angel ;  and  the  seven  epistl^  can  not  be  profitable  to  us,  for 
they  are  addressed  to  the  angel  of  the  Church.  The  Great  Head  of  the  Church  ap- 
proved the  angel  of  the  Church  of  Ephesus  for  trying  the  men  who  came  into  the 
church,  saying  that  they  were  apostles,  and  for  putting  them  away  because  he  found 
them  liars.     Did  the  angel  herein  act  wrong  ?  why,  then,  doth  the  Lord  approve 


APPENDIX  C.  605 

him  ?  What  the  Lord  Jesus  approves,  tliis  man  may  call  popery  and  tyranny.  It 
raattcreth  not  to  me ;  I  will  continue  to  act  so  unto  the  end,  and  will  require  both 
Englishmen  and  Protestants  to  submit  to  it.  Another  passage  in  the  same  chapter 
rebuketh  the  angel  of  the  Church  of  Thyatira  for  allowing  that  woman  Jezebel,  who 
callcth  herself  a  prophetess,  to  teach,  and  to  seduce  the  servants  of  the  Lord.  These 
were  the  grounds,  and  no  other,  of  the  doctrine  which  I  held,  as  I  can  appeal  to 
every  one  of  my  flock,  even  the  trustees  themselves.  Yet  I  did  not  teach  that  it  was 
the  duty  of  the  minister  in  any  congregation  alone  to  bear  the  burden  of  this  respon- 
sibility ;  but  it  is  his  province  to  make  trial  whether  they  be  true  prophets,  and,  being 
satisfied  thereof,  to  set  them  before  the  congregation ;  whereupon  he  and  the  con- 
gregation, acting  together  by  the  Si)irit  of  Jesus,  will  in  due  time  ascertain  the 
point.  Nor  would  I  consider  my  ofHce  made  void,  nor  yet  that  I  did  not  discharge 
my  office  of  a  faithful  minister,  if  it  should  turn  out  that  every  one  whom  I  had  set 
before  the  congregation  as  a  pro])het  were  not  a  true  prophet.  My  duty  standeth 
still  the  same  though  I  may  sometimes  fail  therein,  and  I  am  bound  to  fulfill  it  to 
the  best  of  my  ability.  Because  I  am  not  a  perfect  man,  because  I  have  not  the  in- 
fallibility of  God,  I  am  not  to  shrink  from  yielding  obedience  to  the  commandment 
of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  to  put  forth  whatever  judgment,  whatever  discernment  He 
hath  given  me.  There  is  nothing  papal  in  my  doctrine.  I  do  not  presume  to  be 
infallible,  nor  even  to  take  the  whole  determination  of  the  matter  upon  myself;  for 
this  were  to  offend  the  generation  of  His  children,  and  to  trample  on  the  rights  of  the 
people  and  their  duties  also,  which  are  to  '  try  the  spirits  whether  they  be  of  God.' 
If  I  were  to  say  that  I  would  not  license  any  one  to  speak  before  the  congregation 
until  I  was  infallibly  certain  he  was  a  prophet,  then  God  would  soon  bring  me  to 
shame  for  standing  between  his  people  and  their  duty.  The  angel's  it  is  to  license, 
the  people's  to  approve  or  not ;  and  it  is  his  to  withdraw  the  license  when  it  hath 
been  abused. 

"This  is  the  doctrine  which  I  had  and  have  acted  upon ;  I  set  before  the  people, 
according  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  those  who  had  the  signs  of  the  prophets,  and  said 
to  the  whole  Church,  'Now^  try  ye  them;  they  are  before  you.'  And  for  the  pur- 
pose of  gathering  the  common  voice,  I  sat  in  the  vestry  every  day  for  many  weeks, 
that  the  people  might  come  to  me,  and  give  in  to  me  any  doubts  or  distresses 
which  pressed  on  their  consciences.  I  ask,  was  this  a  papal  act  ?  I  deem  it  was 
my  pastoral  duty ;  it  became  me  as  a  dutiful  minister  of  the  Gospel.  I  think  the 
gentleman  should  have  been  at  more  pains  to  choose  the  words  which  he  used  before 
the  reverend  Presbytery,  especially  when  speaking  of  the  actings  of  his  minister. 
And,  when  speaking  so  much  of  right,  and  justice,  and  good  feeling,  he  should  have 
borne  in  mind  that  these  are  not  the  monopoly  of  any  single  individual,  but  the  con- 
stitution of  man  as  the  creature  of  God.  Did  I  charge  any  thing  against  any  man, 
that  I  should  be  so  abused  with  evil  words  ?  When  at  one  time  you  challenged  the 
word  I  spoke,  I  appealed  the  matter  to  the  court,  and  it  was  decided  that  I  had  not 
spoken  unadvisedly.  Yet  was  I  contented  to  change  the  word,  that  no  one  might  be 
offended;  because,  as  I  have  said,  right,  and  equity,  and  good-feeling  are  not  the 
monopoly  of  any  man,  but  the  gifts  of  God  to  His  responsible  creatures,  which  He 
must  not  suffer  to  be  trampled  on  if  He  can  prevent  it.  Let  words  be  well  weighed 
in  speaking  before  a  court  constituted  under  the  Head  of  the  Church,  especially 
when  they  affect  the  standing  of  a  minister  of  Christ,  than  which  no  standing  on  the 
earth  is  more  dignified  and  sacred.  The  opposite  party  next  took  occasion  to 
animadvert  upon  an  answer  of  one  of  the  witnesses,  in  that  he  had  said  that  on  one 
occasion,  when  he  thought  he  was  speaking  by  the  power  of  the  Spirit,  he  came  aft- 
erward to  sec  that  he  was  speaking  by  a  spirit  of  error;  from  which  it  was  argued, 


606  APPENDICES. 

that  if  they  knew  not  the  spirit  by  which  they  spake,  there  was  nothing  to  rest  upon 
but  my  ipse  dixit.  Before  proceeding  to  reply  to  this  grave  matter,  I  beg  to  recall 
your  attention  to  the  way  in  which  the  witness  gave  that  part  of  his  testimony ;  for 
now  I  feel  that  we  are  indeed  come  to  the  substance  of  the  question,  which  turneth 
upon  the  evidence  before  the  court ;  and  I  do  heartily  wish  that  instead  of  so  many 
irrelevant  strictures  upon  my  defense,  the  gentleman  had  alluded  more  to  the  matter 
in  evidence.  Observe,  then,  tliat  this  answer  was  a  free-will  offering  on  the  part  of 
the  witness,  and  not  in  answer  to  any  interrogations.  Also,  it  was  not  from  his  own 
conviction,  for  he  declared  that  he  had  not  yet  come  to  the  full  com'iction  of  not 
having  spoken  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  but  had  some  reason  to  suspect  it  from  some  mis- 
givings of  his  own  mind,  which  had  been  mainly  brought  to  light  by  the  rebuke  of 
another  member  of  the  Church  in  whom  the  Spirit  speaketh.  And  forasmuch  as,  in 
giving  testimony,  we  are  called  upon  only  to  declare  that  which  we  know  and  have 
fully  ascertained  to  be  the  truth,  there  was  no  call  to  put  this  forth,  even  if  there  had 
been  a  question  leading  to  it,  which  there  was  not ;  but,  like  a  man  whose  conscience 
was  rendered  very  delicate  by  the  teaching  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  as  a  man  stand- 
ing before  a  court  which  should  be  constituted  under  Jesus,  and  have  the  spirit  of 
holy  discernment,  he  would  not  allow  a  doubt  on  his  mind  to  remain  untold,  nor 
leave  a  chance  of  your  being  misinformed.  It  was  a  beautiful  instance  of  perfect 
purity  of  conscience,  however  little  it  was  appreciated  both  by  the  other  party  and 
the  court,  concerning  M'hich  it  is  not  my  intention  to  express  what  I  feel.  But  with 
respect  to  the  conclusion  attempted  to  be  drawn  from  it,  I  must  say  that  it  betrays 
great  ignorance  of  this  Book  of  God  to  draw  such  a  conclusion,  as  we  shall  show 
immediately.  But  farther,  with  respect  to  the  testimony  in  answer  to  the  question 
how  he  discerned  whether  it  was  the  Spirit  of  God  or  the  spirit  of  error  by  which  he 
spake,  his  answer  was,  hy  the  fruits :  love,  joy,  peace,  and  other  fruits  of  the  Spirit, 
which,  at  the  time  he  had  rebuked  his  pastor,  he  felt  to  be  absent,  and  not  present 
with  his  soul.  He  was  then  asked  whether  it  lay  merely  with  his  own  feelings 
whether  the  spirit  that  came  to  him  was  of  God  or  not,  and  he  immediately  replied, 
'  Can  I  believe  these  fruits  of  the  Holy  Ghost  are  from  the  spirit  of  error  ?'  And  so 
sayeth  the  Apostle  John :  '  He  that  is  begotten  of  God  keepeth  himself,  and  that  evil 
one  toucheth  him  not.'  And  now  with  respect  to  the  conclusion  which  all,  especially 
the  court,  sought,  by  cross-questioning,  to  extort  from  this  answer,  I  refer  them,  for 
their  better  information,  to  the  Prophet  Jeremiah,  who  thus  speaketh  to  the  Lord : 
'O  Lord,  Thou  knowest;  remember  me,  and  visit  me,  and  rcA'enge  me  of  my  per- 
secutors ;  take  me  not  away  in  Thy  long-suffering :  know  that  for  Thy  sake  I  have 
suffered  rebuke.  Thy  words  were  found,  and  I  did  eat  them,  and  Thy  Word  was 
unto  me  the  joy  and  rejoicing  of  mine  heart ;  for  I  am  called  by  Thy  name,  O  Lord 
God  of  Hosts.  I  sat  not  in  the  assembly  of  the  mockers,  nor  rejoiced  ;  I  sat  alone 
because  of  Thy  hand ;  for  Thou  hast  filled  me  with  indignation.  Why  is  my  pain 
perpetual,  and  my  wound  incurable,  which  refuseth  to  be  healed  ?  wilt  Thou  be  alto- 
gether unto  me  as  a  liar,  and  as  waters  that  fail  ?'  Here  we  have  the  instance  of  a 
prophet  than  whom  no  one  had  perhaps  a  greater  charge  laid  upon  him,  and  one 
most  like  to  that  now  laid  upon  the  prophets  to  be  His  witnesses  against  a  falling 
Church,  and  he  was  so  carried  beyond  his  understanding  as  to  say  to  the  Lord, 
'  Wilt  Thou  be  altogether  to  me  as  a  liar,  and  as  waters  that  fail  ?'  And  in  the  20th 
chapter,  verse  7,  he  uses  stronger  language  :  '  O  Lord,  Thou  hast  deceived  me,  and 
I  was  deceived.'  If  Jeremiah  had  not  known  God's  word  by  some  other  test  than 
his  own  understanding  of  it,  or  than  the  expected  time  and  way  of  the  fulfillment, 
his  case  would  have  been  desperate,  for  he  looks  upon  himself  as  a  deceived  man. 
Such  words  from  such  a  mouth  may  well  make  us  to  pause  a  little,  and  study  the 


APPENDIX  C.  607 

law  of  the  prophet's  calling,  and  the  temptations  to  which  he  is  exposed.  Do  not,  I 
beseech  you,  be  rash ;  let  us  not,  coming  straight  from  the  deep  and  dark  ignorance 
which  exists  on  such  a  subject,  seeing  there  have  been  of  a  long  time  no  prophets  in 
the  Church,  begin  to  draw  conchasions,  and  pronounce  judgments,  and  do  the  part 
of  legislators  before  we  have  inquired  into  the  standing  of  the  prophet,  or  known 
any  thing  of  his  conditions.  Surely  the  Lord  hath  not  lied  to  Jeremiah,  and  de- 
ceived him  ;  and  yet  the  prophet  supposeth,  yea,  and  saith  it,  leaning  to  his  own  un- 
derstanding, and  so  stood  in  peril  of  being  snared  :  '  The  word  of  the  Lord  was  made 
a  reproach  to  him  and  a  derision  daily.'  The  calling  of  the  prophet  is  a  fearful  one; 
Jeremiah  flinched  from  it  because  it  brought  him  into  trouble,  and  the  word  which 
he  spoke  from  the  Lord  was  not  accomplished  how  and  where  he  had  expected. 
Jonah,  who  stood  to  Israel  (2  Kings,  xiv.,  25)  m^>ch  as  Jeremiah  stood  to  Jerusalem, 
was  so  well  aware  of  God's  relentings,  and  of  the  prophet's  apparent  dishonor  there- 
by, that  he  fled  away  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  and  refused  to  be  His  prophet 
unto  Nineveh  on  no  other  account  whatever,  as  he  himself  averreth  (Jonah,  iv.,  1). 
Let  it  not  be  for  a  moment  imagined  that  God  ever  gave  forth,  by  the  mouth  of  a 
prophet,  any  thing  but  the  truth ;  yet  so  little  were  the  prophets  able  to  construe 
their  own  messages,  that  they  seemed  ever  to  themselves  to  be  deceived  in  them. 
The  prophet  can  not  understand  his  own  utterances ;  if  he  could,  they  would  not  be 
manifestly  fi-om  another  mind,  but  might  be  fi'om  his  own.  And  I  verily  believe 
that  any  prophet  who  will  undertake  to  interpret,  either  to  himself  or  to  others,  what 
he  utters,  will  be  snared.  Sufiicient  for  one  man  is  the  honor  of  transmitting  the 
word  pure  from  the  fountain.  It  belongeth  to  those  who  hear  it  to  find  out  its 
meaning.  It  is  from  faith  to  faith  that  God  ever  speaketh.  A  dear  friend  of  my 
own,  who  lately  spake  by  the  Spirit  of  God  in  my  Church,  as  all  the  spiritual  of  the 
Church  fully  acknowledged,  and  almost  all  acknowledge  still — I  mean  Mr.  Baxter, 
who  is  now  in  every  body's  mouth — hath,  I  believe,  been  taken  in  this  very  snare  of 
endeavoring  to  interpret,  by  means  of  a  mind  remarkably  formal  in  its  natural 
structure,  the  spiritual  utterances  which  he  was  made  to  give  forth ;  and  perceiving 
a  want  of  concurrence  between  the  word  and  the  fulfillment,  he  hastily  said,  '  It  is  a 
lying  spirit  by  which  I  have  spoken.'  No  lie  is  of  the  truth ;  no  prophet  is  a  liar ; 
and  if  the  thing  came  not  to  pass,  he  hath  spoken  presumptuously.  But  while  this 
is  true,  it  is*qually  true  that  no  prophet  since  the  world  began  has  been  able  to  in- 
terpret the  time,  place,  manner,  and  circumstance  of  the  fulfillment  of  his  own  utter- 
ances. And  to  Jeremiah,  thus  unwarrantably  employing  himself,  God  seemed  to  be 
a  deceiver  and  a  liar,  as  the  Holy  Ghost  hath  seemed  to  be  to  my  honored  and  be- 
loved friend,  whom  may  the  Lord  speedily  restore  again. 

"But  to  return  to  the  case  of  the  Prophet  Jeremiah:  The  notion  current  about 
the  prophet  is,  that  he  is  a  man  sealed  and  set  apart  for  infallible  utterances.  And 
I  perceived  when  the  prophet  who  was  examined  as  a  witness  before  you  confessed 
of  his  own  accord  to  an  utterance  of  which  he  now  doubteth,  you  shrunk  from  hav- 
ing any  more  faith  in  his  prophetical  calling,  or,  if  I  might  say  it,  you  triumphed  as 
if  you  had  gotten  a  victory.  But  be  it  known  to  you  that  the  prophet  is,  after  all, 
still  fallible ;  and  that  God  is  the  only  infallible  being,  and  the  only  infallible  man 
is  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  and  as  for  the  infallibility  in  another,  the  Pope  is  the  old- 
est claimant  of  it,  nobody  else  having  dared  to  usurp  it  from  the  Godhead  and  man- 
hood of  Jesus  Christ.  The  prophet,  indeed,  and  not  only  he,  but  every  Christian, 
while  he  abideth  in  Jesus,  speaketh  only  the  truth ;  but  as  he  leaves  the  light  of  life, 
so  is  he  liable  to  snares,  as  was  the  case  with  my  brother,  or  I  may  say  my  child,  in 
the  Gospel.  All  the  prophecies  and  writings  in  the  Scriptures  were  delivered  by  per- 
sons so  abiding  in  the  communion  of  Jesus,  and  so  moved  by  his  Spirit  to  utter  only 


608  APPENDICES. 

the  truth  ;  but  these  very  persons  were  liable  to  fall  into  snares,  and  might  at  other 
times  have  spoken  presumptuously.  We  have  several  examples  of  the  fact  in  the 
case  of  Peter,  one  of  the  holy  penmen,  who  at  times  both  spoke  and  taught  errone- 
ously. God  will  not  set  up  an  outward  infallibility,  but  reposeth  it  in  the  teaching 
of  the  Spirit  through  the  faith  of  the  word :  '  Ye  have  an  unction  from  the  Holy 
One,  and  ye  know  all  things. '  What  saith  the  Lord  to  Jeremiah  ?  '  Therefore,  thus 
saith  the  Lord,  if  thou  return,  then  will  I  bring  thee  again,  and  thou  shalt  stand  be- 
fore mc ;  and  if  thou  take  forth  the  precious  from  the  vile,  thou  shalt  be  as  my 
mouth :  let  them  return  unto  thee,  but  return  not  unto  them'  (Jer.,  xv.,  19).  So 
say  I  to  the  prophet  who  is  now  stumbled  and  fallen,  and  to  him  who  did  once  stum- 
ble, as  he  confessed  in  your  hearing." 

Mr.  Maxikan  asked  whether,  in  referring  to  a  certain  person,  he  meant  Mr.  Taplin. 

]\lr.  Irving.  "  Sir,  I  was  referring  to  Mr.  Taplin  indirectly,  and  to  Mr.  Baxter  di- 
rectly ;  but,  both  to  the  one  and  the  other,  only  as  illustrative  of  the  prophet's  stand- 
ing, so  entirely  misunderstood  and  misrepresented  in  the  speech  of  the  other  party." 

An  elder  here  interposed,  and  defended  Mr.  Irving  from  the  interruption,  when  he 
thus  proceeded : 

"I  was  reading  and  commenting  upon  the  Word  of  the  Lord  at  the  time  the  rev- 
erend gentleman  interrupted  me,  and  not  putting  forth  any  notion  of  my  own ;  and 
the  word  I  read  was  this:  '  I  will  bring  thee  again,'  that  is,  from  thy  doubting  and 
silence,  'and  make  thee  as  a  brazen  wall.'  These  things  I  submit  to  your  consider- 
ation, not  surely  to  lower  any  man's  idea  of  the  prophet  of  God,  still  less  to  sen'e 
any  particular  ends  of  my  outi,  if  I  had  any  in  this  case,  which  is  not  mine,  but  that 
of  the  Catholic  Church,  but  in  order  to  put  you  on  your  guard  against  the  statements 
of  men  who  come  straight  from  the  counting-house  or  the  shop,  and  the  other  en- 
gagements of  secular  life,  and  rashly  decide  on  such  holy  and  grave  matters.  Your 
only  safety  is  to  look  to  the  law  and  the  testimony,  to  the  experience  of  those  holy 
men  who  stood  in  the  same  office  heretofore.  To  this  bringing  back  your  attention 
I  refer  again  to  the  Prophet  Jeremiah :  '  O  Lord,  Thou  hast  deceived  me,  and  I  was 
deceived :  Thou  art  stronger  than  I,  and  hast  prevailed  :  I  am  iu  derision  daily ; 
every  one  mocketh  me.  For  since  I  spake,  I  cried  out,  I  cried  violence  and  spoil ; 
because  the  word  of  the  Lord  was  made  a  reproach  unto  me,  and  a  derision  daily. 
Then  I  said,  I  will  not  make  mention  of  Him,  nor  speak  any  more  imHis  name ; 
but  His  word  was  in  mine  heart  as  a  burning  fire  shut  up  in  my  bones,  and  I  was 
weary  with  forbearing,  and  I  could  not  stay.'  (Jer.,  xx.,  7-9.)  Whatever  was  the 
cause,  whether  he  thought  God  had  not  kept  His  word  made  to  him  when  He  called 
him  to  the  prophet's  office  (Jer.,  i.,  17-19),  or  whether  some  of  his  utterances  had 
seemed  to  himself  and  the  people  to  fail,  or  whether  the  Lord  had  relented,  as  Jonah 
knew  to  be  his  manner,  this  is  clear  from  these  verses,  that  a  prophet  may  be  shaken 
fi-om  his  position  like  another  man,  and  may  be  left  to  take  the  resolution  of  speak- 
ing no  more  in  the  Lord's  name,  as  hath  been  the  case  with  my  dear  brother  referred 
to  above,  who  now  restraineth  himself  from  uttering  in  that  power  which  he  and  we 
believed  to  be  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  because  he  thinks  it  hath  deceived  him.  A  proph- 
et may  be  a  very  unstable  man,  and  be  brought  into  great  doubtings,  and  yet  be  a 
true  prophet  withal ;  may  grieve  and  dishonor  God  very  much,  and  yet  be  retained 
in  His  service,  and  exalted  to  very  great  honor.  What,  then,  is  the  guide  of  the 
prophet  in  judging  of  the  power  that  comes  to  him  in  vision,  in  revelation,  in  utter- 
ance? It  is  a  clean  conscience,  at  peace  with  God,  rejoicing  in  holiness,  and  averse 
from  all  evil,  to  which  God  coming  maketh  sweet  harmony  of  truth  and  love  there- 
in, and  useth  the  tongue  to  give  it  forth  in  words  worthy  of  God.  But  that  the 
prophets  did  not  understand  the  things  they  prophesied,  Peter,  in  his  first  epistle,  ex- 


APPENDIX  C.  609 

pressly  declareth,  '  Of  which  salvation  the  prophets  have  inquired  and  searched  dili- 
gently, who  prophesied  of  the  grace  that  should  come  unto  you  ;  searching  what,  or 
what  manner  of  time  the  Spirit  of  Christ  which  was  in  them  did  signify,  when  it  tes- 
tified  beforehand  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  and  the  glory  that  should  follow.  Unto 
whom  it  was  revealed,  that  not  unto  themselves,  but  unto  us,  they  did  minister  the 
things  which  are  now  reported  unto  you  by  them  that  have  preached  the  Gospel 
unto  you  with  the  Holy  Ghost  sent  down  from  heaven  ;  which  things  the  angels  de- 
sire to  look  into'  (1  Peter,  i.,  10-12).  The  law  of  the  prophets  is,  as  I  have  said, 
that  they  should  ?iot  understand  the  thing  they  did  utter,  to  show  that  they  were 
speaking,  not  by  the  understanding  of  man,  but  by  inspiration  and  the  utterance  of 
God.  If  the  prophets  spake  by  their  own  understanding,  what  were  the  prophets 
more  than  a  meaner  man ;  and  I  may  observe,  in  passing,  that  the  mystery  of  the  un- 
known tongue  introducing  the  utterance  is  to  teach  us  that  the  thing  about  to  be  ut- 
tered, as  it  Cometh  from  a  higher  source,  addresseth  itself  to  another  ear  than  that 
of  the  natural  understanding,  even  to  the  discernment  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ  with 
us,  and  that  the  meaning  is  hid  from  the  prophet  himself;  that  as  neither  prophet 
nor  jpeople  understand  the  tongue,  so  neither  prophet  nor  people  are  to  receive  or 
render  out  by  the  understanding  the  thing  littered.  It  is  not  by  the  understanding, 
though  of  a  Bacon,  that  a  word  of  God  can  be  apprehended ;  for  '  the  natural  man 
perceiveth  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  for  they  are  spiritually  discerned.' 

"The  universal  law  of  all  divine  truth  is  exemplified,  and,  as  it  were,  embodied  in 
the  act  of  speaking  in  an  unknown  tongue,  when  the  spirit  of  the  speaker  is  edified, 
though  his  understanding  be  unfruitful ;  having  entire  communion  with  God  in  spir- 
it, though  entirely  darkened  in  the  understanding ;  which,  after  all,  is  no  more  than 
the  most  orthodox  truth,  that  without  the  Spirit  of  God  the  word  of  God  availeth  not 
unto  any  fruit  of  life,  but  only  unto  death :  '  the  letter  killeth,  but  the  Spirit  maketh 
alive.'  The  prophet's  own  understanding  is  as  incompetent  as  the  hearer's  to  inter- 
pret his  own  utterances ;  and  he,  as  much  as  we  are,  is  driven  upon  the  indwelling 
mind  of  Christ,  in  order  to  have  fellowship  with  the  word  of  the  Spirit  in  his  own 
lips.  The  spiritual  man  discerneth  all  things,  and  every  one  having  the  anointing 
of  the  life  of  Christ  abiding  in  him  hath  the  means  of  discerning  and  testing  the 
things  spoken  by  the  prophet ;  for  Christ  and  the  Spirit  are  one  in  the  substance  of 
the  Godhead,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  doth  only  take  of  the  things  of  Christ,  and  show 
them  to  our  souls.  Some  of  the  questions  put  by  the  opposite  party,  but  still  more 
put  by  you,  the  judges,  went  to  reveal  a  base  suspicion,  as  if  I  were  lording  it  over, 
or  acting  in  collusion  with  the  gifted  persons.  Oh,  perish  the  thought !  I  pretend 
not,  save  as  a  pastor,  to  direct  the  order  of  the  Church,  and  as  a  minister  to  show  the 
mark  and  stamp  of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  matter  and  form  of  the  utterances,  leav- 
ing things  future,  and  things  which  I  discern  not,  to  be  opened  by  the  Lord  in  His 
own  time. 

"Jeremiah  hasted,  and  fell  into  the  sin  of  charging  God  falsely,  and  stood  in  per- 
il of  falling  entirely,  if  he  had  not  returned  and  sepax'ated  the  pi-ecious  from  the  vile. 
But  it  may  be  said  this  is  not  in  point ;  it  is  not  so  exactly  in  point  as  that  case  to 
which  I  now  refer  you,  the  Prophecy  of  Ezekiel,  xiv.,  8-11 :  'And  I  will  set  my  face 
against  that  man,  and  will  make  him  a  sign  and  a  proverb,  and  I  will  cut  him  off 
from  the  midst  of  my  people ;  and  ye  shall  know  that  I  am  the  Lord.  And  if  the 
prophet  be  deceived  when  he  hath  spoken  a  thing,  I  the  Lord  have  deceived  that 
prophet ;  and  I  will  stretch  out  my  hand  upon  him,  and  will  destroy  him  from  the 
midst  of  my  people  Israel.  And  they  shall  bear  the  punishment  of  their  iniquity ; 
the  punishment  of  the  prophet  shall  be  even  as  the  punishment  of  him  that  seeketh 
unto  him  ;  that  the  house  of  Israel  may  go  no  more  astray  from  me,  neither  be  pol- 

Qq 


610  APPENDICES. 

luted  any  more  with  all  their  traBsgressions ;  but  that  they  may  be  my  people,  and 
I  may  be  their  God,  saith  the  Lord  God.'  Let  those  who  think  a  prophet,  whose 
lips  are  sealed  up  for  infallibility,  and  if  he  utter  any  thing  amiss  that  it  counter- 
vaileth  and  subverteth  all  which  he  hath  ever  spoken,  peruse  this  passage,  which  is 
only  one  of  many  wherein  the  prophets  are  constantly  reproached  for  their  unfaith- 
fulness, as  well  as  the  priests  and  the  princes.  Our  adversaries  argue  that  because 
a  prophet,  speaking  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  hath  been  once  deceived,  this  doth  invali- 
date his  speaking  by  the  Spirit  of  God  at  other  times,  and  therefore  he  is  no  proph- 
et, and  speaketh  not  of  God.  But  what  saith  God  ?  '  If  the  prophet  be  deceived 
when  he  hath  spoken  a  thing,  I  the  Lord  have  deceived  that  prophet.'  Now  the 
meaning  of  this  will  be  best  explained  by  referring  to  the  instance  recorded  in  1 
Kings,  xxii.,  15-16,  where  Micaiah  came  to  the  king,  who  said  to  him,  'Micaiah, 
shall  we  go  against  Kamoth-gilead  to  battle,  or  shall  we  forbear  ?  And  he  answered 
him,  Go,  and  prosper;  for  the  Lord  shall  deliver  it  into  the  hand  of  the  king.'  We 
may,  I  think,  hardly  doubt  that  this  word  came  from  Jehovah,  in  what  way  he  hard- 
ened Pharaoh's  heart,  and  doth  lead  the  wicked  into  temptation.  God  permitted 
Micaiah  to  utter  it  as  a  word  to  try  the  temper  of  the  king,  and  reprove  his  levity 
and  his  tampering  with  the  prophets  of  the  Lord.  But  when  the  king  became  seri- 
ous, and  adjured  him,  saying,  'How  many  times  shall  I  adjure  thee  that  thou  tell 
me  nothing  but  that  which  is  true  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,'  God  seeing  the  king's 
mind  turned  to  earnestness,  and  hearing  him  speak  to  His  prophet  as  His  prophet 
should  be  spoken  to,  giveth  to  His  prophet  another  word  which  might  prevent  him 
from  the  evil  he  meditated,  and  not  lead  him  into  temptation  to  commit  it.  Most 
true  it  is,  as  saith  St.  James,  that  '  God  tempteth  not  any  man ;'  but  when  a  man 
will  suffer  his  own  lusts  to  tempt  him  to  evil,  the  Lord,  wearied  out  with  correcting 
him,  and  having  no  profit  of  His  rebukes,  doth  ofttimes  lead  him  on  that  He  may 
punish  him  for  his  iniquity  on  this  side  the  grave,  and  haply  save  his  soul  in  the  day 
of  the  Lord.  Therefore  spake  Jesus  in  parables,  that  "seeing  they  might  not  see, 
and  hearing  they  might  not  hear,  lest  they  should  be  converted,  and  I  should  heal 
them.'  Ye  may  say  this  is  strange  doctrine.  Strange  indeed  it  is  to  a  man  who 
can  not  think  of  vengeance  in  his  God,  whereas  vengeance  belongeth  unto  Him ;  but 
how  should-it  be  strange  to  any  father  or  mother  who  is  practiced  in  the  education 
of  their  children  ?  How  oft  doth  a  father,  having  sought  in  vain  by  counsel  and 
correction  to  heal  the  perversity  of  his  child,  permit  him  in  a  little  of  his  own  M'ill, 
yea,  lay  the  very  temptation  in  his  way,  that  he  may  prove  the  evil  of  it,  and  so 
avoid  it  in  the  time  to  come.  And  shall  not  God  be  intrusted  with  the  same  liberty 
in  disciplining  a  prophet  or  a  people?  Shall  He  not  also  lead  His  children,  and 
give  them  to  taste  of  tho  fruit  of  their  own  ways  ?  Nay,  He  will  and  ever  doth  with 
the  wicked  as  He  did  with  Pharaoh,  and  it  is  a  chief  part  of  His  discipline  with 
strong-headed  and  high-handed  sinners.  Wherefore  also  we  pray  continually,  'Lead 
us  not  into  temptation.'  And  this  did  He  that  day  by  Ahab,  by  making  Micaiah 
the  instrument  without  misleading  him.  Micaiah  was  not  deceived ;  but  a  word 
through  him  would  have  deceived  the  king,  unless  he  had  changed  his  mood,  and 
adjured  him  solemnly  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  who  straightway  answered,  'I  saw 
all  Israel  scattered  upon  the  hills  as  sheep  that  have  not  a  shepherd ;  and  the  Lord 
said.  These  have  no  master ;  let  them  return  every  man  to  his  house  in  peace'  (1 
Kings,  xxii.,  17).  This  case  proveth  that  a  prophet,  without  fault  of  his,  may  be 
used  to  deceive  a  king  or  a  pastor,  a  people  or  a  flock.  But  still  this  is  not  the  case 
in  point ;  for  it  was  through  fault  of  the  prophets  that  the  evil  before  us  fell  out.  In 
such  a  case,  I  believe  it  ariseth  from  opening  the  door  unto  Satan,  through  some  un- 
holy state  of  his  heart.     It  certainly  was  so  in  the  present  instance.     The  prophet 


APPENDIX  C.  611 

had  conceived  suspicions  of  me  as  not  dealing  uprightly,  but  partially ;  and  as  not 
comforting  him  in  his  trials,  but  helping  on  the  aifliction.  This  was  entirely  a  mis- 
judgment  ;  and  being  against  a  pastor,  it  added  the  sin  of  insubordination  to  that  of 
uncharitableness.  Through  this  door  Satan  entered  in,  and  the  Lord  permitted  him 
to  occupy  for  once  the  gift  which  the  prophet  had  not  kept  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  as 
Paul  commandeth  Timothy  to  do  (2  Tim.,  i.)-  These  are  deep  things,  and  I  would 
not  be  understood  to  give  out  any  thing  dogmatically  concerning  it.  But  it  shows 
that  a  prophet  may  be  deceived,  and  be  a  prophet  still ;  and  it  teacheth  how  rash 
and  foolish  are  they  who  question  and  reason  as  if  that  one  thing  subverted  the  whole 
question.  The  direction  given  by  the  Lord  is  this :  '  And  if  thou  say  in  thine  heart, 
How  shall  we  know  the  word  which  the  Lord  hath  not  spoken  ?  When  a  prophet 
speaketh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  if  the  thing  follow  not,  nor  come  to  pass,  that  is 
the  thing  which  the  Lord  hath  not  spoken,  but  the  jiropliet  hath  spoken  it  presump- 
tuously :  thou  shalt  not  be  afraid  of  him'  (Deut.,  xviii.,  21,  22).  Such  a  prophet 
losetli  his  credit  and  standing  with  the  people,  and  maketh  shipwreck  of  his  calling 
toward  God.  And  every  prophet  standeth  in  jeopardy  of  this,  and  there  is  no  other 
safety  for  him  than  for  others.  '  My  grace  is  sufficient  for  thee,  and  my  strength  is 
perfected  in  weakness.'  Our  brother  did  it  in  that  instance  presumptuously:  as  a 
prophet,  he  did  it  in  the  power  of  a  prophet,  and  he  hath  suffered  loss  for  it  in  his 
own  soul ;  but,  now  that  he  hath  openly  and  of  free  will  confessed  it  in  the  hearing 
of  all,  I  believe  that  he  hath  delivered  his  own  soul,  how  many  soever  he  may  stum- 
ble thereby ;  myself  he  stumbleth  not,  because  I  have  somewhat  studied  and  under- 
stood the  law  of  the  prophet.  And  should  a  prophet,  therefore,  deem  his  standing 
to  be  unsteady  or  unsafe  ?  Surely  not.  He  standeth  by  faith,  as  every  one  else  doth 
stand  in  Christ.  Nor  is  there  any  other  safety  in  the  world  but  abiding  in  Christ. 
Jesus,  who  lived  by  faith  upon  the  Father,  did  always  speak  the  truth  ;  and  the  proph- 
et who  liveth  by  faith  on  Christ  will,  with  the  same  certainty,  speak  nothing  but  the 
truth ;  and  not  he  alone,  but  every  Christian.  For  the  anointing  which  we  have  re- 
ceived is  true,  and  no  lie.  If  I,  as  a  minister,  abide  in  Christ,  my  utterances  will  al- 
ways be  true.  And  how  are  the  people  to  be  defended  ?  In  the  same  way,  by  abid- 
ing in  Christ,  and  hearing  the  prophets,  without  suspicion,  as  the  voice  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  If  they  look  upon  it  as  lies,  they  disgrace  and  trample  on  the  ordinance, 
and  will  be  punished  for  the  same.  Yet,  if  they  rest  in  reverencing  the  ordinance, 
without  seeking  the  answer  of  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  in  their  hearts,  they  do  neglect  the 
Ordinance-Head,  which  is  still  worse,  and  they  shall  speedily  be  shut  up  in  supersti- 
tion, and  given  over  to  the  idolatry  of  men  and  of  gifts,  to  the  destruction  of  that  love 
which  is  the  life  of  Jesus,  and  of  God  within  the  soul.  And  yet  a  church,  and  their 
minister,  and  their  prophets,  all  standing  together  faithfully  in  Jesus,  may,  nay  will, 
certainly  be  tried  with  temptations  frotfl  Satan  as  an  angel  of  light,  who  will  endeav- 
or to  introduce  heresies  and  schisms,  or  to  bring  in  hypocrites,  false  brethren,  una- 
wares ;  or  will  entrap  some  weak,  foolish  ones,  and  through  them  seek  to  prophesy 
his  lies  and  to  minister  his  delusions.  But  in  such  a  case  the  Lord  will,  in  due  time, 
detect  him,  through  the  faithfulness  of  the  brethren,  and  the  poor  lamb  will  be  de- 
livered out  of  the  lion's  mouth,  and  the  lion  will  be  driven  away  from  the  fold. 

"A  prophet  is  not  sent  for  a  single  person  nor  for  a  family,  but  for  the  Church; 
and  if  the  Church  abide  in  truth  and  love,  they  will  not  be  misled  though  all  the 
spirits  of  hell  came  forth  against  them.  Moreover,  if  a  Church,  having  prophets 
sent  to  them,  as  my  Church  hath,  will  not  abide  in  Jesus,  but  look  to  the  prophet  as 
if  he  were  something,  the  Lord  will  chasten  that  Church  by  the  mouth  of  that 
prophet,  who  is  ever  more  jealous  of  Christ  than  he  is  of  himself.  But  if  the  prophet 
shrink  from  rebuking  the  Church,  pastor  and  all,  then  will  the  Lord  take  the  other 


612  APPENDICES. 

way  of  rebuking  both  liim  and  the  people,  smiting  him  their  idol,  and  making  him 
to  stumble  and  fall.  And  if  they  are  inclined  to  set  him  above  the  pastor,  and  the 
pastor  be  faithful,  the  Lord  will  justify  the  pastor ;  all  to  teach  that  the  prophet  is 
nothing  apart  from  Christ,  even  as  it  is  written,  'Who  then  is  Paul,  and  who  is 
ApoUos,  but  ministers  by  whom  ye  believed,  even  as  the  Lord  gave  to  every  man  ? 
I  have  planted,  ApoUos  watered ;  but  God  gave  the  increase'  (1  Cor.,  iii.,  5,  6).  If 
the  prophets  have  done  me  any  good,  it  is  in  teaching  me  to  do  nothing  without 
Christ,  and  to  dare  to  do  every  thing  in  and  by  Christ.  They  have  made  me  bold 
for  my  Master,  for  myself  a  very  coward.  And  the  same  effect  I  covet  for  my  peo- 
ple. All  these  things  have  I  spoken,  that  ye  might  understand  the  law  and  the 
prophets,  whereof  we  are  all  woefully  ignorant.  So  may  the  Lord  guard  you  from 
rash  and  ignorant  judgment. 

"The  notion  now  subsisting  in  the  Church  concerning  the  prophet  is  that  he  gave 
signs  supernatural,  on  the  credit  of  which  he  was  to  be  believed  without  farther  ques- 
tion ;  and  concerning  inspiration,  that  it  was  an  enforcement  of  the  organs  of  speech, 
whereby  they  could  not  utter  any  thing  but  the  truth.  The  former  notion  subverts 
all  moral  responsibility  in  the  hearers ;  the  latter  doth  the  same  by  the  prophets ; 
and  both  together  do  make  God  first  to  extinguish  responsibility,  in  order  to  bring  in 
that  word  whereto  all  are  to  be  responsible.  We  have  shown  the  utter  falsehood  of 
the  notion  as  respecteth  the  prophet,  who  was  no  more  an  infallible  person  than  is 
the  Pope;  being  liable,  like  every  other  man,  to  be  drawn  aside,  as  was  Jonah,  by 
his  distrust  of  God ;  and  he  standeth  only  by  his  faith.  This  only  had  he  above 
other  men,  that  the  conviction  of  truth  within  him  is  wont  to  be  sealed  to  him  by  a 
supernatural  revelation  of  light  and  power  in  utterance ;  which,  however,  he  pos- 
sesseth  not  for  his  own  private  use,  nor  for  the  use  of  any  private  family  or  society 
of  men,  but  for  the  whole  Church  of  God,  yea,  and  for  the  whole  world.  Of  the 
other  part  of  this  bare  and  baseless  hypothesis,  which  now  holdeth  the  Church  con- 
cerning the  traduction  of  infallible  truth  from  God  to  man — namely,  that  the  prophet 
hath  but  to  give  a  miraculous  sign,  and  let  him  say  what  he  pleaseth,  must  be  be- 
lieved ;  and  if  any  one  doubt,  he  hath  but  to  thrust  forth  another  wonder  into  the 
midst  of  the  beholders,  and  carry  on  his  revelation — I  will  just  quote  against  it  one 
of  the  great  standing  rules  of  God,  as  given  in  all  parts  of  His  Word.  In  the  Law 
of  Moses  it  is  written  thus :  '  If  there  arise  among  you  a  prophet,  or  a  dreamer  of 
dreams,  and  giveth  thee  a  sign  or  a  wonder,  and  the  sign  or  the  wonder  come  to  pass 
whereof  he  spake  unto  thee,  saying.  Let  us  go  after  other  gods,  which  thou  hast  not 
known,  and  let  us  serve  them,  thou  shalt  not  hearken  unto  the  words  of  that  prophet, 
or  that  dreamer  of  dreams ;  for  the  Lord  your  God  proveth  you,  to  know  whether  ye 
love  the  Loi'd  your  God  with  all  your  heart  and  with  all  your  soul.  Ye  shall  walk 
after  the  Lord  your  God,  and  fear  Him,  and  ktep  His  commandments,  and  obey  His 
voice,  and  ye  shall  serve  Him  and  cleave  unto  Him.  And  that  prophet,  or  that 
dreamer  of  dreams,  shall  be  put  to  death,  because  he  hath  spoken  to  turn  you  away 
from  the  Lord  yoixr  God,  which  brought  you  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  redeemed 
you  out  of  the  house  of  bondage,  to  thrust  thee  out  of  the  way  which  the  Lord  thy 
God  commanded  thee  to  walk  in.  So  shalt  thou  put  the  evil  away  from  the  midst 
of  thee'  (Deut.,  xiii.,  1-5).  Was  the  sign  or  the  wonder  to  authenticate  and  verify 
the  word  uttered  by  the  prophet?  No ;  but  the  law  and  the  testimony  were  to  verify 
the  sign.  And,  if  they  did  not  attest  it,  the  prophet  was  to  be  put  to  death,  all  signs 
and  wonders  notwithstanding.  So  now  have  I  dealt  by  the  prophets  whom  the  Lord 
hath  sent  into  my  Church,  trying  every  thing  by  the  written  Word  of  God,  and  at  no 
rate  permitting  any  deviation  therefrom,  or  inconsistency  therewith,  to  have  any  au- 
thority, though  uttered  with  all  the  tongues  of  men  or  of  angels.     And  among  many 


APPENDIX  C.  613 

hundreds  of  instances  spoken  in  the  midst  of  us,  the  greatest  doubter,  the  greatest 
opposer,  hath  been  able  to  discover  nothing  repugning  from  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
Yea,  even  in  one  case  which  there  hath  been  strong  reason  to  suspect  not  to  be  from 
God,  so  carefully  hath  God  overruled  the  enemy,  that  out  of  his  mouth  nothing  hath 
been  permitted  to  issue  but  glory  unto  our  God  and  His  Christ.  Yet  do  the  majority 
both  of  ministers  and  of  people  stand  aloof  from  the  work  on  no  other  ground  but 
this,  that  there  are  no  signs  and  wonders,  thereby  confessing  that  tfcey  are  willing  to 
judge  God's  Word  by  the  light  of  the  eye  and  by  the  hearing  of  the  ear,  but  on  no 
account  by  the  discernment  of  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  within  them,  from  which  folly  let 
them  be  delivered  by  reading  the  2d  chapter  of  Paul's  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians. 
The  signs  and  wonders  are  demonstrations  of  supernatural  power ;  but  whether  from 
the  region  of  spiritual  good,  or  of  spiritual  evil  descending,  the  fact  of  their  being 
above  nature  determineth  not.  This  is  to  be  known  by  their  character,  of  grace,  and 
goodness,  and  blessing,  or  of  violence,  and  malice,  and  destructiveness.  The  diabol- 
ical possessions  were  witnessed  in  the  torture  which  they  brought,  and  the  Divine 
power  in  delivering  from  the  same,  and  bringing  back  to  peace  of  conscience,  sound- 
ness of  mind,  and  health  of  body.  And  so  shall  it  continue  to  be  evidenced  unto  the 
end  ;  an  evil  spiritual  world  contending  with  the  good  in  all  supernatural  acts,  in 
order,  impossible,  to  seduce  the  faith  and  obedience  of  men.  The  speakers  for  the 
one  are  false  prophets,  for  the  otlier  are  good  prophets  ;  and  nothing  can  discriminate 
between  them  but  the  honest  and  good  heart,  which  discemeth  between  good  and 
evil ;  and  the  life  of  Jesus  in  the  believer,  which,  being  of  one  substance  with  the 
Holy  Ghost,  doth  well  know  His  voice,  and  the  voice  of  a  stranger  will  noi  follow. 
I  marvel  greatly  at  the  doting,  dreaming  Church,  which  for  the  last  century,  in  all 
universities  and  colleges,  and  in  all  books  of  evidence,  hath  been  teaching  men  to 
look  only  or  chiefly  to  the  external  evidence  to  the  things  in  time  or  place,  the  tra- 
dition of  miracles,  and  so  preparing  a  snare  for  the  taking  of  the  whole  Church,  in 
which  all  the  book-learned  and  book-readers  are  at  present  holden  almost  to  a  man, 
and  bound  fast.  And  the  common  people  have  escaped  only  because  they  are  not 
readers  of  Paley,  Lardner,  Macknight,  and  the  host  of  their  followers. 

' '  What  test  our  Lord  gives  to  distinguish  true  prophets  from  false  you  have  writ- 
ten in  these  words :  '  Beware  of  false  prophets,  which  come  to  you  in  sheep's  cloth- 
ing, but  inwardly  they  are  ravening  wolves.  Ye  shall  know  them  by  their  fruits. 
Do  men  gather  grapes  of  thorns,  or  figs  of  thistles?  Even  so,  every  good  tree 
bringeth  forth  good  fruit ;  but  a  corrupt  tree  bringeth  forth  evil  fruit.  A  good  tree 
can  not  bring  forth  evil  fruit,  neither  can  a  corrupt  tree  bring  forth  good  fruit. 
Every  tree  that  bringeth  not  forth  good  fruit  is  hewn  down  and  cast  into  the  fire. 
Wherefore  by  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them.  Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me, 
Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven ;  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of 
my  Father  which  is  in  heaven'  (Matt.,  vii.,  15-21).  Do  they  produce  the  fruits  of 
righteousness  in  tliose  who  give  ear  unto  them,  and  obey  their  words  ?  For  them- 
selves, their  disguise  may  be  complete  'in  sheep's  clothing, '  though  'inwardly  they 
are  ravenous  wolves ;'  and  their  words  may  to  the  ear  be  sound  and  true,  but  in- 
wardly they  are  'ravening  wolves,'  and  will  infuse  the  same  spirit  into  those  who 
follow  after  them.  This  spirit  will  express  itself  first  in  a  spirit  of  zealous  proselyt- 
ism ;  for,  until  they  can  get  the  sheep  from  under  their  proper  shepherds,  they  can 
not  so  well  get  their  wicked  use  out  of  them.  Then,  when  they  have  got  them  in- 
corporated into  a  sect,  they  work  them  to  their  ends,  seducing  them  to  commit  all 
manner  of  iniquity  with  greediness.  Thus  was  it  exhibited  in  the  heresies  of  the 
primitive  Church,  which  came  in  through  false  prophets,  possessed,  I  make  no  doubt, 
in  the  instances  of  the  Gnostics  and  the  Manicheans,  with  seducing  spirits,  propaga- 


614  APPENDICES. 

ting  doctrines  of  devils,  and  ending  in  abominations  hitherto  unpracticed,  and  even 
unheard  of  in  the  world.  But  the  true  prophets  are  for  edification,  exhortation,  and 
comfort  of  the  Church  of  God,  for  bringing  them  up  into  the  stature  of  the  fullness 
of  Christ.  Now  if  you  can  observe  any  features  cf  error,  or  fruits  of  wickedness  about 
us,  or  about  those  who  adhere  to  us,  then  bear  testimony  against  us ;  for  we  desire 
nothing  more  than  to  have  our  errors  exposed,  that  we  may  correct  them.  But  if 
the  fruits  upon  the  minister  have  been  greater  light,  love,  faith,  and  watchfulness ; 
upon  those  who  follow  his  faith,  greater  holiness,  communion,  and  obedience,  as  even 
our  enemies  are  forced  to  confess,  then  do  you  gi-eatly  oifend  the  Lord  in  not  apply- 
ing His  test,  but  judging  those  to  be  false  prophets  who  by  their  fruits  do  prove  them- 
selves to  be  true  ones.  The  evil  fruits  which  are  produced  in  the  people  upon  whom 
false  prophets  practice  I  have  had  occasion  to  know  and  to  obsei-ve  in  the  followers 
of  Joanna  Southcote,  who  are  a  people  full  of  evil  possessions ;  and  also  in  many 
persons  acting  as  prophets  among  the  ignorant  of  this  city,  and  actually  possessed 
of  familiar  spirits  capable  of  divination.  And  I  can  lay  this  down  as  an  invariable 
rule,  that  the  conscience  of  truth  is  deadened  in  them  all,  '  having  their  conscience 
seared  as  with  a  red-hot  iron,'  and  the  natural  strength  of  the  will  altogether  gone. 
Irresolute  and  without  determination,  they  are  the  slaves  of  the  spirit  which  over- 
ruleth  them ;  and,  when  speaking  in  their  own  understanding,  the  great,  almost  the 
whole  bent  of  their  discourse  is  to  justify  and  magnify  the  Spirit  by  recounting  the 
wonderful  prognostications  which  lie  hath  given  to  them.  But  it  is  a  certain  char- 
acteristic of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Spirit  of  the  Father,  that  he  doth  not  testify  of  Him- 
self, but  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  for  the  witness  of  whom  He  is  given.  When  a 
false  spirit  getteth  hold  of  an  ingenious  and  cultivated  mind,  I  do  observe  that  it 
leadeth  him  into  all  manner  of  wanderings,  as  it  did  the  Gnostics  of  old,  and  de- 
stroyeth  all  mark  of  truth  in  subtle  niceties,  striking  analogies,  and  mazes  of  doc- 
trine of  which  I  had  read  in  the  first  ages  of  the  Church,  but  never  dreamed  of  see- 
ing them  equalled,  yea,  and  surpassed  in  our  days.  Furthermore  it  hath  befallen 
me,  within  these  twelve  months  past,  to  have  had  personal  knowledge  of  members 
of  Christ's  body,  upon  whom  the  subtle  enemy  hath  made  diverse  attempts  to  seduce 
them  from  their  integrity  by  taking  the  form  of  an  angel  of  light,  and  in  most  cases 
it  hath  been  attended  with  the  fruits  of  disgrace  in  their  own  souls ;  and  when  per- 
mitted to  proceed  through  ignorance  or  mistakes  as  to  its  true  character,  hath  ended 
in  the  entire  subversion  of  confidence  toward  God  and  the  brethren,  to  suspicion  of, 
yea,  and  insurrection  against  the  ordinance  of  the  pastor  and  of  the  Church  itself; 
or  it  hath  ended  in  dazzling  the  mind,  and  deceiving  the  conscience  with  such 
shows  of  light  and  love  as  to  make  it  utterly  impervious  to  the  counsel  of  the  breth- 
ren, to  the  authority  of  rulers,  yea,  and  to  the  voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost  Himself. 
The  various  experience  which  I  have  had  during  the  last  twelve  months  of  the  work 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  the  work  of  Satan,  hath  convinced  me  that,  until  the  discern- 
ment of  spirits  shall  be  given  as  a  distinct  gift  in  the  Church,  there  is  no  rule  so  cer- 
tain as  that  which  our  Lord  hath  given  of  trying  them  by  the  fruits.  And  taking 
this  rule,  I  must  solemnly  declare  that,  if  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit  be  '  love,  peace,  joy, 
long-siiifering,  gentleness,  meekness,  patience,  temperance,'  these  fruits  have  been 
produced  by  the  Spirit  speaking  in  our  Church,  whether  you  respect  the  persons  in 
whom  He  speaketh,  or  those  who  have  grace  given  to  recognize  and  confess  it  as  the 
Holy  Ghost. 

"Besides  this  universal  test  of  our  Lord,  there  be  others  of  a  more  special  kind 
given  by  the  apostles,  which  I  have  found  available  in  some  cases  for  the  detection 
and  exposure  of  evil  spirits.  The  confession  'that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,'  and  that 
'  Christ  is  come  in  the  flesh, '  hath,  in  my  own  experience,  sufliced  to  detect  an  evil 


APPENDIX  C.  615 

spirit ;  and  in  other  cases,  when  an  evil  power  was  present,  there  hath  been  such 
ample  confession  on  these  heads  as  would  deceive  the  most  wary  and  sagacious  in- 
quirer. There  is  a  mystery  in  this  which  I  do  not  thoroughly  understand ;  but  it 
seems  to  me  that  besides  evil  possessions,  when  another  spirit  is  actually  present  in 
the  person  of  a  man,  there  is  a  power  which  Satan  putteth  forth  through  the  flesh, 
to  imitate  and  counterfeit  the  utterances  of  the  Holy  Ghost  through  the  spirit.  For 
the  former  case  I  believe  it  is  that  the  test  of  the  apostles  is  given ;  but  the  latter 
case  yieldeth  only  to  the  rule  of  our  Lord,  '  Try  the  propliets  by  their  fruits, '  or  to 
the  discernment  which  is  given  to  one  prophet  of  another,  in  order  to  keep  his  order 
pure,  and  to  preserve  a  brother  from  the  attempts  of  Satan  through  the  flesh.  But 
it  is  not  convenient  in  this  place  to  go  into  the  details  of  an  experience  which  would 
fill  a  volume.  Only  these  things  I  have  said  for  the  end  of  clearing  a  little  the  mat- 
ter of  true  and  false  prophets,  and  to  show  how  utterly  erroneous  is  the  notion  uni- 
versally current,  that  a  prophet  is  to  be  tried  by  the  miracles  which  he  can  do ;  as 
if  there  were  no  evil  region  in  the  spiritual  or  supernatural  world,  as  well  as  in  the 
visible  and  natural.  Let  the  Presbytery  be  upon  their  guard  against  the  sweeping 
and  loose  conclusions  of  the  opposite  party,  who  would  have  you  to  believe  that  noth- 
ing will  prove  a  man  to  be  a  prophet  but  unchangeable  infallibility.  I  can  not  go 
into  all  the  trials  with  which  this  work  of  God  hath  been  tried  of  the  enemy.  But  I 
will  say  this  in  general,  that  as  well  that  which  hath  been  referred  to,  as  every  oth- 
er, have  been  permitted  of  God,  in  order  to  show  the  work  to  be  His,  who  ever  Com- 
eth forth  to  suppress  and  defeat  them  all.  As,  in  the  days  of  our  Lord,  Satan's 
kingdom  was  manifested  in  demoniacal  possessions  that  Jesus  might  be  proved  not 
to  have  a  devil,  but  the  Holy  Ghost  in  casting  them  out,  so  among  us  hath  Satan's 
power  in  utterance  been  permitted,  in  order  that  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost  might 
be  proved  in  detecting  and  exposing  them,  and  putting  them  to  silence.  When  they 
charged  Jesus  with  casting  out  devils  by  Beelzebub,  the  prince  of  the  devils,  he  an- 
swered, 'A  kingdom  is  not  divided  against  itself.'  So  can  I,  the  minister  of  the 
Church  in  which  the  Holy  Ghost  hath  manifested  Himself,  say  to  those  who  allege 
that  it  is  a  work  of  Satan,  Satan  would  not  cast  Satan  out — Satan  would  not  silence 
Satan.  In  every  form  have  I  seen  Satan  seek  to  insinuate  himself  into  this  work 
and  mar  it,  and  as  often  have  I  seen  him  withstood  by  the  supernatural  power  which 
speaketh  among  us  in  tongues  and  prophesying,  whereby  I  know  that  it  is  the  power 
of  God — of  Jesus,  the  vanquisher  of  Satan — of  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  that  very  form  iri 
which  He  was  manifested  in  the  day  of  Pentecost. 

"The  next  allegation  is,  That  I  have,  with  no  very  great  kindness,  charged  on  the 
trustees  and  complainers  that  they  have  absented  themselves  from  the  church,  and 
at  once  denounced  the  doctrine  without  investigation  or  inquiry.  It  is  not  necessa- 
ry for  me  to  refute  this  farther  than  to  state  what  I  said.  What  I  said  was,  that  in- 
stead of  coming  to  the  church  to  hear  the  utterances  and  try  the  spirits,  a  great  por- 
tion of  the  trustees  refused  to  come  near  us  any  more,  and  would  not  even  hear  the 
spirits,  much  less  try  them ;  and  so  they  come  up  to  the  Presbytery  causa  incognita. 
I  did  not  say  that  all  had  done  so,  but  that  a  great  portion  of  the  trustees  had  so; 
and  if  it  is  not  true,  let  them  now  gainsay  it.     But  you  perceive  they  do  not. 

"  The  next  charge  is.  That  I  suffered  iinauthorized  persons  to  speak  in  the  church. 
My  answer  is.  They  were  not  unauthorized  persons.  I  authorized  them ;  in  the  right, 
in  the  plenary  right  which  I  possess  as  an  angel  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  I  author- 
ized them  ,  and  the  man  liveth  not  who  can  come  between  the  Lord  Jesus  and  me 
His  minister,  so  as  to  set  that  authority  aside.  I  do  not  say  that  my  authorizing  of 
them  is  credentials  enough,  but  that  my  Master  only  can  control  me  in  the  exercise 
of  that  authority.     The  allegation,  therefore,  is  not  true.     They  were  fully  author- 


615  APPENDICES. 

ized.  I  say  it  in  the  presence  of  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  of  the  angels  and  elders  of 
the  churches ;  and  in  defense  of  this  right,  which  I  must  not  surrender  to  any  man 
or  to  any  body  of  men,  I  appeal  again  to  the  express  command  of  the  Lord  himself, 
in  two  of  the  epistles  to  the  Churches,  and  no  one  can  say  that  this  is  not  good  and 
sufiBcient  ground  of  my  right. 

"Then  I  was  taxed  with  dishonesty;  and  I  was  told,  if!  was  an  honest  man,  I 
ought  to  have  gone  forth  of  the  church.  Let  me  repress  the  feeling  that  riseth  in 
ray  bosom  while  I  repel  the  insinuation  ;  for  I  must  not  speak  out  of  the  resentment 
of  nature,  but  out  of  the  charity  of  grace.  Dishonesty  !  if  it  be  such  a  moot  point 
and  simple  case  of  honesty  and  dishonesty,  why  trouble  they  the  Presbytery  to  con- 
sider it?  Ye  trouble  the  Presbytery,  do  ye,  to  adjust  a  question  of  common  honesty 
and  dishonesty  ?  It  is  a  great  and  grave  question,  aifecting  the  right  of  the  minis- 
ters and  prophets  of  the  Christian  Church  ;  a  question  of  the  most  deep  and  sacred 
importance ;  a  question,  not  of  discipline  only,  but  of  doctrine ;  and  is  a  question  of 
doctrine,  and  of  discipline,  and  of  ordinance,  and  of  personal  right,  to  be  called  a 
question  of  common  honesty,  as  if  I  were  a  knave  ?  Ye,  being  the  judges,  ought  not 
to  have  permitted  the  complainers  thus  to  speak  of  a  reverend  brother,  and  twit  me 
as  I  was  twitted.  Ye  were  quick-scented  after  their  honor,  but  mine  they  might 
trample  under  foot.  My  well-known  character  among  you  ought  to  have  protected 
me  from  this  allegation.  It  was  not  right  in  you  to  permit  it ;  nay,  but  they  them- 
selves know  me  too  well  not  to  know  that  I  am  honest,  at  least,  according  to  the 
measure  of  a  fallible  man,  for  I  do  ever  aim  to  be  honest.  These  insinuations  are 
not  honorable  to  you  nor  to  me ;  ye  should  not  have  permitted  them  to  be  uttered 
of  a  brother.  It  is  to  me  a  question  of  great  and  momentous  dutj^,  which  hath  cost 
me  long,  laborious,  and  pahiful  thought.  "Was  it  a  small  matter  for  me,  when  plant- 
ed the  minister  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  and  secured  in  the  possession  of  that  house 
during  my  life,  unless  I  should  be  guilty  of  some  crime  disqualifying  me  for  the  min- 
istry, to  surrender  the  post  in  which  God,  and  the  Church,  and  the  covenants  of  man 
had  planted  me,  to  the  discontent  of  a  few  men,  to  the  opinions  of  any  number  of 
men,  whom  I  believed  in  my  heart  to  be  grieving  both  God  and  His  Church  by  their 
rash  and  indiscriminate,  their  hasty,  head}-,  and  unfounded  judgments  ?  Seeing  they 
rest  so  much  upon  the  trust-deed,  I  also  am  a  party  to  that  document,  representing 
the  Church  of  God,  the  flock  of  believers,  and  a  numerous  congregation,  whose  peti- 
tion to  be  heard  at  your  bar  upon  the  issue  you  have  rejected.  If  these  men  be  par- 
ties representing  the  house  of  stone,  and  brick,  and  lime,  and  timber,  I  am  a  party 
representing  the  flock  of  believers,  gathered  unto  Christ  under  my  ministry,  through 
whose  generous  contributions,  chiefly,  the  house  hath  been  both  builded  and  upheld ; 
and  being  placed  as  their  repi-esentative  in  the  trust-deed,  I  ask  if  it  was  a  small 
matter  that  should  move  me  to  consent  to  go  forth  from  the  habitation  and  home  of 
our  souls,  and  wander,  we  know  not  whither,  over  this  wide  and  wicked  city,  where 
we  have  no  Church  that  will  call  us  sister,  or  welcome  us  to  an  hour's  shelter  under 
their  roof?  These  men  seem  to  have  little  knowledge  of  the  thoughts  for  my  flock 
which  have  exercised  and  wearied,  and,  but  for  our  God's  presence,  would  have  over- 
whelmed my  heart,  else  they  would  not  have  spoken  of  it  as  they  have  done,  as  if  it 
were  a  question  of  private  feeling,  and  not  of  gi-eat  and  grave  responsibility  before 
God  and  man.  My  personal  right  in  that  church  never  once  came  into  my  mind. 
The  condition  of  my  wife  and  young  children,  cast  out  upon  the  wide  world,  never 
once  was  spoken  of  among  all  the  strivings  which  we  have  had  together  upon  this 
question  in  the  kirk-session  and  congregation.  Every  one  felt  that  the  question  was 
altogether  one  of  a  higher  region ;  and  it  doth  indeed  amaze  me  to  hear  it  now,  for 
the  first  time  in  this  presence,  spoken  of  as  a  personal  question  merely,  and  the  sim- 


APPENDIX  C.  617 

plest  of  all  personal  questions,  namel}',  whether  I  was  to  act  the  part  of  an  honest 
man  by  removing,  or  of  a  knave  by  abiding  in  the  Church.  Even  in  cases  where  a 
minister  hath  done  something  in  direct  violation  of  his  ministerial  standing,  preach- 
ing heresy,  or  practicing  schism,  or  breaking  the  moral  law,  he  may  not  be  called 
upon  to  leave  the  Church  out  of  hand,  but  must  be  proceeded  against  by  libel ;  and 
even  in  civil  matters  a  man  may  nx)t  be  degraded  from  his  office,  or  deprived  of  his 
liberty,  upon  any  confession  of  his  own,  but  upon  the  judgment  of  his  peers,  because 
we  are  guardians  one  of  another,  members  of  a  community :  how  much  more  in  a 
question  like  this,  where  there  are  neither  written  statutes,  nor  precedents,  nor  com- 
mon practice  whereon  to  convict  me,  except,  indeed,  the  statutes  and  precedents  of 
the  Word  of  God,  which  are  altogether  on  my  side.  But,  to  cut  this  matter  short,  is 
it  not  upon  your  table  in  evidence  that  this  is  a  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost?  and  can 
there  be  any  statute  forbidding  the  Holy  Ghost  to  speak  in  His  own  temple  ?  And 
if  He  do  speak,  must  I,  as  an  honest  man,  call  upon  my  flock  to  go  forth  with  me 
from  the  house  in  which  He  has  spoken  as  if  it  were  defiled,  and  forever  disqualified 
from  being  the  house  of  our  worship  and  our  peace  ? 

"This  is  a  temptation  which  has  come  over  my  brethren,  arising  from  their  loose 
and  unholy  way  of  thinking  and  speaking  upon  this  subject,  as  if  it  were  a  common 
bargain  between  the  trustees  upon  the  one  hand  and  myself  on  the  other.  I  would 
it  had  been  such  :  neither  you  nor  they  would  have  been  troubled  with  it  this  day  ; 
for  the  world  is  wide,  and  the  English  tongue  is  widely  diffused  over  it,  and  I  am 
used  to  live  by  faith,  and  love  my  calling  of  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel  as  well  as  I  do 
my  calling  of  a  pastor.  I  also  have  been  tempted  with  the  like  temptation  of  mak- 
ing this  a  question  of  personal  feeling.  One  whole  day,  I  remember,  before  meeting 
the  elders  and  deacons  of  my  Church,  before  the  first  breaking  out  of  this  matter,  I 
abode  in  the  mind  of  giving  way  to  my  own  feelings,  and  saying  to  them,  '  Brethren, 
we  have  abidden  now  for  so  many  years  in  love  and  unity,  never,  or  hardly  once,  di- 
viding on  any  question,  that,  rather  than  cause  divisions,  which  I  see  can  not  be  avoid- 
ed, I  will  take  my  leave  of  you,  and  betake  myself  to  other  quarters  and  other  labors 
in  the  Church,  and  do  you  seek  out  for  some  one  to  come  and  stand  in  my  room,  to 
go  in  and  out  before  this  great  people,  and  rule  over  them,  for  I  can  be  no  longer 
faithful  to  God,  and  preserve  the  body  in  peace  and  unity.  I  can  not  find  in  my 
heart  to  grieve  you ;  let  me  alone,  and  entreat  me  not ;  I  will  go  and  preach  the 
Gospel  in  other  parts,  whither  God  may  call  me.'  In  this  mood,  which  these  men 
would  call  honest  and  honorable,  which  I  call  selfish  and  treacherous  to  my  Lord 
and  Master,  I  did  abide  for  the  greater  part  of  the  most  important  day  of  my  life, 
whereof  the  evening  was  to  determine  this  great  question  ;  but  the  Lord  showed  me 
before  the  hour  came.  He  showed  me,  with  whom  alone  I  took  counsel  in  the  se- 
cret place  of  my  own  heart,  that  I  waHnot  a  private  man  to  do  what  liked  me  best, 
but  the  pastor  of  a  Church,  to  consider  their  well-being,  and  the  minister  of  Christ, 
to  whom  I  must  render  an  account  of  my  stewardship.  I  put  away  the  temptation, 
and  went  up,  in  the  strength  of  the  Lord,  to  contend  with  the  men  whom  I  loved  as 
my  own  bowels ;  and  to  tell  them,  face  to  face,  that  I  would  displease  every  one  of 
them,  yea,  and  hate  every  one  of  them,  if  need  should  be,  rather  than  flinch  one  iota 
from  my  firm  and  rooted  purpose  to  live  and  die  for  Jesus.  God  only  knows  the 
great  searchings  of  heart  which  there  have  been  within  me  for  the  divisions  of  the 
kirk-session  and  flock  of  the  National  Scotch  Church.  But  they  have  rooted  and 
grounded  me  in  my  standing  as  a  pastor,  which  I  had  understood,  but  never  prac- 
ticed before,  and  in  the  subordinate  standing  of  an  elder,  which  is  very  little  under- 
stood in  the  Church  of  Scotland,  whereof  I  am  minister.  And  they  have  knit  me  to 
my  flock  in  a  bond  which  can  not  bo  broken  until  God  do  break  it.     I  preferred  my 


618  APPENDICES. 

duty  as  a  pastor  to  my  feelings  as  a  man,  and  abode  in  my  place.     And  what  hath 
the  faithfulness  and  bounty  of  my  God  yet  done  ?     Within  six  months  thereafter  by 
the  preaching  of  the  Word,  and  the  witness  of  the  Spirit,  there  were  added  two  hund- 
red members  to  the  Church,  not  a  few  of  whom  were  converted  from  the  very  depths 
of  immorality  and  vice  to  become  holy  and  God-fearing  men ;  and  as  I  sat  yester- 
day in  my  vestry  for  nearly  five  hours  examining  applicants  for  the  liberty  of  sitting 
down  with  my  contemned  and  rejected  Church,  I  thought  within  myself,  '  Ah !  it 
was  good  thou  stoodest  here  in  the  place  where  the  Lord  had  planted  thee,  and  went- 
est  not  forth  from  hence  at  the  bidding  of  thine  own  troubled  heart.     Behold  what 
a  harvest  God  hath  given  thee  in  this  time  of  shaking !     Wait  on  thy  Lord,  and  be 
of  good  courage ;  commit  thy  way  unto  Him ;  trust  in  Him,  and  He  will  bring  it  to 
pass.'    These  were  my  thoughts,  I  do  assure  you,  no  farther  gone  than  yesterday, 
when  I  sat  wearied  out  with  the  number  and  weight  of  the  cases  which  were  brought 
before  me  in  my  pastoral  vocation.     And  for  your  encouragement,  O  ye  ministers 
of  Christ!  who  sit  here  in  judgment,  that  ye  may  labor  with  good  hope  in  this  city, 
through  good  report  and  through  bad  report,  that  ye  may  not  put  your  hands  rashly 
upon  the  man  of  God  and  the  work  of  God,  I  do  give  you  to  wit,  that  by  my  labors 
in  this  city,  not  hundreds,  but  thousands,  at  least  upward  of  a  thousand,  have  been 
converted  by  my  ministry ;  and  I  feel  an  assurance  that,  let  men  do  their  utmost  to 
prevent  it,  thousands  more  will  yet,  by  the  same  feeble  and  worthless  instrument,  be 
brought  into  the  fold  of  the  Father,  out  of  which  no  power  shall  be  able  to  pluck 
them.     I  have  no  bargain  with  these  trustees.     I  am  not  their  pensioner,  nor  bound 
to  them  by  any  obligation,  nor  indebted  to  them  in  any  manner,  that  they  should 
charge  me  with  dishonesty.     I  am  another  man's  servant,  another  man's  debtor. 
Their  debtor,  indeed,  I  am,  to  preach  to  them  the  Gospel,  and  to  guide  them,  as 
their  pastor,  into  the  way  of  righteousness.     If  this  deed,  to  which  they  have  obliged 
themselves,  compel  them  to  raise  an  action  against  me  before  this  Presbytery,  then 
let  them  do  it ;  and  leave  the  issue  to  the  competent  judges ;  but  do  not  let  them 
dare  to  accuse  their  minister  as  a  dishonest  man,  because  he  sees  it  his  duty  to  his 
Maker  to  abide  where  his  Maker  hath  placed  him,  and  where  he  hath  offended  nei- 
ther against  the  ordinances  of  God  nor  the  covenants  of  man ;   and,  on  the  other 
hand,  if  any  trustee  should  see  that  in  raising  such  an  action  he  doth  offend  against 
the  laws  of  God,  then  let  him  not  do  it,  and  abide  the  consequences.     For  it  is  bet- 
ter to  lose  the  right  hand  and  the  right  eye  both,  than  knowingly  to  offend  against 
God.     No  action  of  a  man  in  times  past  can  bind  him  up  in  the  time  to  come,  that 
he  should  not  always  be  at  liberty  to  serve  God.     But  this  is  not  the  place  for  hand- 
ling these  questions,  and  I  conclude  this  topic  of  my  adversary's  speech  by  solemnly 
charging  the  Presbytery  that  they  be  not  beguiled  into  such  short  and  summary  views 
of  the  question  before  them.     It  is  a  questiompf  deposition,  the  deposition  of  a  min- 
ister from  those  rights  which,  as  a  minister,  belong  to  him.     Now  ye  know  well  what 
an  onerous  thing  it  is  accounted  by  Christ  and  his  Church  that  a  minister  should  be 
deposed  by  his  Presbytery.     Remember,  I  am  a  man  of  unblemished  character ; 
there  is  no  charge  against  me  of  any  kind ;  but  the  very  contrary,  the  testimony  of 
the  other  party  to  my  blameless  and  faultless  conversation  among  them  unto  this 
day.     When  this  Presbyteiy  rashly  charged  a  book  of  mine  with  heresy,  these  very 
men,  many  of  them,  did  come  forward  of  their  own  accord  to  repel  the  charge,  and 
vindicate  me  against  a  thousand  malicious  reports  as  a  true,  and  faithful,  and  ortho- 
dox minister  of  Christ.     And  bear  ye  in  mind  that  ye  are  not  at  liberty  to  take  up 
any  matter  but  that  which  is  exhibited  in  the  charge  of  the  trustees.     Ye  have  me 
legally  before  you,  not  in  your  character  of  a  Presbytery,  but  of  referees  under  this 
deed ;  in  that  character,  and  that  only,  have  you  any  power  against  me.     The  ques- 


APPENDIX  C.  619 

tion  is,  simply,  whether  T,  a  pastoi',  shall  be  deposed  from  the  Church,  and  deprived 
of  my  rights  as  a  minister  of  Christ,  because  I  have  permitted  that  to  take  place  in 
my  church  which  all  the  evidence  upon  your  table  concurreth  to  testify  is  the  speak- 
ing of  the  Comforter,  whom  Christ  promised  as  being  to  abide  with  his  Church  for- 
ever, to  lead  her  into  all  truth,  and  to  show  her  things  to  come.  Is  this  enough  to 
incur  deposition?  Give  heed  to  the  question  which  is  before  you:  as  pastors  having 
the  hearts  of  pastors,  as  elders  having  the  hearts  of  elders,  can  you  conclude  this  day 
that  a  brother  elder  and  pastor  shall  be  deposed  because  he  hath  suffered  the  voice 
of  the  Comforter  to  be  heard  in  the  Church  ?  This  is  the  question  whida  these  men, 
by  indictment  and  by  testimony,  have  laid  upon  your  table ;  it  is  before  you,  a  Pres- 
bytery of  the  Church  of  Christ ;  and  remember  ye  that  it  is  not  in  a  corner,  but  in 
this,  the  chiefest  city  of  the  world  ;  before  all  Christendom,  yea,  before  all  nations ; 
before  the  great  Head  of  the  Church,  yea,  and  before  the  throne  of  the  Majesty  of 
God  on  high,  that  these  matters  are  to  be  adjudicated,  and  this  issue  to  be  tried  and 
determined,  namely,  whether  a  blameless  and  unblemished  man  shall  have  the  last 
censure  of  the  Church  pronounced  upon  him,  and  be  deposed  from  his  ministerial 
office,  because  he  has  allowed  the  voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  be  heard  in  his  church ; 
for  I  maintain  that  it  is  in  evidence,  on  the  table  of  the  court,  that  it  is  the  voice  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  that  speaketh  in  the  Church.  Ah  !  there  never  was  such  an  issue 
before  any  court — abstract  justice  being  alone  considered — as  is  now  before  this 
court ;  where  a  body  of  trustees,  stepping  out  of  their  proper  place,  have  impugned 
their  minister,  placed  over  them  by  the  great  Head  of  this  Church,  of  a  criminal  act, 
in  permitting  God  to  speak  in  His  own  house ;  and  you,  a  body  of  ministers  and  el- 
ders, acting  under  Christ  for  God,  are  called  to  give  sentence. 

"And  here  I  must  set  aside  a  poor  and  pitiful  evasion  with  which  they  would  seek 
to  beguile  you  from  seeing  the  greatness  of  the  issue  which  is  this  day  joined  between 
the  parties.  With  great  appearance  of  helpless  meekness,  they  come  forward  and 
say  that  they  can  not  help  themselves ;  they  can  not  avoid  the  responsibility  imposed 
upon  them  by  the  trust-deed ;  and  they  come  up,  seeking  from  the  Presbytery  to  be 
delivered  from  the  dilemma  in  which  they  stand,  being  alike  content,  whichever  way 
it  be  determined,  so  that  they  have  exonerated  themselves  of  their  duty  to  their  trust. 
To  this  I  answer,  with  all  plainness  of  speech,  that  they  have  altogether  forgotten 
their  place,  through  the  deceitfulness  of  their  own  heart ;  and  being  supported  by  the 
force  of  public  opinion,  have  gone  aside  from  their  trust,  which  hath  nothing  to  do 
either  with  discipline  or  with  doctrine,  or  with  ordinances  of  any  kind,  but  simply 
with  this  matter  of  fact,  whether  the  minister  be  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  the 
worship  be  according  to  the  constitution  of  that  Church.  Leaving  which,  they  have 
dared  to  bring  me  before  the  Presbytery  for  changing  no  ordinance,  for  breaking 
down  no  constitution,  for  denying  no  point  of  orthodox  doctrine,  for  abolishing  no 
rule  of  discipline ;  and  what  business  have  they  to  interfere  at  all?  I  pronounce 
them  daring  intermeddlers  with  my  sacred  functions,  which  I  will  not  yield  up  to  any 
man;  and  if  you  have  any  honor  of  your  office,  or  i-esentment  of  impertinent  intru- 
sion, you  will  send  these  men  back  again  from  your  reverend  bar  with  an  injunction 
to  distinguish  better  hereafter  between  the  office  of  a  trustee  over  a  building,  and  the 
oversight  of  the  great  Head  of  the  Church  over  the  angels  of  the  Churches,  whom 
He  holdeth  in  His  right  hand.  If  I  have  not  been  guilty  of  a  gross,  yea,  of  a  capital 
offense  against  my  ministerial  standing,  these  men  have  no  case ;  they  have  no  busi- 
ness here ;  they  grieve  me,  and  they  grieve  you  alike,  by  their  impertinent  forsaking 
of  their  trust  to  meddle  in  things  which  are  too  high  for  them.  It  is  yours  to  teach 
trustees  what  their  place  is ;  and  if  you  do  not  give  them  this  lesson  with  all  faith- 
fulness, you  shall,  in  the  just  visitation  of  God,  be  trodden  and  trampled  ujjon  by  the 


620  APPENDICES. 

men  who  attend  to  the  secularities  of  your  several  chapels.  I  charge  you,  by  the  duty 
you  owe  to  these  men,  as  well  as  to  me  and  to  yourselves ;  I  charge  you,  by  the  sacred 
immunities  of  the  ministerial  office,  by  the  sacredness  of  covenants,  by  the  bands  of 
justice,  bv  the  appointment  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Head  of  the  Church,  and  by  the  ordi- 
nances of  Almighty  God,  that  ye  be  not  deceived  by  such  wily  words,  but  that  ye  bear 
upon  vour  heart  and  in  your  mind  what  an  awful  issue  it  is  that  ye  are  called  upon  this 
day  to  decide.  Ye  shall  not,  surely,  escape  the  consequences  of  this  day's  judgment  if 
ve  should  entertain  these  men's  complaint  against  their  minister,  and  remove  me  from 
tiie  church  where  I  abide  in  all  faithfulness  in  the  Lord.  They  will  cleave  to  you 
while  you  live ;  they  will  cleave  also  to  your  flocks ;  and  chiefly  will  they  cleave  to 
this  ecclesiastical  court.  You  will  be  borne  a  while  upon  the  gale  of  public  opinion ; 
A'ou  will  please  yourselves  with  the  idea  of  having  put  down  a  delusion  of  Satan, 
and  honors  may  fall  upon  you  from  your  superiors  in  the  Church ;  but  when  you 
shall  see  the  spark  which  you  have  sought  to  smother  burst  out  into  a  flame,  mighty 
to  consume  you,  and  all  opposers  of  the  Spirit  of  God ;  when  je  find  that  cloud, 
about  the  bigness  of  a  man's  hand,  which  ye  scoffed  and  mocked  at,  overspread  the 
heavens,  and  pour  down  the  torrents  of  the  latter  rain  to  fertilize  the  earth ;  when 
you  see  these  despised  fanatics  grow  into  the  mighty  witnesses  of  God,  who  have 
power  to  shut  heaven,  that  it  rain  not  in  the  days  of  their  prophecy,  and  to  turn 
waters  into  blood,  and  to  smite  the  earth  with  plagues  as  often  as  they  will,  in  what 
light  will  ye  appear  to  the  men  whom  ye  have  misled  from  the  beginning  of  the 
glorious  work,  which  ye  thouglit  too  mean  to  give  heed  to,  though  it  hath  been 
pressed  upon  you  by  every  consideration  by  which  men  can  be  moved?  Oh  !  I  am 
not  careful  for  myself;  but  truly  I  am  very  careful  for  you,  that  you  may  not  err  in 
this  great  question  which  you  are  called  upon  to  decide. 

"The  next  charge  made  against  me  (for,  instead  of  answering  my  speech,  the 
gentleman  hath  raised  against  me  a  series  of  the  most  momentous  charges)  is  ex- 
pressed in  these  words :  '  He  begged  to  call  the  attention  of  the  reverend  defender  to 
the  solemn  Confession  of  Faith  which  he  had  signed,  he  believed,  Avithout  any  mental 
reservation,  though  he  had  told  them  that,  if  he  had  believed  the  signing  of  it  would 
have  prevented  him  preaching  any  thing  which  he  thought  was  right,  he  would  not 
have  signed  it.  Having  been  ordained  a  minister  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  he  had 
declared  the  Confession  of  Faith,  ratified  by  law  in  the  year  1G90,  to  be  the  confes- 
sion of  his  faith,  and  that  he  owned  the  doctrine  therein  contained  to  be  the  true 
doctrine,  which  he  would  constantly  adhere  unto.'  And  if  these  words  mean  any 
thintf,  their  meaning  is,  that,  in  virtue  of  having  subscribed  to  the  Westminster  Con- 
fession of  Faith,  my  hands  are  bound  up  from  permitting  the  voice  of  the  Comforter 
from  being  heard  in  the  church  whereof  I  am  pastor.  It  were  sufficient  to  ask  in 
what  place  of  that  Confession  is  that  interdict  laid  upon  me  ?  and  so  to  wait  for  a 
reply ;  for  none  was  quoted  in  proof  of  so  grave  a  charge.  I  am  sure  that  no  such 
injunction  is  to  be  found  in  the  standards  of  the  Westminster,  or  any  other  divines 
since  the  world  began.  At  most,  all  that  could  be  produced  out  of  these  books  is  the 
declaration  of  the  fact  that  the  extraordinary  gifts  had  ceased  in  the  Church,  and 
with  them  the  extraordinary  offices,  in  opposition  to  the  Romanists,  who  maintained 
that  they  were  still  present.  But,  waiving  this  question  of  fact,  which  had  nothing 
to  do  with  the  matter,  and  upon  which  I  am  very  much  at  one  with  them,  where  is 
the  declaration  that  Almighty  God  neither  would  nor  could  ever  again  raise  up  these 
offices  by  again  communicating  these  gifts  to  the  Church  ?  If  there  be  any  such  dec- 
laration in  the  Westminster  Confession,  let  them  produce  it ;  but  till  they  produce  it, 
I  hold  their  insinuation  to  be  no  better  than  a  gratuitous  and  empty  assertion  of-their 
own,  dishonoring  me  in  your  eyes,  and  tending  to  turn  justice  from  its  course.    And, 


APPENDIX  C.  621 

supposing  that  there  were  such  a  declaration  in  that  Confession,  I  would  immediately 
coimtervail  it  with  the  declaration  in  the  Second  Book  of  Discipline,  that  these  ex- 
traordinary offices  of  evangelist,  prophet,  and  apostle,  God,  for  extraordinary  pur- 
poses might  again  raise  up.  And  I  would  add,  that  the  Westminster  books  were  to 
be  taken  as  in  nothing  prejudicial  to  the  form  of  sound  words  and  the  canons  of  dis- 
cipline originally  agreed  upon  by  the  Scottish  Church  when  she  was  ordering  the 
house  of  God  in  that  realm  according  to  His  Word,  and  under  no  misleading  views 
of  uniformity  with  the  English  Presbyterians.  I  then  would  say  the  office  of  the 
prophet  hath  been  revived  of  God  to  meet  the  extraordinary  emergencies  of  these 
times,  wherein  the  whole  of  Christendom  is  receiving  a  last  warning  from  the  God 
of  mercy  before  meeting  him  as  the  God  of  judgment  and  revenge.  The  same  is  in 
testimony  upon  your  table,  out  of  the  mouths  of  my  accusers,  and  I  call  upon  this 
Presbytery  of  ministers  and  ciders  of  the  Scotch  Church  to  examine  whether  it  be  so 
or  not, .  Such  is  the  firm  basis  of  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  of  Scriptural  doctrine  on 
which  I  have  to  rest  this  cause. 

"But  while  I  do  thus  argue  for  the  truth's  sake,  and  for  the  honor  of  our  stand- 
ards, which,  be  they  what  they  may,  have  been  most  unjustly  forced  to  do  service  in 
this  cause  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  I  am  far  from  assenting  to  the  doctrine  which  was 
stated  in  your  hearing,  and  hath  been  vented  by  some  of  yourselves,  concerning  the 
obligation  involved  in  subscribing  of  articles ;  and,  in  a  few  words,  I  desire  to  expose 
the  fallacy  and  evil  tendency  of  the  views  on  this  subject  which  I  find  to  prevail  al- 
most universally  in  the  minds  of  honest  men.  They  seem  to  regard  the  Confession 
of  Faith  as  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  Church,  whereas  the  Church  itself  is  the  pil- 
lar and  ground,  not  of  the  confession  only,  but  of  the  truth  itself.  The  Church  hath 
no  basis  but  the  living  and  glorified  Jesus,  who  is  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead  and  the 
Head  of  His  Body  the  Church,  from  whom  nothing  can  divide  our  allegiance  in  the 
least,  no,  not  for  a  moment.  Every  book  which  the  Church  hath  at  any  time  stamped 
with  its  authority,  the  same  Church  doth  stand  above  and  not  beneath,  to  take  away 
its  authority  if  it  please,  to  let  it  fall  into  disuse,  or  entirely  to  abolish  it.  The  book 
doth  not  stand  over  the  persons,  but  the  persons  over  the  book.  But  most  of  the 
members  of  my  session,  and  I  perceive  also  of  this  Presbytery,  and  even  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  think  the  Church  resteth  wholly  upon  the 
basis  of  the  Westminster  Confession,  and  is  cemented  with  that  band,  which  is  to 
sell  both  Christ  and  His  people  into  the  hands  of  a  body  of  men  who  lived  and  acted 
some  two  hundred  years  ago.  A  confession  of  faith  issued  by  any  minister  or  body 
of  mmisters  is  good  as  their  testimony  for  the  truth  against  error,  and  may  be  adopt- 
ed by  the  Church  as  a  landmark  in  the  midst  of  the  wilderness  of  man's  opinions; 
but  the  Church  may  not  impose  it  upon  men  as  an  obligation  Godward,  seeing  every 
thing  of  that  kind  God  hath  Himself  written  and  pi-eserved  in  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
When  I  subscribe  to  it,  I  add  my  name  to  those  that  have  gone  before  me,  declaring 
that  I  believe  the  things  which  are  written  therein,  and,  as  an  honest  man,  will  do 
and  say  nothing  to  the  prejudice  of  what  I  believe.  But  my  liberty  as  Christ's  free 
man,  my  prerogative  as  Christ's  minister  and  guardian  of  truth,  remains  unimpaired 
and  unimpeached ;  for  there  existed  no  power  upon  the  earth  which  dareth  to  med- 
dle with  these,  whereof  the  Church  is  the  guardian,  but  in  nowise  the  maker,  or  the 
mender,  or  the  abolisher.  And  after  subscribing  that  confession,  I  am  just  as  much 
at  liberty  to  compare  and  examine  all  its  doctrines  as  before ;  and,  finding  fault  in 
any  of  them,  I  am  beholden  unto  Christ  and  to  the  Church  to  point  out  the  same, 
and  have  it  set  to  rights.  And  this  I  ought  to  do  in  all  places,  but  especially  in  that 
corneK  of  the  vineyard  committed  ta  my  care,  among  the  people  over  whose  souls  I 
watch,  in  the  meetings  of  the  elders,  of  the  ministers,  m  the  synods  and  assemblies 


622  APPENDICES. 

of  the  Church ;  for,  as  hath  been  said,  the  person  is  above  the  book,  and  not  the 
book  above  the  person.  It  is  not  so  with  the  Word  of  God,  just  because  it  is  God's 
Woi-d  ;  it  is  so  with  every  word  of  man,  because  it  is  man's  word ;  for  that  man  is 
not  under  man,  but  under  God.  The  ecclesiastical  courts  in  Scotland  have,  during 
the  last  three  years,  held  more  false  doctrine  and  judged  more  wicked  judgments  on 
this  matter,  and  more  grieved  God  and  Christ,  and  the  generation  of  His  children, 
than  did  the  Council  of  Trent ;  and  I  would  sooner  be  exiled  from  my  native  land, 
and  excommunicated  from  my  mother  Church,  ay,  and  mewed  up  all  my  life  in  the 
dungeons  of  the  Inquisition,  than  seal  to  such  doctrines,  or  take  part  in  such  judg- 
ments, against  which  I  have  ever  lifted  up,  and  now  again  do  lift  up,  my  solemn 
protestation,  as  outrageous  popery,  sanctified  with  the  name  of  common  honesty. 
The  reason  why  such  treasonable  doctrine  findeth  currency  among  the  ignorant  as 
nothing  else  than  common  honesty  is  because  they  think  that  a  confession  of  faith  is 
like  the  charter  of  a  corporation,  and  the  signing  of  it  by  a  minister  is  as  an  appren- 
tice signing  his  indenture ;  they  think  it  is  like  a  deed  of  copartnery,  to  violate  which 
is  a  distinct  infraction  of  honesty  rectified  by  positive  covenants.  And  the  clergy, 
instead  of  teaching  them  better,  know  in  general  no  better  themselves,  and  head  the 
hue-and-cry  against  every  enlightened  and  sound  churchman  who  declareth  the  true 
doctrine  as  laid  down  above.  And  so  it  is  that,  after  all  manner  of  arguments  and 
expostulations,  I  am  content  for  Christ's  sake  to  lose  my  character,  and  sit  down  un- 
der the  foul  charge  of  being  a  dishonest  man.  But  while  I  am  content  to  lose  it,  I 
will  do  all  I  can  to  keep  it,  and  therefore  I  make  no  hesitation  in  declaring  before 
you  that  I  subscribed  the  Confession  without  any  mental  reservation  or  partial  inter- 
pretation, having  carefully  read  it,  and  pondered  it,  and  consulted  the  minister  of  the 
parish  when  I  stood  in  doubt.  In  subscribing  it,  I  honestly  declared  it  to  be  the  con- 
fession of  my  faith,  and  never  at  any  time  did  say  or  meditate  any  thing  to  its  hurt. 
But,  being  a  Christian  and  a  Protestant,  I  subscribed  it  as  itself  directeth,  not  as  be- 
ing absolute  truth,  self-vouching,  but  truth  under  the  correction  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, whereto  it  desireth  to  be  brought  for  examination,  and  by  which  I  will  ever  try 
it.  Indeed,  I  have,  since  I  subscribed  it,  thought  little  about  the  matter,  being  intent 
altogether  upon  the  right  knowledge  and  declaration  of  God's  mind  as  contained  in 
the  Holy  Scriptures.  Only  I  have  made  it  a  rule  to  read  it,  in  the  hearing  of  the 
Chui'ch,  once  or  twice  in  a  year,  which  I  am  resolved  to  do  no  more,  because  it  is  the 
word  of  fallible  man,  and  not  of  the  living  God.  Yet  do  I  not  feel  burdened  by  hav- 
ing subscribed  it,  but  walk  in  great  liberty  with  respect  to  it,  keeping  it  far,  far  in  the 
background  of  my  mind,  neither  troubling  myself  nor  my  people  concerning  it.  Only 
when  I  have  had  to  handle  a  matter  controvei-ted,  I  have  taken  it  as  evidence  of  what 
the  Church  thought  upon  the  subject  in  that  day.  I  grieve  over  the  bondage  and 
dishonesty  of  my  brethren  in  these  times ;  their  bondage  in  declaring  that  a  man's 
preaching  should  be  guided  by  the  Confession,  as  if  he  were  a  preacher  of  man's 
word,  and  not  of  God's  Word  ;  as  if  the  Westminster  Confession  were  to  say  to  the 
Holy  Ghost  in  the  preacher,  'Hitherto  shalt  thou  come,  and  no  farther;'  their  hy- 
pocrisy, in  that,  saying  thus,  not  one  of  them  hath  ever  acted  on,  or  ever  doth  act 
upon  it ;  forasmuch,  I  believe,  that  no  book  in  the  English  language  hath  been  more 
out  of  the  mind  of  preachers  in  the  pulpit  or  in  the  closet  than  the  Westminster  Con- 
fession of  Faith,  whereof,  till  it  became  a  convenient  weapon  for  dashing  out  the 
brains  of  faithful  ministers,  far  more  than  half  of  the  clergy  were  ignorant  despisers 
or  hearty  haters.  Oh,  the  hypocrisy,  the  seven-fold  hypocrisy  of  this  generation  of 
churchmen  !  I  abhor  the  hypocrisy  with  which  they  perpetrate  their  wickedness  far 
more  than  the  wickedness  itself  They  lovers  of  the  Westminster  Confession  of 
Faith,  forsooth !     A  great  part  of  them  know  nothing  about  it,  and  a  still  greater 


APPENDIX  C.  623 

part  heartily  dislike  it.  Oh,  I  know  Scotland  too  well,  and  have  looked  into  the  bo- 
som of  the  priesthood  too  narrowly,  to  be  taken  with  that  cant  about  the  Confession! 
But  what,  it  may  be  said,  hath  this  to  do  with  the  matter  in  hand  ?  It  is  the  spon- 
taneous boiling  up  of  my  indignation  against  the  mummery  which  they  have  set  up 
in  order  to  catch  the  honest-minded  people  of  this  land  into  their  snares,  and  carry 
their  verdict  along  with  them  in  the  persecution  of  the  most  worthy  men  which  the 
Church  of  Scotland  hath  for  long  ages  produced ;  yea,  men  in  some  of  whom  the 
primitive  gifts  of  the  prophet  and  the  evangelist  have  been  revived.  My  heart  boil- 
eth,  and  fury  cometh  into  my  face  when  I  think  of  the  way  in  which  the  people  have 
been  hounded  on  to  the  slaughter  of  the  most  famous  men  in  the  congregation.  But 
a  higher  end  than  the  expression  of  my  indignation  moveth  me  in  what  I  have  said 
concerning  the  treasonable  doctrine  advanced  to  you  respecting  confessions  of  faith. 
It  is  my  firm  and  rooted  conviction  that  by  these  acts  of  setting  up  the  book  of  men 
in  judgment  over  Christ's  ministers,  as  they  have  done,  and  by  insisting  that  no  evi- 
dence should  be  grounded  upon  the  Scriptures,  as  ye  have  done,  both  ye  and  they 
have  scaled  yourselves  Babylon,  and  have  set  up  the  abomination  which  maketh  des- 
olate in  the  holy  place.  For  what  is  your  Confession,  taken  at  the  best,  but  the  skill- 
ful device  of  man's  wit  ?  With  all  its  doctrines  and  its  canons,  with  all  its  distinc- 
tions and  divisions,  what  is  it  but  the  device  of  man  ?  And  when  ye  set  it  in  the 
pulpit,  and  in  the  place  of  judgment,  in  the  house  of  God,  and  in  the  meetings  of  el- 
ders, what  is  it  but  your  idol,  the  image  of  jealousy,  your  drag  and  net  to  which  you 
sacrifice  your  sons  and  daughters,  yea,  the  rulers  and  chief  men  of  the  Lord's  con- 
gregation ?  I  believe,  by  the  way  in  which  you  have  set  up  that  book  of  about  two 
hundred  years'  standing,  in  the  place  of  and  above  God's  Word,  ye  have  done  an  act 
which,  if  not  repented  of,  will  seal  you  up  in  darkness  and  in  deadness,  in  apostasy, 
and  the  worship  of  anti-Christ.  And  being  myself  the  head  of  a  congregation,  and 
a  standard-bearer  in  the  Church,  I  do  solemnly  denounce  you  as  in  arms  against  the 
King,  and  lead  forth  my  squadron  from  the  midst  of  you,  to  do  battle  no  longer  by 
your  side,  but  against  you,  until  you  do  change  your  ensign,  and  fight  under  the  ban- 
ner  of  the  Word  of  God. 

"Do  I  therefore  secede  or  separate  myself  and  my  Church  from  the  Church  of 
Scotland  ?  Verily  no  ;  but  from  a  degenerate  race  of  her  rulers,  who  are  unworthy 
of  the  name,  and  have  sold  themselves  to  do  iniquity  with  greediness,  and  to  draw 
sin  as  with  a  cart-rope.  The  Church  of  Christ,  within  the  realms  of  Scotland,  is 
now  of  at  least  1600  years'  standing,  and  subsisted  in  great  glory  before  the  stream 
of  the  Reformation,  in  times  when  her  children  went  forth  and  planted  the  Gospel  in 
the  dark  regions  of  the  world,  amid  the  fierce  and  unconquered  nations  who  over- 
whelmed the  Roman  empire  ;  when  her  ministers  went  forth  into  the  court  of  Chris- 
tian emperors,  and  warned  them  against  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  and  watched  and  ex- 
posed him,  and  denounced  him  the  enemy  of  Christ  in  all  the  nations  of  Christen- 
dom. I  am  a  minister  of  that  Church  which  received  into  its  bosom  the  persecuted 
Britons,  fleeing  from  the  murderous  decrees  of  Diocletian ;  which  received  the  Cul- 
dees  from  Ireland,  and  maintained  her  independence  of  Rome  for  centuries  after  the 
other  churches  had  sold  themselves  into  bondage.  Nor  do  I  disparage  the  work  of 
Knox  and  the  Reformers  when  I  set  it  down  as  but  the  brazen  age  of  the  Church, 
now  degenerated  into  the  age  of  iron.  And  this  age  of  iron  was,  I  think,  introduced 
by  that  same  Westminster  Confession,  which  received  royal  authority  at  the  Revolu- 
tion. Knox,  and  the  men  of  his  time,  raised  up  a  noble  protestation  against  the 
papacy,  and  ordered  the  Church  according  to  righteousness  in  her  discipline,  and  in 
her  doctrine  coming  behind  none  of  the  reformed  churches.  But  the  Reformers 
were  too  intent  upon  the  mere  negation  of  popery,  and  upon  the  emancipation  of 


624  APPENDICES. 

the  civil  estate  of  kings  and  peoples,  upon  leagues  and  covenants  constructed  for  the 
preservation  of  what  they  had  made  good.  They  lacked  discernment  in  the  truth 
of  God  ;  they  digged  not  deep  enough  in  the  Holy  Scriptures  ;  they  saw  not  the  glo- 
rious privileges  of  the  Church,  her  spiritual  gifts  and  supernatural  endowments,  the 
coming  and  kingdom  of  the  Lord,  and  the  blessed  offices  of  the  ever-present  Com- 
forter. I  am  in  no  wise  fettered  by  their  shortcomings,  I  have  no  homage  to  offer 
at  their  shrines,  but  in  my  liberty  of  Christ's  free-man,  in  my  prerogative  of  Christ's 
minister,  I  am  intent  upon  the  knowledge  and  faith  of  all  the  truth  written  in  His 
holy  Word,  and  do  perceive  a  work  arising  into  view  M'hich  will  far  surpass  the  work 
of  Reformation,  and  bring  back  the  best  days  of  the  Church.  I  make  no  doubt  that 
the  Lord  is  hearing  the  prayers  and  rewarding  the  labors  of  his  servants,  and  bring- 
ing to  pass  all  the  promises  of  the  glory  of  the  latter  day.  Ye  are  this  day  either  to 
exert  yourselves  for  or  against  this  blessed  work ;  either  to  stand  with  it  and  pros- 
per, or  to  stand  against  it  and  be  overwhelmed.  Small  are  its  beginnings,  but  faith 
apprehendeth  its  great  and  glorious  ending.  The  cloud,  like  a  man's  hand,  hath 
appeared  ;  and  the  heavens  shall  soon  be  black  with  clouds,  the  earth  moistened  with 
rain,  and  all  her  fields  clothed  with  plenty. 

"Having  thus  followed  the  reply  of  the  complainers,  topic  by  topic,  I  trust  you 
will  permit  me  to  add  one  word  in  conclusion,  in  order  to  express  what  I  feel  toward 
them,  the  prosecutors,  and  toward  you,  the  judges  in  this  cause.  Though  they  know 
it  not,  and  are  far  from  thinking  it,  I  know,  and  feel,  and  declare  that  they  are  ene- 
mies of  the  cross  of  Christ  in  that  which  they  have  done ;  and  if  they  persist  in  it, 
they  must  draw  dow'n  upon  themselves  the  wrath  and  indignation  of  Almighty  God. 
My  counsel  to  them,  therefore,  is  instantly  to  withdraw  their  suit  out  of  court,  as  they 
W'ish  to  prosper  in  this  world  and  that  which  is  to  come.  And  this  request  I  make 
of  them  the  more  earnestly,  because  I  do  not  feel  that  I  am  personally  much  con- 
cerned in  it.  They  have  impeached  me  of  nothing,  but  have  spoken  both  courteous- 
ly and  honoi'ably  of  me,  in  the  hearing  of  this  court,  and  on  all  other  occasions.  It 
is  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost  which  they  have  set  themselves  against,  whereof  I  am 
but  a  poor  instrument  to  justify  and  defend  it ;  and  against  the  rights  and  dignity 
of  the  Christian  ministry,  in  my  person  represented,  they  have  conspired  together, 
under  the  pretended  sanction  of  a  trust-deed.  Enemies  they  are  in  this  act  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  whose  enemies  I  may  not  take  for  my  friends, 
but  as  enemies  must  henceforth  regard  them ;  for  I  hold  it  to  be  the  sacrifice  of 
God's  honor  upon  the  altar  of  worldly  prudence,  or  personal  courtesy,  for  any  servant 
of  the  Lord  to  call  one  who  is  actively  setting  himself  against  God  by  any  other  name 
than  his  enemy,  and  as  such  to  entreat  him.  I  can  not  any  more  give  to  these  men 
the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  or  go  forward  in  -company  with  them  to  any  work. 
Until  they  repent  of  their  sin,  and  turn  themselves  unto  the  Lord  with  confession 
and  contrition,  I  must  hold  them  for  my  enemies,  because  they  are  risen  up  against 
my  King.  And  thus  also  must  I  carry  myself  to  all  those  ministers  and  elders  of 
the  Church  who  have  risen  up  against  God's  truth  in  my  native  land,  and  smitten 
from  the  altar  where  they  ministered  the  chosen  ones  of  God's  priesthood.  It  is  a 
vain  thing,  and  a  wicked,  to  make  distinctions  between  my  personal  friends  and 
God's ;  neitiier  will  I  do  it  any  more,  being  mindful  of  the  example  of  Christ,  and 
of  the  words  spoken  of  him  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  the  Book  of  Psalms :  '  Do  not  I 
hate  them,  O  Lord,  that  hate  thee ;  and  am  I  not  grieved  with  those  that  rise  up 
against  thee?  I  hate  them  with  perfect  hatred.  I  count  them  mine  enemies" 
(Psalm  cxxxix.,  21,  22).  I  would  that  the  trustees,  my  brethren,  heretofore  my 
friends,  and  most  of  them  of  my  flock,  might  not  be  offended  in  this,  because  I  love 
them  not  the  less ;  for  my  enemies  I  have  learned  to  love,  and  for  them  I  desire  at 


APPENDIX  C.  625 

all  times  to  be  willing  to  die.  But,  whatever  offense  it  may  cause  them,  it  is  better 
to  offend  man  than  to  offend  God.  I  bear  them  no  malice,  but  contrariwise  love ; 
and  the  first  act  in  which  that  love  doth  show  itself  is  an  act  of  honest  testimony 
that  they  are  the  enemies  of  the  cross  of  Christ,  and  are  entered  on  a  course  of  with- 
standing the  Holy  Ghost,  which  will  bring  them  to  perdition  if  they  return  not  from 
it  to  serve  the  living  and  true  God,  whose  voice  in  Ilis  Church  they  are  this  day 
combined  to  suppress.  I  could  fall  down  before  them,  and  beseech  them ;  yea,  I 
could  weep  before  them,  and  wash  their  feet  with  my  tears,  for  the  love  I  bear  their 
souls,  and  their  wives,  and  their  little  ones,  if  only  I  might  thereby  prevail  to  turn 
them  back  from  their  pernicious  ways.  If,  by  any  thing  which  I  have  spoken,  I 
have  caused  them  grief  and  sorrow,  I  rejoice  if  their  grief  be  for  the  sin  they  have 
done  in  moving  for  authority  to  cast  out  the  Spirit  and  minister  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ ;  but  if,  which  I  rather  fear,  it  be  only  the  natural  shame  of  having  their  evil 
deeds  exposed,  which  grieveth  them,  I  pray  them  to  look  away  from  the  eye  of 
man  to  the  eye  of  God,  which  is  this  day  bended  upon  them  with  looks  of  mingled 
anger  and  mercy.  In  no  way  could  they  have  so  grieved  and  offended  Him  as  in 
this  which  they  have  taken ;  but  still  there  is  mercy,  if  they  will  repent  of  their  sins, 
and  lie  low  in  the  dust  before  Him.  I  am  much  troubled  in  spirit  for  you,  oh  my 
brethren,  who  have  now  become  my  enemies,  though  you  all  joyfully  and  plentifully 
partook  of  the  spiritual  bread  which  I  have  long  broken  in  the  midst  of  you.  Oh, 
ye  have  grievously  offended  me,  ye  have  grievously  offended  your  God!  Seek  re- 
pentance, and  withdraw  this  evil  suit  from  the  court  of  the  Presbytery.  I  will  not 
cease  to  pray  that  God  will  grant  you  repentance  unto  the  acknowledgment  of  the 
truth ;  otherwise,  ye  will  surely  perish  in  your  sins.  I  say  it  again,  ye  know  it  not, 
but  surely  ye  are  the  enemies  of  the  Lord  your  God  in  this  matter. 

"And  now,  to  you,  O  ministers  and  elders  of  the  Presbytery,  before  whom  God 
hath  condescended  to  take  witness,  and  to  plead  in  this  cause,  bringing  before  you 
four  of  the  orders  of  His  Church,  a  minister,  a  prophet,  an  elder,  and  a  deacon,  and 
through  their  lips  testifying  in  your  ears  that  He  hath  returned  in  grace  and  mercy 
to  His  Church,  and  is  speaking  in  the  midst  thereof  by  the  mouth  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
reckon  ye  that  He  hath  put  upon  you  an  honor  and  shown  you  a  love  whereof  ye  are 
altogether  unworthy,  because  He  is  gracious,  and  His  mercy  endureth  forever.  You 
have  wearied  him  in  times  past  with  your  iniquities,  whereof  I  stand  here  a  witness, 
rejected  from  among  you  for  holding,  and  publishing  abroad,  the  most  glorious  truths 
of  His  incarnation  in  this  our  fallen  flesh  ;  and  ye  have  this  day  added  a  still  great- 
er provocation,  in  that  ye  have  refused,  with  one  voice,  to  permit  a  question  of  the 
most  awful  importance  from  being  judged  according  to  His  most  Holy  Word.  Fain 
would  I  that  you  might  revoke  with  shame  and  sorrow  that  unprecedented  act  of 
contempt  toward  the  Word  of  your  God,  which  He  doth  magnify  above  all  His  name, 
in  order  that  you  might  enter  with  pure  hands  and  a  clean  heart  into  the  judgment 
of  this  mighty  issue.  Do  not  gloze  it  over  to  the  eye  of  your  conscience  by  saying, 
as  your  Moderator  did,  that  it  tvas  for  the  honor  of  the  standards,  and  not  against 
the  Word  of  God,  ye  stood  up.  There  was  no  mention  of  the  standards  in  my  lips, 
nor  thought  of  them  in  my  mind  ;  no  one  was  calling  them  into  question.  I  did  but 
ask  whether  the  thing  manifested  in  our  Church  answered  to  the  thing  written  of  in 
the  Scriptures,  when,  lion-like,  ye  rushed  with  one  mouth  upon  me,  as  if  I  had  ap- 
pealed to  Satan's  oracles.  It  was  a  fearful  deed,  and,  being  gravely  deliberate,  for 
you  submitted  it  as  a  question  to  the  court,  and  heard  their  opinions  seriatim,  it  is 
the  most  black  recoi'd  of  wickedness  which  this  day  the  eye  of  Heaven  doth  look 
upon — a  gratuitous  insult  to  the  Word  of  our  God,  and  a  planting  in  the  stead  there- 
of the  abomination  that  maketh  desolate.     For  the  most  excellent  work  of  men,  yea, 

Ell 


(326  APPENDICES. 

and  of  God  himself,  when  planted  in  the  place  and  stead  of  His  Word — in  the  holy 
place  of  judgment  and  ecclesiastical  government — becometh  straightway  the  abomi- 
nation which  maketh  desolate.  I  can  not  suffer  you  to  pass  on  to  judgment  without 
beseeching  you  to  revoke  that  gratuitous  insult  to  your  God.  How  else  can  you  ex- 
pect the  Holy  Ghost  to  sit  in  council  with  you,  without  whom  you  are  no  Presbytery 
of  the  Church  of  Christ  ?  And  how  can  we  expect,  in  the  thing  which  is  questioned, 
ye  will  give  impartial  justice,  if  ye,  in  the  thing  that  is  unquestioned,  do  offer  delib- 
erate insult  unto  your  God  ?  There  may  be,  a  question,  even  with  pious  but  unin- 
formed minds,  whether  these  be  the  very  manifestations  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  but  no 
question  is  there,  or  can  there  be,  that  this  book  is  the  Word  of  God.  And  if  ye  re- 
fuse reverence  and  Aveight  of  any  sort  in  this  cause  to  these  undoubted  oracles  of 
God,  how  can  ye  give  any  weight  to  the  testimony  of  men,  however  clear — to  the 
jjleading  of  a  man,  however  strong  ?  Nor  doth  it  matter  to  me,  though  I  should  get 
your  verdict  on  my  side,  if,  at  the  same  sitting,  my  God  should  get  a  verdict  against 
Him.  I  can  not,  I  will  not  rejoice  ;  I  must  sit  down  by  the  rivers  of  Babylon,  and 
weep  over  the  miserable  fall  and  ruin  of  those  with  whom  I  went  in  company  to  the 
house  of  God,  and  took  sweet  counsel  together.  Why  will  ye  thus,  for  no  cause, 
grieve  the  Spirit  of  your  God  ?  Why  will  ye  trample  His  laws  and  His  statutes, 
which  make  the  simple  wise,  under  your  feet  ?  Who  will  you  thank  for  that  ?  The 
Scottish  Reformers  will  repudiate  you  from  their  company  with  horror;  and  all 
Christian  men  of  this  day  will  do  likewise ;  and  your  flocks  will  pine  and  perish ; 
and  all  honest  men  will  wonder  and  be  amazed  when  they  hear  that  out  of  a  court 
of  judgment  the  Word  of  God  was  cast  willfully  and  deliberately;  that  the  court 
where  it  was  done  was  a  court  of  Christ's  Church ;  and  the  occasion,  when  they  were 
sitting  in  judgment,  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  by  whom  that  Book  was  given,  for 
the  guide  and  measure  of  His  operations.  I  am  indeed  amazed  and  astonished  at 
you ;  I  am  ashamed  and  terribly  afraid ;  I  could  almost  arise  and  run  for  my  life 
from  beneath  the  roof  which  overcanopied  the  perpetrators  of  such  a  wickedness.  It 
is  not  to  be  reckoned  up.  The  sum  of  it  is  only  surpassed  by  the  mercy  and  forgive- 
ness of  our  God,  where  I  do  cast  you  with  prayers,  and  supplications,  and  strong  cry- 
ings,  that  it  might  not  be  reckoned  against  you.  Oh !  it  is  such  a  blind  as  will  en- 
tirely cover  up  justice  whichever  way  the  Presbytery  may  decide.  But,  oh  !  I  can 
not  think  of  your  deciding  against  me  ;  I  can  not  entertain  the  thought  of  it.  It 
goes  to  my  heart  to  put  the  supposition.  Not  because  it  is  against  me,  but  because 
it  is  against  the  truth.  It  is  not  I  that  am  decided  against,  but  it  is  you,  the  pas- 
tors and  elders  of  churches,  that  are  decided  against.  You  stand  as  the  represent- 
atives of  the  congregation  ;  and  if  you  err,  the  judgment  falleth  on  the  congregation 
and  the  Church;  for  Christ  holdeth  the  angel  as  the  representative  of  the  Church. 
Far  be  such  evil  from  my  brethren ;  from  my  enemies  far  be  it.  By  dismissing  the 
complaint  the  trustees  entertain  no  loss — they  have  exonerated  their  conscience  as 
they  plead — and  there  is  no  evil  done  to  any  one.  But,  oh  !  I  set  no  store  by  these 
considerations.  I  would  not  mention  consequences'  in  such  an  issue.  I  have  not 
done  the  part  of  a  pleader,  nor  will  do  it,  save  to  plead  for  the  Word  and  Spirit  of 
God.  I  do  merely  point  to  the  opposite  consequences  of  entertaining  or  rejecting 
the  complaint ;  but,  lest  any  one  may  think  that  I  am  doing  the  part  of  a  special 
pleader,  I  put  that  away.  Show  me  what  I  have  done  contrary  to  the  Word  of  God, 
contrary  to  the  office  of  a  minister  of  Christ,  contrary  even  to  the  standards  of  the 
Church ;  then  show  that  the  offense  is  of  such  a  magnitude  as  can  not  otherwise  be 
healed  than  by  deposition,  and,  without  troubling  you,  I  will  contentedly  go  forth. 
There  is  no  complaint  here  of  ciders  or  deacons,  or  flock  or  congregation,- concern- 
ing their  souls  or  my  ministry,  but  simply  of  the  trustees  over  a  building.     And  what 


APPENDIX  C. 


17 


have  they  instructed  in  evidence  but  that  I  have  permitted  the  Holy  Ghost's  voice  to 
be  Iieard  in  the  Church,  without  prejudice  to  any  person  or  to  any  ordinance  ?  That 
you  should  entertain  such  a  complaint,  that  you  should  justify  it,  that  you  should 
ratify  it,  I  can  not  endure  to  think,  and  can  not  speak  under  that  supposition. 
Wherefore  I  do  just  leave  it  in  the  hands  of  God,  and  in  the  hands  of  the  Lord  Je- 
sus Christ,  the  Head  of  the  Church,  to  do  with  me  and  my  flock  and  congregation 
what  He  pleaseth ;  but  never,  never,  oh  God !  and  oh,  thou  Head  of  the  Church ! 
never  sufter  this  court  of  ministers  and  elders,  for  their  own  souls'  sake,  for  any  ad- 
vantage, even  though  it  were  to  gain  the  whole  earth,  to  decide  that  the  voice  of 
Thy  ypirit  shall  not  be  heard  in  Thy  Church!     Amen." 


THE  END. 


ir\\ 


r.MJy^     ^Yf 


DATE  DUE 


PHINTEOINUS.*. 


li     i 


